I woke up at 4am with contractions. I wanted to make sure that I was in labor so I laid back in bed cuddling my little dog and timing contractions. At 5:30 Nick's alarm went off for him to get up to go to work. I told him I thought I was in labor but that I wanted him to go to work until I was sure. I got up and took a shower and took my time getting ready. I thought about going to work to finish up a few things but by about 7:30 the contractions were much stronger and I wasn't comfortable driving by myself. I called a co-worker and asked if she would bring me my work computer (still thinking I could get some work done that morning). When she arrived the contractions were about 5 mins apart. She decided to stay with me and we chatted and watched the price is right while I sat on my yoga ball.  Around 10:30 I called Nick and told him it was time for him to come home. When he arrived he made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and told me I needed to walk around the house. Later he made me a pallet on the floor so I could labor laying down (couch was not comfortable). He laid down with me and helped me relax through my contractions. At around 1:15 we started getting ready to go to the hospital. We arrived around 1:40pm and got checked in. I was already dilated to 7cm. When we got into our room Nick immediately dimmed the lights, set up the music, and closed the blinds. The nurses were really impressed with our preparation. When the doctor arrived they checked me again and I was 9.5 cm dilated. They said my bag of waters was still in tact and keeping the baby from moving down and the cervix from dilating to 10 so they broke my bag of waters and I was allowed to start pushing. I pushed for almost 2 hours and at 6:51pm on August 2, 2011, Luke Hayden made his entrance into the world. They immediately put him on my belly and he was precious. We attempted to nurse but we were both pretty tired from our long day. The nurses took him to the nursery to get cleaned up and Nick followed. And as they wheeled me to my postpartum room I enjoyed a big glass of orange juice.

I could not have had the Natural childbirth experience that I wanted without the preparation we received from taking the Bradley Classes and without my wonderful husband who helped coach me every step of the way!