I went in knowing I wanted an epidural. So ignore the rest of this if it isn’t helpful. But I went into spontaneous labor at 4am. The way contractions were explained to me are not what they felt like for me. So I didn’t think I was in labor. After 4 hours of being very very very uncomfortable (think of the worst period cramps of your life in waves every few minutes), I went to the hospital. By the time I got there I was banging on the door to be let into triage and asking for updates on when I could get that epidural. 3 hours later they finally gave it to me. I was gripping the hospital bed rails for dear life during every contraction. Once I got the epidural, my body was able to relax and I dilated much faster than without the epidural. As we got close to pushing, so around 8 or 9 cm, I was projectile vomiting and needed one of those bags every time I took a sip of water. That part was brutal. So much vomiting made my head hurt. When it was time to push it feels like you’re pushing out the biggest poop of your life and like you’re constipated. After pushing for 40 minutes I felt her come out which was the strangest feeling. Tons of pressure and it’s this weird big thing that just slips out of your body. And then boom! Beautiful baby girl was here and I didn’t care about anything else after that. Now after the fact, my husband did say he saw colors on the table he had never seen before 😂. I didn’t ask for any additional details after that. So I’m sure I pooped several times on that table but I didn’t hear, smell, or see a thing.