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Hi everyone - my beuatiful daughter Alexi Rose was born on March 23 at 6.30am (Easter Sunday), which is just one day past her due date. I was always interested in the experience of labour so I thought I'd share a brief rundown on what happened in my case, should it help anyone else! On Thursday around 4.30pm I started getting Braxton Hicks contractions that came every 5 minutes (I even posted on here about it). On Friday I was still getting them so called the hospital who said that it's normal and could be early labour or my body just preparing for contractions. Anyway, on Friday around 5.30pm the contractions were accompanied by a period type pain in my abdomen. I kind of thought something might be up but didn't want to get my hopes up. They were still coming every 5 or so minutes and I was getting progressively more uncomfortable. I was at my mum's for dinner and when we were driving there and back, turning corners was really uncomfortable for my stomach. That night I couldn't find a comfortable position and was still getting the contractions accompanied by period pain. I barely slept at all and kept going to the toilet a million times. By morning I also had back pain as well as period pain. The back pain and period pain were quite constant but were just intensified during a contraction. I started using heat packs but just couldn't get comfortable. They were now coming around every 5, 8, 7, 4 minutes apart but never got consistently the same timeframe apart. I still wasn't sure if it was the real thing, because I'd have some really bad ones, and then some okay ones, and I was finding it difficult to time the contractions because since feeling the back and period pain, the tightening of the contraction was less distinguishable. The only way I could tell I was having one was the pain got worse and if I touched my stomach it was hard. I called the hospital around 2 and they said to call or come in when they became unbearable or more regular. By 8 that night it was still the same but I was exhausted and confused and worried that it was false labour. I knew I wouldn't sleep so we called the hospital and they said that because it has been going on for so long they'd like me to come in so they can check the baby is okay. When we got there they hooked me up to the monitor and sure enough the baby was doing great. They then checked me and informed us that I was 3-4cm dilated and that we'd have a baby by morning! I cried it was so overhwelming. The midwife said that I obviously had a high pain threshold as I had done a lot of the work at home by myself, so said that I wouldn't need an epidural (eek!). The contractions got worse and worse and I got more and more tired. I thought I just couldn't do it anymore. By around 4,30am she said that my waters were too strong and weren't going to break by themselves. She said they could either break them for me which would make the pain more intense but would get the baby out, or I could continue as I was because my contractions weren't getting any worse as my body knew I couldn't handle it. At this point I vomited because I felt like I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. In the end she broke the waters at about 5am, and then I screamed my head off as the baby descended and at 6 I began pushing. It was absolutely exhausting and at the time I thought I'd never ever do it again, but then at 6.30am by beautiful little girl was born, and it's true what they all say - it really is worth it all :-)