Natural Birth Story: On Jan 15 at around midnight, I was woken up by some contractions, usually I can fall back asleep with Braxton hicks contractions. So I tried to just sleep them off. The next wave of contractions came and I was woken up with a flow of energy going through my body. I started to use the contractions app to record these contractions because I felt that this may be early labor symptoms. I was not sure if this was ACTUALLY going to be the real deal. Within 30 mins, the contractions were 10 min apart for 30sec-1 min long and getting more intense. I heard with the second baby things escalate fast. So I intuitively felt that it was best to prepare, I called my doula and sent her the screenshot of my contractions pattern. I called my parents to make them aware that this may be the real thing & to watch Jayce during this time. I went into the shower and that’s when my contractions got even more intense. At this point they were 5 min apart. I called my doula and she was surprised with how fast it escalated and she was on her way to help me labor at home before heading to the hospital. From there I was riding the wave of the contractions, using the birth ball, on all fours, playing my meditation playlist, snacking on honey sticks & granola. I noticed my contractions went from every 5 min to every 7min and that’s when I started adding more movement with walking + squats to help my body progress through labor quicker. After a couple hours, my contractions jumped to every 3 mins and wow these felt more intense and I was breathing through it (definitely could not talk through these). We decided it’s time to go to the hospital now, mind you the hospital is only 8 min from us. But I knew this car ride may be extremely uncomfortable 😅. Dane packed his car with our stuff and we head to the hospital. I did not know if my water was broken at this point. I was checked in and was 7cm dilated at 5am. The doctor told me this baby is probably going to be out within a few hours. My doula gave them my birth plan, bc they were asking me so many questions and at this point I could not even answer them lol. (Cont. in the comments)