I was scheduled to be induced at 7 a.m. I actually started having weak contractions at about midnight the night before so that when I went in I was already dilated at 4 centimeters. The doctor still started Pitocin and broke my water. The contractions became stronger and lower almost immediately. I could breathe through them for a few hours.

When I was almost 6 centimeters I asked for Stadol. (Which I highly recommend. It allowed me to relax between contractions, sometimes actually sleeping!) When I approached transition I had to start doing the hee hee hee breathing to concentrate on something else. My husband and my mom both held my hands and got in my face to breathe with me. I would close my eyes between contractions and when I felt one coming on I would reach for one of them. It would have been hard without them.

At around 4 p.m. I started to want to push. The hardest part was not pushing. I had to wait about an hour to get to 10 centimeters, then another hour for the doctor to come so I could start pushing. At around 6:15 p.m. we were ready to go and the doctor said the baby was right there.

I started pushing and on the first set of pushes the baby's heart rate dropped. I had to get on my hands and knees to take pressure off the baby. When they turned me back over the doctor said we had to get the baby out now. I pushed as hard as I could, the doctor had the vacuum, my husband was folding me in half and the nurse was on the bed pushing the baby out! He was born at 6:32 p.m., but wasn't crying. They took him to the baby station and after what seemed like forever he started to cry (and so did my husband and I). He was coming out sucking his thumb so his arm was constricting his chest during each contraction.

It was very frightening, but I am very glad that I didn't have an epidural (so that I could push effectively) and that I had the baby in a hospital! I did end up tearing a bit, but the stitches were not uncomfortable, and they healed very quickly. (It is not a big deal, at all, if you use the numbing spray the hospital gives you.)

Our baby boy is now a happy and healthy 3-month-old. We are so blessed to have him!