Natural Birth

 Birth is a natural process and a woman's body is built to carry and deliver her child.  I am pregnant with my second child and am doing a natural birth with no drugs.  My first child was delivered the same way.  Here is the story:

the whole process went pretty quickly. i woke up that morning and something felt different about that day but i wasn't sure. so  i text my husband, jim to let him know i'd had a bit of show, and i was unusually uncomfortable. i tried to take a nap shortly after that and missed numerous of jims calls and since i'd told him things were different for me that day, he quickly left work to check on me and stay working from home that day to make sure i was ok. around 11:30 i went out and started having contractions but since i wasn't home, i didn't think anything of it. when i got home around 3pm, i told jim i had some contractions and he suggested timing them. they were like 3 mins apart but not very long. so i went on my day but definitely felt them getting stronger and my back was starting to hurt. around 7 they were still 3 mins apart but longer like 45-50 sec. we went to the grocery store and when we came back i called the midwife for advice on what to do cause my back was really hurting. she gave me some suggestions but before the conversation was over i decided i should go in...they were a bit painful.  we arrived at the hospital about 8:30/9 and i quickly got into the tub for some relief. not too long after that the contractions were intense and one on top of the other.  i thought for sure there was no way i was going to make it if it continued to get worse...but that was the peak (ie, transition) and shortly after that it was time to push. i pushed for about 2 hours in total...they had me pushing on my hands & knees cause the baby's heartbeat dropped in any other position but that was a very difficult position for me and i was having a VERY hard time getting in good pushes and was getting very frustrated cause i didn't think i'd be able to push her out if i stayed in this position. luckily the midwife suggested pushing on the toilet. that made all the difference. a few pushes there and baby was coming! i had to quickly waddle back to the bed while crowning to get her out! lol a few pushes later and little aria was brought into this world. it was a bit hard to get her shoulders out cause her arms were crossed...guess she wasn't too happy about having to get out! unfortunately that caused a bit of tearing on my inside...but no tearing or ripping on the outside!!
it was quite an experience and even as i write it, it's hard to believe that i actually went through it!!
it was worth every minute of it and the one thing that helped the most was having an idea of what to expect throughout the whole labor.  if i didn't know what to expect, i would have freaked out and not let my body do the work it needed to do but would have fought it and made the whole experience more difficult than necessary.

I would love to hear your story!  Please share :)