Clara Avery Richards

O.K. So our new addition is almost five weeks old now, and the only reason I am taking up my precious time to do this is for all my great and wonderful family and friends who I never get to see or talk to much. I love you all!

So here is the story:

I went into labor the night of the 19th being almost overdue by a week! It was awful being that overdue, the wait was killing me!
I knew that it was time, because I was finally feeling sick and very irritable!
So I started to have REAL contractions around 8:30 pm. I decided to labor a while at home because I was going to try for a natural birth and of course then the hospital did no good for me up until I needed the baby delivered. So we waited it out until 12:30pm and by then the contractions were getting intense, and I wondered if I was going to make it!
We arrived at the hospital and luckily my midwife was already there with another delivery because 20m min after we got there my water broke. I went from being dilated to a 5 all the way to a 10 in just a few minutes.
YES the labor was extremely intense! I have never in my whole life experienced such pain. I breathed through and used my months of practicing hypnobirthing to survive what I could. Near the end I was hyperventilating a bit, because my hands and feet started to tingle and go numb. But luckily my body was a champ and knew what to do and to do it quickly I pushed two times and she was out.
Never feeling what it felt like to actually have the urge to push was incredible! My body took over and the adrenalin kicked in. I felt everything! I felt my body open up, change, cope with more pain then it has ever felt and give birth to this beautiful baby girl! That is what I wanted out of all this and that is what I got, I got to FEEL my body naturally do what it was intended to do .
I am not saying it was by any means easy, and I am glad I did it on my last child. But none the less I am truly grateful for the experience.