Jff, Your Labor Stories :D

My son came 10 days early and I was definitely not ready, I still had to prepare the house for all the family that would stay with us following his birth, I had food to prepare, a house to clean, and laundry to do too. I had been losing my plug all week but didn't think much of it since I had been induced with my 1st and didn't recognize some of the signs. That day, I had lunch with my friends and then my husband and I spent 3 hours grocery shopping at Costco and Winco getting all of the food for the weeks following my delivery. I carrying a bunch of groceries, pushed carts and helped load the car. We got home and were putting all of the groceries away when I felt a tearing feeling in my side. I thought I had just pulled something during all of the activity that day. I lay down on the couch and my husband went to rent a movie. I started feeling some tightening in my abdomen but didn't realize for about 30 minutes that they were contractions...again because I had been induced before and they felt nothing like before. I started timing them and they were 5 min apart and 45-60 seconds long. I was thinking that I was having false labor after my busy day but decided to call the hospital and the nurse said I should come in to be checked. The problem was that we didn't have cell phones at the time and my husband was still out renting a movie. I waited another 30 minutes and he finally got home. When I told him we had to go to the hospital, he got really scared because this was his first experience with labor and delivery and my sister/birth coach had not arrived in town yet. I told him it was probably nothing but I needed to be checked just in case. By the time we got to the hospital, I was feeling the contractions pretty good but trying to act normal for my husband's sake. We got in the room, I let me nurse know that if this was real labor that I would want an epidural and she was like, yeah, yeah, you'll get one in a couple hours. I got into a gown, sat on the bed and my water broke! The nurse checked me, I was at a 5 and she promptly left the room to order my epidural. The contractions got 100 times worse and it took them an hour to finally come in an give me my epidural. I received my epidural and had my son less than an hour later.

I never had that burst of energy or cleaning thing or any of the weird dreams. It sounds to me like you are close. Thats so exciting. I hope it works out for you.
I got induced because my son wanted to be 9 days late. I could have waited but i told the doc that he needed to get it out of me right now. I had enough. Was in labor 5 hours before the 1st contraction and the contractions were on top of eachother. The band kept falling off and no one had checked on me in awhile. I was laying there watching Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and felt something hard in the side of my butt. I was on an epideral also. All of a sudden I felt this warm gushy feeling come of my Vajayjay. I told the husband I thought the head came out. He calls the nurse and shes like: Is there something wrong, I was like I think the head came out. She looked at me funny and was like what? i said again, I think the head came out. Sure enough my son came out all on his own. He was still in the Sac thing so they had to bust that open and he didn't cry for a few minutes. I feel like I missed out on not pushing him out but all the other women say I was really lucky. I could not believe how big those placentas are.

i was induced at 38w5d. i had pre-eclampsia that my dr didn't 'pick up on'. they gave me pitocin at 600am, broke my water at 630am, and had my little man at 947am :) fast labor thankfully.
hope you have an easy labor :)

Congrats and good luck! I hope you get the natural birth you want!

I was 41 weeks and felt nothing. the last few weeks were pretty busy with friends visiting from overseas and my parents coming from South Africa so I was playing host and tour guide as well. I had my pre-natal app on Fri and they told told me come in on Tues and I told my husband this baby was going to come Monday night! Friday and the weekend we walked a lot to help start my labor. In my birth plan I didn't want to know how many cm i was dilated as I didn't want to be fixed on the clock and stress. at 2:45am Tues morning I got with a bad leg pain. Then I went to the bathroom and hadn't realized that labor had started as your my body was preparing by cleaning my system out. As I was sitting on the toilet I started to feel light cramping that would start then stop. I started watching the clock and it was every 5 for about a min so I woke my husband up and told him I think my labor stared but wasn't sure. It's weird how prepared you can be but when it happens you just never know. Anyway I noticed i was bleeding so knew this was it. Didn't want to rush to the birth center only to be told to go home so my husband filled the bath while i lay in there a bit and in bed. The contractions were okay had one where I made me tremble so then at 5am we called the birth center and told them we are coming in. We live 10 min from the BC but it took us like 25 min. every contraction I made my husband either slow down or pull over to the side. We stopped at Mcdonalds to get him breakfast and a smoothie for me. He 's a diabetic so we wanted to make sure he was able to help me :) Got to the BC at 5:50 and when they checked I wanted to know how far along I was and I was at 7cm. I was ecstatic that I had progressed so much yet very calm. I was having a water birth so I was allowed in the water which did slow down the contractions but by 9am they said I can stay in the water which will take longer or move things along but getting out. I got out, moved around and asked for my waters to be broken. Seems like my son didn't want to come out because she had to try twice to tear the bag. After that the contractions were hard and fast but 20 min of pushing and he was born at 9.49am! I liked the laboring but not the pushing. It was a great birth and everything I had wanted, no drugs, iv, nothing. After I had baby we had to bond with him then they checked him and weighed, etc. I had a shower, washed and dried my hair and we took a nap and was home a little before 3pm.

If you want a natural birth, just be positive and trust yourself :)

I don't remember much about the days leading up to birth. The day I went into labor, I had worked, came home, cleaned a little, cooked supper, and was up late watching TV when the contractions started. They didn't really hurt and it took me a while to even think they were contractions. I even googled them to make sure they weren't Braxton Hicks! Once they started coming regularly, I called my friend to take me to the hospital. Apparently, I didn't look like I was in labor, because the ER made me walk to OB, which was on the other end of the hospital on the top floor. The nurse checking me in also told me she thought she would be sending me home until she checked me and I was at 4 cm. They broke my water and then put me on magnesium since my BP was so high. Well, that pretty much stopped my contractions, so after a few hours, they put me on pitocin and oxygen. I don't know what was going on with my epidural, because the only thing it numbed were my legs. Once the contractions started back up again, I definitely felt them. It wasn't much longer before he was born, but then I had to deal with a huge tear. Them sewing that up was more painful than the birth! Total labor time was about 13 hours, so it could have been much worse. I got discharged two days later. I ended up with a beautiful 8 lb 15 oz boy, so it was all worth it in the end.

I have two kids, but I am going to tell you about my daughter who is 6 months old. I started to have contractions but they weren't regular. In the morning I was excited to see my doctor who told he didn't think I was going to have my baby until Sunday and today was Wednesday. I knew he was wrong, I just felt it. Later that evening I started to have more contractions and they were stronger. They weren't regular so I didn't think much of it except I wanted a nice warm bath. Then the pain kicked in. I new that she was turning around but oh my goodness. It did not feel good. Soon after my water broke and off to the hospital. The hospital is 30 minutes away. Once we got there it took 9 minutes from the time we parked to get into a room or until she was born. Yup, nine minutes. It was an amazing experience. I had her with no doctors, no nurses (since I pushed them away) and no drugs. Once I was in active labor she came out 6 1/2 hours. I just wish I had the crystal ball to have enjoyed it more. I know it sounds weird, but it was so special. It was the kind of delivery that makes you think you want more kids.

I wish you an easy labor that you look back and smile.

I was induced the day after my due date. After 10 hours of pitocin, and only dilating to a 2, they sent me home. I was soo disappointed and ready to have my baby! It was funny though, because right when I finished getting dressed, a shriner walked in with a basket of flowers for me... I was all 'great... I don't get a baby today, but I do get this lovely consolation gift!' It sucked, because I was living in TX, away from the family. My in-laws drove for 6 hours so they could be there for the birth of their first grandchild, and my dad flew in with my 3 year old brother to be there... (luckily, they were able to see her for a couple days before they went home.) A couple days after that, I went into labor on my own at 1:00 am. Around 6:00 am I went to the hospital. I tried to go natural, but I had high blood pressure, so they put me on another pit. drip (along with my antibiotics for group b strep...) to speed things along. I progressed into having pre-eclampsia, so they gave me a magnesium drip too. Around 3:00, my contractions were SOO painful and I was so exhausted that I gave in and got an epidural. *BLISS!* My labor kept dragging on, so they gave me a fluid drip too, so I wouldn't get dehydrated. I was hooked up to so many IVs that I could barely move, and that sucked. Finally, at 9:45pm, just as they were making noises about an emergency c-section, I had my baby girl... all 9lbs 12oz of her. No wonder my body didn't want to push her out! Heck, just the pushing took 3 hours. That was fun... After her birth, I had a hemorrhage, and lost a LOT of blood. I blacked out for a while, and that freaked my poor hubby out. My doctor told me that I technically needed a blood transfusion, but because of all the medicines floating in my system she didn't want to risk it, so she pumped more fluids in instead. So they kept me in the delivery room for about 3 days, when I was finally stable enough to be moved into recovery. I spent another 2 days there, before I was finally able to be discharged and sent home. :) I actually enjoyed it though, because I got to have a trial run of taking care of my DD before being sent home cold turkey. :)

I only have 2 kids and like yours mine were both induced. The first on the day I turned 34 weeks and the second when I was 36weeks and 4 days. Both times because of high blood pressure. So I have no idea what it's like to just go in to labor naturally. But that's ok!! I have 2 healthy beautiful girls!

Good luck! I hope it all works out perfectly for you!

My son arrived 6 days past his due date, so I was more than ready. I think I was about 1 cm at my last prenatal appt. I lost my mucus plug almost a week before he was born. I didn't have any contractions of any kind until 4 pm the day before he was born and I was at work when had the first one. I wasn't sure if it was the real thing or not, because they were very sporadic. My husband had a huge project due the next day, so I didn't tell him anything and just went to bed around 10. He worked until 1 am and then came to bed and around 3:30 am I woke up with contractions every 3-4 minutes. They stayed that way, but got more intense until 9 when I went in to see the doctor and I was 5 cm. They sent me to the hospital, checked me again at noon and I was 9 cm, then started pushing around 2 and he was finally born at 4:35 in the afternoon. So all in all I think I had about 24 hours notice before he was born. And the nesting never really hit me, but I'm a huge planner, so the nursery was set up and ready to go, house clean, bag packed, etc at about 36 weeks. So by 41 weeks there was nothing left for me to do!

Good luck on the birth of your 3rd son, I hope he comes soon!