At around 3am on November 30th, 2014 Lauren sent me a FB message asking me if it was possible for her water to break in her sleep, which I replied yes. She had been having contractions on and off for a few days so I rolled over and went back to sleep. About an hour later she sent me another message to let me know that she had spoken with her doctor and was heading to the hospital. Being that Lauren was my first official Doula client I was so excited and nervous that I couldn’t go back to sleep. I told her to let me know if they admitted her to the hospital and then I would come to the hospital. I got up and got in the shower, the whole time thinking I was going to explode I was so nervous. Around 5am I joined Lauren and her Husband at Meritus Hospital to go through this amazing journey with them! I quickly tried to help Lauren get comfortable as the contractions were consistent and painful. I used Doterra’s Balance essential oil and rubbed it all over her body. Anywhere that she was having pain, I massaged and tried to talk her through the moment. Lauren asked to try out the tub to see if it would help with the contractions but it was impossible for her to find a comfortable position in the tub. The Nurse had explained to me that when Lauren was ready to get out of the tub there was a button I could hit and she would know to come help us. I hit what I thought was the correct button but apparently it was the panic button and I swear half the medical team members on duty that night came running into this small room. Many times Lauren would look at me during the painful peeks of the contractions and say she couldn’t do it or it was too painful. I reminded her that she was so strong and that she could achieve the non-medicated birth she had wanted. After we got back to Lauren’s delivery room the pain became very intense and the contractions were almost one after another giving Lauren very little time in-between contractions. She asked what options she had for pain medications other than the epidural and the nurse gave her a few different options. Lauren decided to receive a small dose of Stadol in order to take the edge off of her contractions so she could try to avoid an epidural. The medication was just the extra push Lauren needed to stick to her plan of no epidural! Around 8am Lauren told me she felt the need to push so I went and let the Nurse know that Lauren wants to push. The nurse and midwife came in to check to see how dilated Lauren was at this time. As they were checking her cervix Lauren’s Husband Jason made everyone laugh (including Lauren who was in serious intense pain at this point) by saying “your vagina looks like a mad Hulk”!! I even joked with Lauren later on that she needed to get a Hulk tattoo above her vagina J Upon checking Lauren’s cervix she was 9.5 cm dilated but had a small piece of her cervix stuck so with the next few contractions the midwife had her push while she (the midwife) tried to push the piece out of the way. After this Lauren was screaming “get him out”! It was the most amazing beautiful thing to watch Ellis’s head crown and then come into this world!! At 8:49 AM beautiful baby boy Ellis came into this world!! I cried as if Ellis was my own baby and told Lauren how proud I was of her!! Ellis weighed 6lbs 13oz and was eight days early!! To watch Mommy, Daddy, and Baby Ellis love on each other was absolutely beautiful!! To this day I will never be able to thank Lauren and Jason enough for picking me to be a part of this amazing experience with them!!