I had my birth plan written out and decided to follow that as much as I could, I'd been watching a lot of baby channels so knew what was coming and had attended all the ante-natal classes. I intended on having a natural birth with my best friend and partner present. It was a wednesday and me and my friend had been out shopping and I was starting to have cramps but kept it quiet, as soon as I got home I had somthing to eat. . . I actually couldn't stop eating and had 2 massive baguettes! My friend decided to go home as it was her mum's wedding the next day so I said my goodbyes and off she went. A couple of hours later I felt a shooting pain and thought 'oh god this is it' my friend came straight back round, we both lit the candles and I relaxed on my bed with the fan on, as my contractions were getting closer I rang the hospital to let them know then went for a little walk outside, on the way back home the pains were getting closer so at 1.30am my partner drove us all to the hospital. As soon as we arrived they examined me and said I was 5cm dilated and hooked me up to the monitor, I also had a tens machine. The midwife advised me to have a bath but I think I was in there for 2 seconds and couldn't get comfortable so I got out. The pains were getting stronger, like a sheet of lightening going across my tummy, I thought to myself I can't do this, after shuffling myself around a bit I managed to get into a comfortable position, I had the radio on and was in the zone. . . . listening to what my body was telling me to do, the pain of the baby's head coming down the birth canal was unbearable, just keep breathing I thought and it will soon be over. I can see the head said the midwife, my friend looked and said, I can see your baby! I was quite tired at this point but fought on! I had just lost my grandad to cancer and my other grandad was having treatment for cancer as well, it felt like everything wasn't real all I could think about was my grandads in pain and I had this amazing feeling of energy and at 6.42am my son was born weighing 6 pounds 11 ounces. I could see his tiny hands and feet lying on my chest, he was perfect. I wanted the placenta to be born naturally aswell but because I had torn on the inside I was bleeding quite heavily so they had to give me an injection to force that out so they could get the bleeding under control, what was a calm atmosphere turned into what looked like a scene from casulty! The doctor who came to stitch me wasn't gentle she came in sat down wiped me with a gauze injected me with some anaethestic and put me back together. I was allowed to go home 2 days after.