My labor with Rachael started on a Saturday night around 9PM.  I had some pre-term labor with her around 25 weeks, so I was used to having contractions for an hour and then having them stop.  This time they did not stop!  I had contractions every 10 minutes lasting about 30-40 seconds the entire night.  I tried to sleep in between, watched a movie, and generally rested throughout the night.  They were not terribly intense, so I let my husband sleep - I felt I would need him well rested later when they got harder!
At around 8AM the next morning, I was still having contractions about every 7-8 minutes now and lasting about 35-40 seconds.  I still felt pretty good.  I started noticing some fluid leaking, and was unsure if it was my water leaking or not.  My midwife suggested I come into the hospital to check.  I decided to wait a little longer.  I had breakfast, took a shower, and got dressed.   We arrived at the hospital around 11AM on Sunday.  I was 4 centimeters dilated, 90% effaced, and my water was still intact.  We walked around the hospital for a couple of hours.  I finally felt too tired to walk any more.  I just wanted to lie down.  The contractions were coming every 5 minutes and were lasting about 60 seconds.  Around 2PM I decided to get into the Jacuzzi tub.  This was wonderful!!  My contractions were getting closer together, and after about 30 minutes, I could no longer stand to be in the tub.  I just wanted to lie in bed.  I could barely get out of the Jacuzzi room - I kept telling my husband I couldn’t do it any more, I just wanted to sleep.  He knew the end was close and that the baby would soon be here! I remember trying to get the gown back on to go to my room and just could not do it. I was going to just walk across the hall naked back to our room, but Jason said that probably wouldn’t be such a great idea and finally got my gown on (backwards!).

I got back to the room and lay on my side in bed.  It was not comfortable to be on my back.  I was having contractions every 2 minutes, some double peaking and lasting a good 1 ½ minutes at least.  It was very hard to relax and concentrate.  I was checked and at 9 cm!  It was around 3:00PM; We decided to break my water to “hurry” that last centimeter along. 

Not long after, I was feeling the urge to push - I could not help but to push with the contractions.  I felt more alert than I had in a couple of hours.  I was STARVING, but the nurse suggested I push the baby out first.  I assumed the “classic” pushing position, and 45 minutes later we held our baby girl in our arms!  She was born at 4:50 PM The entire labor lasted about 19 hours, with only 2-3 hours of it being really intense.  We waited to have the cord clamped until it stopped pulsating, and then she nursed about 30 minutes after she was born.  It was such an amazing feeling!  I could not believe I had accomplished my goal of a natural childbirth, and I felt more empowered by that experience than any other I have had.