Come on, already!So, the thing that everybody said would happen is happening right now. My due date is pretty much here, I still have no baby, and I'm getting impatient. (Really impatient.) I envisioned she'd be here already. I've made all the proper preparations. Her room is ready, the cosleeper is set up, the bottles are sterilized (as well as the apartment), and my bags are packed. I even bought a lovely bouquet of flowers last week in anticipation of her arrival. Alas, no child. Where are you, baby?! Aren't you ready to meet?

So, in the spirit of keeping things au naturel, I've started pulling out the stops. The kooky, crazy, could-totally-be-a-load-of-crap stops that supposedly induce labor sans any drugs. Hey, I'll try anything at this point.

Here are 6 ways that (supposedly) naturally induce labor.

You know what's amazing about giving birth? The fact that we can. And we do. Every day. Birth is something women can do just like we can twiddle our thumbs. But imagine someone said you can't twiddle your thumbs anymore. Or that you were doing it wrong and you need help to twiddle. Even though you knew your thumbs were made for twiddling, you'd start to doubt your twiddling abilities.

Chances are you can twiddle your thumbs. And you can birth your baby. (Barring any complications which would result in a c-section, which, yes, is just another way to birth your baby.) But a new study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology has revealed that we spend "much more time" in labor now than 50 years ago makes me think this is because we are rushing to go into labor, which leads to medical intervention and therefore a longer labor.

Just when I thought I'd truly heard it all, I read a story about a woman in China who went into labor nine days before she was due, and ultimately wound up giving birth to her baby girl after insisting on making a stop to use the bathroom on her way to the hospital. You know -- because she probably thought she was feeling pressure "down there" because she had to poop, not push the baby out! OMG.

This definitely isn't the first time a baby has been born in a restroom, but it is the first time I've heard about a baby being born in a public toilet pit. Yes -- a toilet pit, which is basically a small hole on the bathroom floor that you -- well, kind of squat and "hover" over in order to do your business.

I'm sorry to break the news to you, but if you are nervous about having a long, drawn out labor and delivery when you reach the end of your pregnancy, you should be. Because odds are good that giving birth to your baby will probably take longer than you think.

New research from the National Institute of Health indicates that the process of going into labor and giving birth is much longer for women nowadays than it was 50 years ago. In fact, the time duration has increased by a whole 2.6 hours. Women back in the day typically only labored for about four hours tops, while moms-to-be today average out at 6.5 hours.

And aside from taking a lot more time to breathe and push your way through the experience, babies are also being born heavier than they were in the 1960s, and they are showing up an average of five days earlier.

So -- what's the deal?

This is harder than childbirth!Some people say that giving birth is going to be the hardest thing a woman could ever do -- heck, that's why a woman's body is made to do it and not a man's. Do you really think they could handle it? Especially considering how they become helpless from a measly little man cold? And because of women saying how hard it is to give birth, many, many, many first time pregnant women get scared out of their minds about giving birth.

I sure was! Having survived it, I'm not going to say it was easy as pie. But Dancing With the Stars season 14 contestant Melissa Gilbert feels learning the Quickstep was harder than giving birth. And let's remember that Gilbert had a far from smooth pregnancy.

I always thought the nurses on the maternity ward were some lucky ducks. Here they get to spend every day around babies ... beautiful, adorable, cuddly babies. And best of all, after a few days, they get to send them home with us, the moms!

No late night feedings or weeks without a shower for those OB nurses. No sirree. But a few of the folks who hang out with Mom Nirvana just spilled the secrets of the OB ward to The Stir, and I'm rethinking that whole "lucky duck" envy! Turns out the mommy heaven that is the maternity ward is just chock full of some crazy. Check out what some real nurses told us (all information has been generalized by the nurses in order to protect patients and their identity):

Pregnancy is an amazing time of blossoming and growing and changing. But it can be a very scary and confusing time for some new moms, especially moms-to-be with bad doctors. It happens.

Last week, we explored funny horror stories at the OB/GYN. But not all of them are very funny. Here are eight stories that won't make you laugh, but will make you be glad you didn't have these doctors. These eight stories of pregnancy horror highlight the importance of a second opinion.

Every one of these stories shows why it's so important for women to advocate for themselves. Here they are:

OMG. Pregnant women who have a due date that is on or around February 29 are probably shaking in their boots right now about whether or not they will wind up having a leap year baby. And while it might seem like kind of a cool and unique thing to some, my guess is that plenty of other moms will see having a baby born on leap year as just one more thing to completely stress out over as the child grows up.

In most cases, you're at the mercy of Mother Nature when it comes to what day your baby makes his/her entrance into the world. However, more and more women are starting to schedule their births just like any other major event on their calendars. And while inducing labor isn't exactly the most natural way of going through delivery, I'd totally do it to avoid having a baby born on February 29. Because it would really suck to have a leap year baby.