what was your labor experience like? heres mine.

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when i was pregnant with my first, i kept hearing horror stories about how long labor was, how painful it was, and how mean and scary the nurses were. i should have known better than to listen to those stories. i went in with an open mind but i was expecting the worst. i wanted to try to have the baby naturally, with no epidural. my mom did it with me and my 2 brothers and we were BIG 10 pound babies! so i wanted to see if i could handle it too. i went into labor at 38 weeks with the help of my dr stripping my membranes. i labored at home for a few hours and the pain wasnt bad at all. yes, it took my breath away and it made me stop in my tracks for a few moments, but nothing unbearable. my husband was way too excited to wait any longer, he was pushy that we had to get to the hospital. we live so close to the hospital, we were there like in 3 minutes, lol. so there we were, filling out paper work, and then out of nowhere, all of a sudden the contractions got really intense! it surprised me. once we were signed in and got our room, (it was about 11pm) they had me walk around to make sure it was the real thing. sure enough, in an hour i had dilated from a 3 to a 4. then i got into the jacuzzi and "relaxed" in there for the rest of my labor. things were progressing pretty fast. at about 1am my mom and mother in law came to be with us. by about 5am i was at 6cm dilated and asked for the stadol shot, the pains were getting strong. this is when i was told that i was progressing too fast and that if i got the shot, it might have a negative effect on the babys breathing when s/he was born. so i decided against it. at 6am i was fully dilated and moved into the birthing room. i was having horrible back labor, and thats when the dr checked baby and found out that the baby was facing up, so he flipped the baby over! i never felt that urge to push that everyone told me about. it was just pure back pain. the whole time so far i never screamed or lost control but now i was starting to moan. my mom whispered to me "shhh, concentrate. use that energy to push the baby" and i did. i didnt even have the strength to cry, i just had tears rolling out of my eyes. i pushed for 2 hours. my husband kept telling me "youre doing it! youre doing it!" finally, the baby popped out. i have a cloudy memory of my mom crying and squeezing my leg as the baby was coming out. my head dropped to the side and i closed my eyes, thank goodness it was all over. i just wanted to sleep.i heard "its a boy!" and he was placed on top of me. i was too weak to hold him. i was afraid to drop him. "open your eyes and look at him" and i did. he was the most beautiful baby i had ever seen. my husband kissed me and thanked me for giving him this gift. once again i closed my eyes and wished for sleep, but then felt something else pop out and i shot up with a bolt of shock and energy, i screamed "what was THAT?!?!?!" thinking i had just popped another baby out....forgetting that the placenta also comes out. LOL! yeah,,,i was just a LITTLE tired. well, it is 17 months later, and guess what, i am about to have my second baby any day now. i am so so so excited and cant wait for the day to come. labor was painful, but the most wonderful and memorable experience i have ever had.