Birth story - Lauren and baby Megan

I started to feel something around 5am when I was about a week past my due date. It was kind of like a cramp or stomach ache nothing that painful. I called my midwife at about 7am and told her I felt pretty good I could still walk around the house. She told me to call her back in a couple of hours or if the pain got worse.

By 9am we got my husband's sister to pick our dog up to puppysit and not tell anyone I was in labor I didn't want anyone to worry or bug me. At some point I threw up. I tried to take a gravol and threw up again. But I eventually got one down and didn't have any more nausea. Around 11am I started to feel more. I never had intermittent contractions it just seemed like every few minutes I would have some pain.

My boyfriend had this app that told us how long in between contractions you’re supposed to go to the hospital and he started yelling at me, ‘it says to go to the hospital.’ I told him I wasn’t in enough pain yet and that it hadn't been that long. The midwife was supposed to come check how far along I was at home but she was already at the hospital tending to another birth. Ironically the only question my boyfriend ever asked her before was, ‘what happens if you’re helping with another baby?’ to which she replied, ‘that’s never happened before.’ Of course it happened to us.

She suggested we just come to the hospital so we packed a bag and left. We got to the parking lot at 12:10 in the afternoon, I kept the parking ticket. I walked myself up to the birthing floor and went right into a room they had set up for me. As I took my pants off to get into bed for them to examine me water fell on the floor I guess this was my waters breaking?

I got on the bed, the midwives got organized and they said push she's coming. Megan was born at 12:50. In between pushes or contractions I had absolutely no pain it was actually blissful I was joking around with them saying I think I deserve a beer after this.. I had no pain killers. Megan came out and nursed perfect and because we had midwives I got the option to go home when I wanted.

My boyfriend brought me a snack, we hung out for a while and then we brought our daughter home. I think we were home by 5pm. I have a terribly low pain tolerance typically. I won't get tattoos because I'm scared of the pain, I’ve never broken a bone. I sometimes faint when I get blood taken. I thought I was going to have a terrible time with birth. I guess I just won the genetic lottery. I did walk a lot during my pregnancy so maybe that helped??

I'm currently pregnant with my second so we will see if I get that lucky again. Fingers crossed because Megan’s birth was easy!