on Monday, november the 5th, 4 days before my due date, I was having baxton hicks consistantly every 30 minutes for hours...it wasn't until later in the evening I started to think this can be the beginning of labor (with all my girls I've been induced and never experienced this)  So I mentioned to my hubby about the contractions, he started to keep track of them at 10pm and they continued .....went to the bathroom and noticed a hint of pink on the toilet paper.  I thought"could this be the starting of labor?"  This was my prayer that it would happen naturally and in the Lords timing.

I told my hubby about it but decided to head to bed as there were no other symptoms.  I awoke at 2:15am because in my dream I was having some contractions, I thought maybe they were really happening....went to the potty and started losing my mucus plug w/ a bit of bloody show.  I was so excited as the Lord had answered my prayers.  Mike immediately awoke and joined me in the living rm and had tons of questions, how much blood, how far apart are the contractions, whats next.....

by then the contractions were 20 minutes apart, my dr. wanted me to wait until they were 10 minutes apart for me to call her.  By 4:30 am I paged her and let her know this was the day, she said to call her when they were 5 minutes apart so we can head to the hospital.  I thought for sure I'd have this baby by early afternoon.  I decided to take a shower and get some last minute things finished at the house.  My contractions had slowed down, back to 20 minutes apart...so I started walking a bit more hopefully to get them going. 

 At 10am we decided to head over to the mall to walk (fall weather was here, it was 40 degrees outside)  at the mall we walked for an hour and a half and I really only had 2 contractions so we decided to go back home so I can rest. I had been up for almost 12 hours.

I came home and laid down, I had my hubby's Ipod, with tons of worship music going...some minutes later the contractions started again and they were getting painful.  I just stayed in bed and dealt with each one as they came 2:15 came and by then I was contracting every 8-9 minutes, Mike said" I think you should call the dr. "  The doctor agreed that I should start heading to the hospital, we gathered some items and said goodbye to the girls and my mom and left.

Once in the car those contractions were coming strong they were now 5 minutes apart.  I'm glad we left when we did, before traffic picked up.  We arrived at the hospital and mike had to park the van so I headed into the hospital and decided to walk to labor and delivery instead of waiting for him.  I got there and the waiting room was packed, ":great I thought, " I didn''t want to be in a crowded waiting area during these contractions, the receptionist took my insurance card and within 5 minutes we were in triage.

It seemed like forever for the nurse to come check me, when she did I was 5-6 centimeters (I have never gone this far without an epidural) I was hoping they'd hurry up so I could get an epidural.  They had to order antibiotics as I tested + for GBS it took about 40 minutes to arrive, we were transfered to the birthing room and my dr. arrived, she said I could stand and walk around my bed area. 

Doing that was great, I was able to deal with contractions better, so I did this and prayed for the Lord's strength to get me through this.  All the nurses and resident dr.s that came in commented on how well I was doing through the contractions.  My dr. asked if I wanted any pain meds.  she said I was doing great dealing with them, hubby thought so too.  I wrestled back and forth and decided to go drug free, I asked how far apart the contractions would be as I approached 10? she said about 2-1minutes, that was how afar apart they were at this point.  I continued to stand and pray. when I was checked again I was 9, and then I felt some trickling of water and knew it was my water bag at that point I was told to sit on the bed, the contractions were fierce at this point.  I was in my own little world crying out to the lord, all in my head.  I was told to lay down and try to push. 

This was it...I pushed and thought I was crazy for doing this naturally.  I even felt I couldn't do it, the pain was so intense, my hubby, dr. and resident dr.s cheered me on and with 5 pushes my Little Aaron Michael was born.  He had a full head of dark hair and was immediately placed on my belly, I thought he was big maybe 8lbs but they weighed him and said 9lbs 6oz I was in shock no wonder I was in so much pain those last 2 months.  Aaron started peeing on daddy!  He didn't cry much, even with the shots!  

We were so excited to having a blessing arrive safely!  Praise God!