mom1st - You just signed the line on my epidural order. My best friend had a natural labor and the baby was OP. I was there for her delivery. Holy crap. It made me wonder why they don't knock us out for that sort of thing anymore. Puking because the pain is so intense does NOT sound like something I'd like to try.

Oh, and she had kidney stones at 15 weeks. She said it was worse than labor, too.

The puking -- maybe that was just transition. I threw up/retched both times during transition. The second time I screamed, too, a LOT, even though I'd do it natural again. I think I was just so disinhibited, that it probably looked like I was suffering more than I was! If you've been leaning towards natural, you could always just see how it goes for a while first, no need to firmly commit beforehand.

Well, turns out baby was born on her due date. A girl! 7#12.6 oz. And she's absolutely beautiful, if I do say so myself

Labor was hellish though. 38 hours. I had 24 hours of strong contractions at home that were 8 minutes apart, never closer. I was on the verge of going to the hospital anyway because I was so tired and in so much pain. Finally, my water broke and ctx immediately increased to 2 minutes apart. Headed for hospital finally! Vomiting from the pain in the parking lot. 3 cm when we got there...got an epidural. (Most wonderful thing on Earth...felt like I was submerged in a nice, warm bath)! Spent the next 12 hours with Pit augmentation and on the verge of emergency C-section for intermittent non-reassuring heart tones. At 9.5 cm, dilation stalled for 2 hours!! O.R. was prepping for C-section when I suddenly became complete. Pushed for over an hour, but she wouldn't descend...anesthesia kept coming in the room informing us that O.R. was ready (heart tones kept dropping)...I let the epidural wear off to allow for better pushing...and I finally got her out vaginally. Only 1st degree lacerations, but I felt every bit of it!

THEN, 5 days post-partum I had severe bleeding from the laceration repair sights. Dragged hubby and baby to L&D at 4am to get re-stitched. Went home. 2 days after that, I woke up bleeding again...saturating a pad every 3 minutes!!!! Looked like someone had been murdered on our bathroom floor. Thought for sure it had to be uterine with that much blood. Went back to L&D in a panic, with towels stuffed in pants, which were also saturated. Once again, it was my suture sites! My OB (who was awesome, by the way) had never seen anything like it. Lucky me, I got lidocaine shots and stitches for a 3rd time. I was admitted overnight, and my labs showed a "mild DIC picture." Since then I've been fine. But in light of all of the unusual bleeding, I sure am glad that I didn't end up having a C-section 'cause that could've been really bad!

Congrats! Glad you both came through it! Sounds like a scary week, but all's well that ends well, huh?

Wow! You had a rough time! Congrats on your beautiful daughter. Enjoy those sweet newborn moments, they're just too short.