Perfect little Zachary was born February 29th, 2008. Here is the FULL birth story. If you are going to read it all, get a sandwich first... it's long.

It's an understatement to say that I was tortured throughout the pregnancy and especially at the end, I was crying all the time about the impending induction.

2 days before my due date I was checked and was still 2-3cm and 0% effaced, as I had been all month.

On my due date I made a last ditch attempt to bring on labor, with:
Walking, climbing my stairs, raspberry tea, pineapple & spicy curry, and even sex (oh so difficult!)

But no dice.

The day after my due date (induction day), I cried all day and packed up final items.

7:30pm: I wonder if I should stand up my doctor.

7:45pm:
Induction appointment time.

7:46pm: We finally leave home for the hospital.

8:15pm: My doctor wonders if I am standing her up.

8:30pm:
We arrive at the hospital and I try to calm down as much as I can to get ready to take on cytotec and pitocin and make the best of it.

9pm:
I am checked and apparently 4-5cm and 80% effaced!! I was shocked and excited! How did that happen? According to the monitors I am having some sort of contractions but I cannot feel anything at all.

My doctor said I don't seem to actually be in labor since i can't feel anything. But she offers to break my water if I'd like.
I asked her to sweep me and let me take a nap because HELLO ITS 9pm! haha. She agrees to let me take a tiny nap.

After her sweep she says I am a good 5+ cm dilated.

I slept for a little bit. Doctor woke me and said it was time to break the waters-- I was so scared because what if suddenly there were painful contractions? Or worse, what if NOTHING happened and then I was on a time clock and had to have pitocin administered immediately and ramped up?

2:30am:

Doctor broke my water, and having Polyhydramnios (too much fluid to begin with), I let out an OCEAN of warm fluid, I swear it was 2 gallons-- i soaked the bed, my STDs (pressure cuffs on my legs) and the doctors pants.

There was meconium in the fluid-- which meant I had to be on Continuous Monitoring the rest of my time at the hospital.

The doctor said she'd check on me again in 2 hours to see if labor started up. She left.

I'd heard of women with continuous monitoring having to use a bedpan throughout labor. I was having none of that.
I was drinking water & gatorade (even though they had me on the IV, I still was thirsty and Doctor was okay with it even though all the nurses told me to stop, I just ignored them).

And when I had to pee, which was pretty darn often, I simply unhooked my STDs (leg cuffs) and the monitors and went to the bathroom.

By the time a nurse got into my room to see why the monitors werent responding, I'd gotten myself back on them and they'd just make sure it was adjusted tightly on me and leave again. :-) So that was working, I was glad I could pee at will.

By 2:45am,
OUCHY WAH WAH, contractions had started up and I was quite happy, I felt certain labor was really happening!! i just hoped the contractions were productive and I really was going to progress on my own.

Any time a nurse came in and saw my contractions on the monitor she'd ask me if I wanted an epidural, and I never had to hesitate, I just said "no" and they left. I hadn't wanted to be offered pain medication, but luckily I had no problem just saying no and they didnt try to sway me.

To my suprise, at one point my husband assure me that if I did want an epidural, that it was okay to take that option, I just said stop and he didnt mention it again.

3:30am:

I continued to labor in the room with my husband (I had envisioned a nurse helping or being involved in labor somehow, but that never happened. I was actually most comfortable just being alone and with my hub to lean on and was happy with that.)

4:30am:

My doctor came back and said I was 8cm.

Contractions were rough now. Breathing through them took more effort and sometimes I felt like I was falling apart a little.

I kept my focus on one at a time and that was a huge help-- each one alone seemed managable. It was just hard when sometimes I'd get two contractions in a row.
So I was getting exhausted, mentally and physically, and felt like I was running out of steam.

I wasn't using my birth ball, or any of the positions I'd imagined- nothing whatsoever, no massage, no heat no cool no nothing.

I just wanted to breathe through the contractions and be able to get back to reclining IMMEDIATELY after each. It was just too exhausting for anything more.

6:30am:

My doctor came back and said I was 9cm.

I was like OH MY GOD. Granted, its progress, but all I could think was 2 hours and just 1 cm? I started to panic.
She calmed me and said I might not have been all the way at 8 last time, but I was a solid 9 now, and doing well with progress.

Doc said she'd come back in an hour and I said "If I am not done by then I am going to jump out the window. I am not kidding."

7:30am:

Doctor said I was almost 10cm but with a lip still there. I looked at her in disbelief. I said "I am going to the bathroom"
She asked why and when I said I wanted to poo she wouldnt let me go.

She offered to reach up and try to push the lip of cervix out of the way during a contraction. I said "that sounds like fun".
and agreed to it because I just wanted to get past this.

One contraction and she pushed and the lip was gone, she said I was ready to push!

I found this confusing, because I thought I was supposed to have an "overwhelming urge to push", and maybe some sort of break or change in what was happening before going from labor to pushing... .but i figured the doc said I could push so why not. I was happy that no more waiting and dilating had to happen!

I'd heard from so many people that transition was the hardest part, and that the pushing/delivery actually offered some relief because you feel like you are actively doing something to get the baby out & get to feel the relief of pressure as you get it out.

Well... AHEM I wouldnt say that. Pushing was like having the same contractions as I was already plus having to push in such as way as to cause the greatest pain I've ever felt. I felt like I was being told to actively rip myself apart.

About 8am I started pushing.

The first half hour of pushing I was mostly scared. I kept saying I was scared of breaking apart and just flat out TOO TIRED to push anything out at all, even a grape. I would start pushing, but when it got intense I would back off and stop because if I kept going, what would it feel like next? I didnt want to know.

Forget about my plan to birth on all fours, I just wanted a nap for godsake. I ended up with my feet up a bit, on my back but inclined, and pulling on a sheet that was wrapped onto a birth bar in front of me-- sort of like doing a bizarre sit up and pulling really hard with my arms.

In the next 30 minutes of pushing, I was getting better-- with each contraction I was slowly learning how to push effectively and gaining the courage to push harder. Meanwhile an hour of pushing is kinda tiring. :-) and I was still feeling a bit scared of anything more intense than what I was already feeling. I kept saying "I can't do any more" and the doc and/or nurse would said "you can and you have to." Thanks a lot, bitches.

By this time I had my doc, two nurses, and now another woman joined me-- it was a nurse named Ann (who I would later learned had an all natural vaginal birth of her twins). She came in, locked eyes with me and somehow everything else in the room vanished. She said "I've been where you are." Her eyes completed soaked me in. She went on "There is a burn and a point you don't want to cross, but you have to push past it" and for some reason that gave me strength. On the next push I brought it up to the point of burn, then kept pushing instead of letting go.

Apparently I was making progress but it wasn't out yet. Ann looked into me and said I had to push past and through and beyond that point. She helped me--- with her words, I made my contractions much more effective. I pushed three times per contraction-- first push I'd get all the way up to full intensity. Second push I'd immediately ramp back up to that full intensity and push hard to get beyond. Third push was just keeping that up.

At this point, apparently, I was making sounds like a wild animal, screaming a deep gutteral scream from the bottom of my lungs and body. It was so primal, so animal, so real. I felt I was 100% one in mind and body.

Then the head was out a few inches and just sitting there stretching my perineum while i waited for the next contraction.
A few people asking me to touch the head and I was like "NO!".

Finally I had the feeling "this is it" and I let it all go-- all effort, all pushing, all my voice, all my body and mind, and I must have pushed five times on one contraction (and after it) taking quick inhales and wild noises just pushing pushing pushing-- head, shoulders, body, it was so intense and surreal and unknown.

90 minutes of pushing and DONE! Then it was out and rushed over for suctioning of any meconium. I was kind of delirious, and eventually looked over at it and started asking "Is that my baby? Is that my baby? Cute, is that my baby?"

Unfortunately that is when the stitches started-- I thought I was supposed to start feeling BETTER once the baby was out and was kind of pissed that now I had to sit and get stitched with that weak local anesthetic. I wasn't expecting to feel the stiching so bad-- i think most of my friends that said stiching was painless had epidurals.

But nurses and others were congratulating me and telling me that no one ever goes all natural and that I really was amazing and did great!

After about 5-10 minutes, the stitching was done, they gave me my sweet baby and everyone left the room- I was alone with my precious newborn and my husband, and I had him on the breast by the time he was 15 or 30 minutes old.

I have never been so amazed as to see that little person.

And not to sound self-centered but I have never felt SO THRILLED AND PROUD of myself!!!
I realized I got to do it-- I had a fully drug-free, pain med -free birth! All natural from start to finish! It was incredibly hard work but I really really DID IT!! I was so happy and felt such awe and wonder both at my own ability, my body's ability, and the new life in front of me.

I was and am so so so happy and lucky and thrilled to have had the very birth I had dreamed of, it really felt like an amazing accomplishment and so empowering and life-giving. I didnt feel like I was a medical project. I felt like a woman who labored and birthed a most amazing new person.

And that new person was 8 lbs and 12 ounces, and a boy. :-)

Zachary Leckey Cardenas.