Hannah's Natural Birth story (1 of 2)

Jared and I were so excited to find out we were pregnant in the spring of 2014. We always knew we wanted to have a couple kids so it was great that our family would be growing!

But we wanted to do things differently this time. Having Aubrey in our lives is wonderful, but her delivery was pretty hard on me. I made a few posts about it, if anyone wants to go back and read it. (click here to check out Aubrey's story). To summarize, after 2 epidurals and an episiotomy I didn't want, my recovery was really rough. It took me a long time to get back into the swing of things.

I didn't think Aubrey would tolerate me having a rough recovery with this next delivery, so we talked to friends and I learned that a lot of women in my ward have done natural deliveries.

Not to offend anyone, but at first, I thought going natural was for hippies who were all organic and it just wasn't for me. My friends are all normal, so learning about why they went natural really changed the image for me.

Being in control was a large factor in why I chose to go natural. I didn't like being stuck in a bed in a hospital when having Aubrey.

Another large factor was that everyone said recovering from natural childbirth would be a little easier and faster. With an active toddler at home, I would need an easier recovery!

So anyways, everything was going really well! I read a book about natural childbirth several times. Made notes. Talked things over with Jared and my midwife. I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Except I had never been through it before.

I was induced with Aubrey and didn't really get to feel normal contractions. And I couldn't feel anything from the waist down so I couldn't even feel myself pushing her out.

I was really nervous about how I would react to having contractions start. And with the goal in mind of having this baby before New Years, there was a little added pressure.

After having my membranes swept on Monday and Tuesday before New Years, I felt that annoying cramping. It started to get worse Tuesday night so we thought, "Hey! Contractions! Let's go to the birthing center!"

False alarm. I was feeling contractions, but not the right ones that were making progress. So that was disappointing.

New Years came and went. Still no baby. I was getting a little sad, because I really wanted her out!

Because I was technically past my due date, I had an ultrasound and a non-stress test to make sure everything was still OK with the baby. My fluid had dropped a little bit, but nothing dangerous. I passed all the tests and the heartbeat was a good, strong one so I was given the all-clear to go another few days. The midwife I saw checked to see if I had dilated any more since Tuesday. Nope. So she went ahead and swept my membranes again. 3 times in one week is quite enough! Never doing that again...

Aubrey has been a rockstar at every prenatal visit. We got home and she went down for a nap, because being so good is exhausting. I wanted to take a nap too. But the cramping kept me up. Bummer for me!

The cramping started to get worse, but after a week of pretty much non-stop cramping, I didn't really focus on it. Just had to get through it.

Jared let me have the car that day. It was time to pick him up and my cramping was starting to get really bad. Enough to where on the way home, I started to tear up during the cramps while Jared drove.

Things kept getting worse as the evening went on. I was laying on the couch after about 2 hours of crying. Aubrey was sweet during most of it. She put her blanket on me, rubbed and kissed my arms and even hugged my legs.

Out of concern, Jared called my midwife and wanted to know what we should do. After explaining what was happening, my midwife, Michelle, said we could come to the office and get checked if I'm having contractions or if it's really just cramps.

Unwilling to get my hopes up, I just insisted they were cramps. Didn't even bother packing up some things I wanted, like my iPod or some more snacks.

We dropped Aubrey off at an amazing family's house. Our Bishop and his family are just so great. Jared just called and they were more than willing to have Aubrey over, even though they already had company!

Jared drove us to the Auburn Birthing Center office and Michelle let us in. My eyes were all puffy from crying. The bumpy roads to get there were NOT welcome during my "cramps."

She checked to see if I had dilated more than the 4 I was at previously. I hadn't. But then she checked during a cramp and said I was at a 5. So I was in labor.

Now all my crying made sense! I was so adamant about not getting my hopes up just to be dashed again that I didn't even seriously consider the cramping to be contractions. And they also weren't what I was expecting, so that threw me off.

It was time to head down the road to the birthing center!