I got pregnant very easily. We only tried a few times and found out we were pregnant four weeks later.

I know I had a little fighter in me from the very beginning because my little boy survived so many things. First, I had a stomach bug before I even knew that I was pregnant. I had a high fever and vomited many times over the span of a few days. I took Motrin and Excedrin (not safe in pregnancy).

I took a pregnancy test the day I was due for my monthly cycle. I almost didn't take it because I thought you would have to be much later to find out, and I do not have regular cycles. But it was positive.

Throughout my pregnancy I had the normal complications: headaches, nose bleeds, tiredness, etc. But I had also developed new allergies. I had them when I was younger, but they became more exaggerated. I then developed a rash all over my body around 11 weeks pregnant. I went to many doctors and no one could tell me what it was. Later, it was discovered that I was indeed allergic to the cold. Sounds crazy, I know, but it is called "cold urticaria." It can even be deadly. I had a terrible reaction to the cold and my throat started to close. I had to take prednisone (also not safe in pregnancy). It can cause cleft lip if taken in the first trimester. I was just about 12 weeks. I was scared the whole pregnancy.

Fast forward to later months of pregnancy. I lost faith in my doctor because he would not answer questions for me, he rushed me through appointments and he would never treat me for anything. I had several sinus infections that the OB would not treat because, "he only took care of the baby," and my primary care provider would not treat me because he was afraid of lawsuits. He told me that mothers have to suffer. Funny that that was his philosophy and yet, when I spoke of unmedicated labor he told me to "get the drugs, why suffer?" I basically stayed sick the entire pregnancy, and even had heart palpitations that would make my heart rate go over 150 when I was just sitting. Again, none of my doctors would do anything for me.

Needless to say, I switched to a group of midwives that I just love and they are going to deliver my second baby in about four to five months. I switched three weeks before my due date so I was a bit stressed.

I went into labor right on my due date. I woke up at 6 a.m. and lost the mucous plug. I had been having irregular contractions for a week or so before, but this was different. They started slow, but never let up. Nine hours later, around 3 p.m., I could not walk or talk through them. They were five minutes apart, so we left for the hospital.

I was in triage until 7 p.m. because they thought I was not really in labor. They couldn't understand why I was having such hard contractions and was only 1 centimeter dilated. I was a little upset by my lack of progress.

After walking the halls and finally making it to 3 to 4 centimeters they admitted me. I was in my room and I requested morphine for the pain. It was just more than I could bear at that time. I had been doing this for a long time by then. I got the shot, and seconds later the baby's heart rate dropped. I felt guilty, thinking it was because of the morphine. I was assured that it had not even been in my system yet so that was not the cause. Baby had pinched his cord. I was moved to both sides, on all fours. Finally they got his heart rate when I was on the right side. I labored in this position until delivery.

The morphine never took full effect because of my adrenaline surge when they could not find my son's heart rate. They told me I should have been sleeping with what they gave me, but I was awake and in full pain the whole time.

Around 11:30 I told my husband that they had to check me. I was just not doing good. They checked me and told me 6. I just felt like I was not going to be able to continue. I requested the epidural even though it was not what I originally wanted. About 10 minutes later the midwife came back in to check on me and she took one look at me and decided to check me again. I had just a lip of cervix left. I went from 6 to 10 in 10 minutes. It was so intense.

She said not to worry, that she would still give me the epidural. I told her no way. I only requested it because I thought I had hours of labor left.

I started to push at 11:45. This was so difficult because for the next two hours I had to push on one contraction and breathe through the next one because of my son's heart rate dropping once again. Every other contraction I was not allowed to push, and your body basically does it by itself. This was so hard. Also, there was almost no break between contractions for the whole two hours.

The midwife mumbled something about an episiotomy (another thing we wanted to avoid) and I decided that this was it. I gave the hardest push and his head was out, then one more push and Thomas William was born at 1:44 a.m. He missed his due date by one hour and 44 minutes.

He was so beautiful. I had a slight tear, three stitches. He was 7 pounds, 7 ounces, 19.5 inches. I was very proud of myself for enduring 18 hours of labor, two hours of pushing – all with a shot of morphine that never really took. Even though it was hard, this birth was exactly everything we wanted: healthy baby, mostly unmedicated, no medical interventions and I had a great and speedy recovery.

My son is a year old now and we look forward to another great birth story with my second. So far this pregnancy has been a breeze except for the nausea in the beginning. This time is completely different, perhaps a girl – we find out in four days! Thank you for reading my story!