At the beginning of the week, my Doctor informed me that my original due date was the one we were going with (April 3rd), and that he considered me a week overdue. So, starting Tuesday, I went in every morning for a "stretch" to try to get things moving along as naturally as possible. I had been in pre-labour/early labour off and on for the week prior, and was getting more and more exhausted. I would have timeable, intense contractions for a few hours, then they would just stop. It was as if my body was ready for labour, but Baby Bean just wasn't.

On my Thursday morning appointment (after a miraculous good nights sleep), with light contractions 6-7 minutes apart, my Doctor finally said enough was enough, and wanted to kickstart me into active labour. So, off to the hospital we went at 1:00 to break my water.

Within an hour, I was having contractions 2-3 minutes apart- I kept walking the halls of the hospital to speed it up more and more, because they were threatening to give me oxytocin if things didn't move fast enough. And I was adamant- no drugs. So, Nich, Jennifer and I walked and walked until around 4:00. The contractions were finally getting intense enough that I needed to start using the shower and the birthing ball to help me through them. At 5:00, the nurse checked me, and I was at 6 1/2 cms.

Around 5:30, I went into transition- the longest transition ever. I was shaking, sweating, and nauseous, and the contractions were SO strong. Every contraction was different, and I had to do something new each time just to make it through them. Sometimes it helped to just "get mad" and scream my way through them (so much for hypnobirthing!), sometimes the birthing ball would help, sometimes counter-pressure would help, but most of all, my two incredible coaches with their words of encouragement got me through.

Around 6:30 or so (not like i was really looking at the clock) I just couldn't get a break from the contractions. They just kept coming, one after another. They would peak, die down a bit, but then the next one would come before it went away. At this point, I'm sure I said a million times that I just didn't want to do this anymore. But, I still didn't want drugs- because I knew one of the signs of being almost to the pushing stage, is wanting to check out and go home- so I knew I was almost done.

Maybe around 6:45 or 7pm, the nurse asked if she could pray over us- and of course we said yes. As soon as she prayed, I was filled with peace, and even though I still felt pain- I was relaxed. She should've prayed sooner!

Then, the peak of one of the next contractions was so intense, I shot out of bed, stood up and announced that I had to "push something out". The nurse checked, and I was 9 1/2, and she called my Doctor. I wanted to see my Doctor so bad, I think I mumbled over and over at that point that I just wanted to see Doctor Hansen. Because I knew as soon as I saw him, I could push my baby out and it would all be over.

He was there before I knew it, and after twenty minutes of pushing, our little Kaitlyn Brianna was born. After she was all checked over, and everything calmed down- our Doctor prayed over us.

I can't even begin to tell you how much God's presence was there on Kaitlyn's birth day. I prayed so often that this would be a joyful and healing birth experience. And it so was, and God gets all the glory for that. He really showed up. And totally used Nich, Jennifer, my Nurse and Doctor in such amazing ways. I can't even begin to describe to you how incredibly blessed I feel. And, of course, the biggest blessing of all is the perfect baby girl we got out of the deal. God is good.