My due date was December 23. On the 21st of December, I started having contractions. I called my midwife to give her a head's up. Although they were very short in length (about 20 seconds) the contractions were all mostly four minutes apart.

At first it was easy and, of course, exciting. I easily breathed through them and my cat, Bluebell, sensing the oncoming labor, joined me on my bed to keep me company (we call her Midwife Blue). My husband wondered if he should go to work and I said sure.

All through my pregnancy I really prized the time I would have alone with my baby. I decided I should have a project to hold my attention and decided to make my son a birthday death by chocolate torte. Hopefully this would be his official birthday cake and he would enjoy chocolate as much as his mom.

My husband and I don't own a car, so I walked to the supermarket to pick up the decadent ingredients (chocolate, whipping cream, sugar, eggs) perfect to celebrate the big moment of our son's birth. I also stopped by my friend's cafe. By 3 p.m., after the torte was baked, every contraction was still about four minutes apart.

By 9 p.m. at night I started to become pissy. We were watching a funny movie on TV, which I didn't find funny at all. In fact I yelled at my husband and said, I can't just pretend everything is normal, because it isn't! (obscenity removed). I had contractions throughout the night. I was in and out of the bath tub throughout and would doze in between contractions. Needless to say, I barely got any sleep, as this was the pattern all night.

By 6 a.m. I called my midwife again. The contractions were very challenging at this point. I also had a lot of back pain. With every contraction my husband was forcefully instructed to rub my back. My doula was sent over to check on me. She arrived at 7 a.m. The contractions also seemed to get worse when I would lie on my side, making sleep impossible.

By this time, my doula told me, yes, I was in labor and probably dilated about 2 centimeters. I was starting to become frustrated. She suggested I try to get more sleep. What? I thought, and How? She convinced me to try to sleep on my side again, the most intense position for me – it brought on very painful contractions.

She then reminded me that the intense contractions would bring the baby. That was my moment of oh sh**. I knew she was right but the truth was hard to swallow. She suggested a mantra of something like, I am going to birth my baby. My baby is coming. My husband and I would say the mantra when the contractions were really hard. He was also more forcefully commanded to rub my back with each contraction.

I was starting to lose my mucous plug and it wasn't a plug. It was a succession of mucous and blood that came out slowly and in great volume. My husband and I also decided to kick it up a notch as I was so tired I wanted this baby to be born, so we walked and danced around the house to the blues and every once in a while I would do a deep squat to bring on another contraction.

At about 12 p.m., I called my midwife and told her I wanted to make sure if I started to push someone would be there because I was afraid no one would be. She assured me that if I could talk to her on the phone, I still had a while to go and hadn't gone through transition yet. Still, I requested that a midwife come my way.

By this point I had intense rectal pressure. It was murder. The feeling of needing to take a massive dump was mind blowing and VERY uncomfortable. By the time my midwife arrived, I was thinking I couldn't do it much longer. She told me that I was doing it, and I thought, No, you don't understand. I want the hospital and I want a Cesarean section, although I didn't say this.

She said, Why don't I check you? And guess what? I was dilated to 9 centimeters! I had been through transition. Amazing.

My other midwife and doula arrived and I had three amazing ladies sitting with me through my contractions. It was great. I was told if I felt the need to push to go ahead. I admitted I was really scared about pushing. They said why wouldn't I be? I had never done it before. This was the perfect response. Thanks, ladies!

I took off my pants, and naked, I got on hands and knees and with the next contraction I was just about bowled over by the intensity of the involuntary bearing down sensation. I didn't like it. Oh boy, I thought. Here we go.

I had little strength at this point and the birthing stool was too big for my bum and required too much energy to stay on it. I tried the toilet, which I knew would work well for me. With a contraction I pushed hard and my water broke.

My husband tried nipple stimulation at this point to bring on the contractions stronger. My midwives suggested different positions as my progress was slow, and let me tell you, good midwives are amazing. They truly were my lifeline when I had no compass or energy to even know what I was doing. I trusted them completely and I did what they suggested.

In the end, I actually gave birth on my back in bed. Funny, as I was bragging about how I was going to let gravity work with me. My legs were held open and my contractions never seemed long enough to do the work I needed to push him out. I was told I was doing great but as each contraction and the strain of pushing came and went I just wanted to cry. It was so frustrating.

The only thing that got my son out was when I was instructed to get mad and get this baby born. I made every animal noise that came out. It was the only thing that gave me the extra oomph to get him through. The ring of fire was nothing. At that point, I didn't care if I ripped open.

All the while the Baby's heart rate was great. After over three and a half hours of pushing my son was born. His name is Ronan Cyrus. His body felt perfect on my chest. I just kept rubbing him all over.

He weighed 7.1 pounds, and since, he has gained 2 pounds. He is over a month old now. My sweet baby is the best ever! My husband was amazing and so were my midwifes. What an incredible and hard experience.