I had been with my boyfriend in an on-again-off-again relationship for three years when I got pregnant. We had just broken up again before I found out, but once we knew we were going to be parents we got back together and have been ever since.

My pregnancy was relatively easy. I was nauseous pretty much constantly for the first six months, and lost 10 pounds before I started gaining any weight. Towards the end of my pregnancy my back was sore, my hips were sore from sleeping on my side but that was all expected and really wasn't that bad.

About five days before we had our baby, I started having contractions every 10 minutes or so. The last two days before going to the hospital I could not sleep at all because they were so bad.

I had my doctor's appointment on my due date, which is about a half-hour walk because neither of us have a license or vehicle. After my appointment we spent an hour walking around the mall before going to the hospital for a fetal non-stress test (I had had one earlier in the month and was having contractions every five minutes at the time although I could not feel them).

We got to the hospital and the nurse came and strapped me to the machines. After half an hour she came back and told us we were in labor, which I had sort of expected because as we were walking to the hospital from the mall I had been getting contractions so bad that I could not walk or talk through them. They were lasting a minute, and were five minutes apart.

She told us to go home and try to get some sleep while we still could! To get home from the hospital, we had a half-hour walk (longer because I was in hard labor already) about an hour-long wait for the ferry, a half-hour ferry ride and another half-hour drive home. It wasn't the most fun trip I have taken, but the contractions were still relatively easy at this point and I was very excited to know we were going to have our baby soon.

My boyfriend went to his house to shower and sleep and I went home to make sure I had everything packed up. I phoned my dad to say I was in labor and would need a ride to the hospital sometime that night. He phoned my mom, who was working near the hospital at the time, and she got way too overly excited and phoned the doctor to phone the ferry to wait for us, so we ended up heading right back over with no sleep and no food.

Once we were back on the ferry my contractions started getting weaker, and I thought we might get sent back home. Thankfully that was not the case.

We got to the hospital. They hooked me up to the machines once again and after about 15 minutes of nothing, the contractions started again, at about a minute and a half long but still five minutes apart. My parents went and got two pizzas, some pops and sat with us until 8:30 that night when they went back home.

Shift change was at 7. The new nurse who came on said I was 3 centimeters dilated, and expected us to deliver by 2 a.m. By 11 p.m., the contractions were very hard and I needed help. I got in the tub and used the shower head on my stomach. Unfortunately the water was barely lukewarm due to heat restrictions on water in the hospital, and labor made me shake uncontrollably, so the bath just made things worse.

I was shaking so hard by this point that I needed support to sit up or walk around. I was checked again and still only 3 centimeters. By now I was angry. I had been telling myself with each hard contraction (now two minutes long and four minutes apart) that I only had a few short hours to go, and it was like starting all over.

We started pacing the hospital floor, hoping to help labor progress. When my back was too sore for me to stand, we sat in the library to rest. I was looking at magazines to distract myself from the worst pains I had ever felt when my boyfriend started getting stressed from seeing me in so much pain, so he left! He went to go smoke a cigarette while I was having the worst contraction yet and begging him to stay and help me.

I was feeling so much animosity toward him after this that his attempts to help me just made me angrier. By 1 a.m., I had to be hooked up to an IV drip because I was dehydrated. Apparently a liter of water an hour does not help; you need sugar. Who knew. The nurse made me a cranberry juice/ginger ale drink that left a horrible taste in my mouth that lasted until I had my baby.

By 3 a.m. I was exhausted and still had not progressed whatsoever. I finally got some fentanyl for the pain, after being moved to a delivery room. After about 20 minutes it kicked in and I finally got some relief from the pains. Now they still hurt but were bearable.

My doctor came in to check on me shortly afterwards and they decided to break my waters to speed the labor up.

Wow. I would not suggest this. After my water broke, the contractions came fast and furious. I was only getting a minute-long break between them. Not impressed. They upped the dose of fentanyl, which didn't even touch the pain. I ended up in the bathroom vomiting uncontrollably until my stomach was empty. The nurse brought in nitrous oxide, which also didn't help at all.

After an hour of terrifying pain that was so bad I could not talk and could barely breathe while I was having the pains, she phoned my doctor who told her to phone the anesthesiologist immediately. Another hour later he arrived to give me my glorious epidural. He missed the first time and put the hook in the wrong spot, and the second time got it. The nurse told us that we should sleep now until I was ready to push, and everybody left the room.

I figured the epidural would take a while to kick in, because I was still feeling the pains. My boyfriend fell asleep, and I lay awake because the epidural doesn't really take your pain away; it just dulls it. I ended up peeing the bed because the nurse never once came back in to check on us.

So by 7 a.m. it was shift change again. The new nurse came in and changed my bed, brought me water and I finally got to brush the vomit taste out of my mouth. By now I was 5 centimeters. Yay! Halfway there.

My mom and four friends got to the hospital at 8:30 a.m. expecting to see a new baby but after 18 hours of hard labor there was still no product. My doctor ended up calling another doctor to confirm a suspicion he had. The baby was turned the wrong way and would have to rotate before I could push.

Finally, after 21 1/2 hours I was dilated enough and the baby had turned, so I could begin pushing. After an hour and a half of pushing, and an episiotomy, my daughter, 6 pounds, 9 ounces, 20 inches long, was born. Twenty-three hours of labor.