Getting pregnant was a shock and a surprise to us both since we weren't trying to conceive. My whole pregnancy went very well.

I went for my 39-week doctor's appointment. Everything was looking good. I hadn't started to dilate yet, so I made my appointment for the following week. That was on a Thursday, and at 2:45 a.m. Monday morning my water broke.

I called the hospital. They said since I wasn't having any contractions to try and get some sleep (yeah, right) and they would see me at 8 a.m. in the morning. So after little to no sleep we headed off to the hospital, only to be sent home (due to the number of women in labor) and told to come back later that afternoon so they could try and get my cervix to thin out with Prostaglandin gel.

We came back that evening and I had an IV put in so they could give me some medication since my water had broken. I had the gel inserted and left for the evening.

Tuesday we went in at 8 a.m. again (still not having any contractions at this point) only to find that the gel had not helped so they decided to try again. This time they kept me there. And again, there was NO change, so they decided to re-break my water and have me walk around. Well, this worked. Within 10 minutes I was having some very painful contractions. They gave me some Demerol to take the edge off. But I was still not progressing.

At about 4:30 p.m. that evening I decided to get an epidural so they could start the Pitocin. They kept the epidural and Pitocin up so high to try and get me to dilate more then 1 centimeter that I could not feel anything from the neck down. It was great for the most part. I had a really nice sleep.

Later that evening I was still not progressing like they would have hoped so I was given a time limit. If I hadn't progressed by then I was going to go and have a Cesarian section. But I made it and was fully dilated by 5 a.m. on Wednesday, March 14, 2001. But I was so numb from the epidural that I was unable to push for another three hours.

At 8:05 a.m. I could feel my legs enough to push. My son's head got stuck, so the doctor needed to use the vacuum extractor to help get him down the birth canal. At 9:45 a.m. Terry Mathew Alex was born weighing 7pounds, 10 ounces and 20 1/4 inches long.

After 15 1/2 hours of labor and one and a half hours of pushing we had our perfect little boy. He has just turned 2 and in two and a half months we are expecting our second. Thank you for reading our story.