On Thursday, November 4, I started having contractions at 7:30 a.m., but I wasn't sure. There wasn't a clear break in them, just a constant pain that started in my lower back and radiated around to the front. At around 12:45 p.m. they had become timeable, and I went into the hospital.

Once there I was a solid 3 centimeters dilated and had contractions every five minutes. By 6 p.m. everything slowed down, and they were going to send me home, but just then, my water broke. I made it to 5 centimeters by 10 p.m. and got the epidural. It didn't take on the left side at all. All night I stayed at 5 centimeters. At 8ish my doctor showed up, he was not on the night before, and said that we'd try Pitocin. They tried to adjust the epidural, but no luck. The Pitocin was started at 9 a.m., and by 9:30 I was complete. I waited for about 20 minutes for my doctor, and started pushing. Adam Scott was born at 10:01 a.m., and John Francis was born at 10:11 a.m.

Of the whole labor, for me the pushing was the easiest part because I was in control, and that was the first time I felt that way throughout the labor. I found out later that the reason that the epidural didn't take was that Adam was very low for quite a while, and blocked the medicine. When he popped out, I stopped feeling the contractions and the urge to push. What saved me was that I had done it already, and I just copycatted what had happened earlier; it worked.

They were judged to be at 36 weeks plus gestationally, instead of the 34 weeks five days that they were. Their Apgars were both 9 and 9, and they were and are perfect.