FTM here:- At 40+4 I lost part of my mucus plug at 7 am on 21 September. I had quite a few painless Braxton Hicks contractions until about 3 pm when I had a bloody show. I started to have unpredictable mild to painful contractions until about 5 pm. Between 5 and 6 pm I started to have contractions every 7 minutes. As I had an unrelenting pain in my pelvis that didn't subside between a contractions the hospital asked me to come in for observation. Labour slowed as soon as I got into hospital at 7 pm. By 9 pm the contractions picked up again (quite painful as they had me on my back) and an internal examination showed I was 1 cm dilated. I was surprised at how much it had hurt to get to that point. The midwives recommended I go home at 10 pm so I went back home and labored for two hour in bed with a Tens machine. I actually managed to get some sleep in between contractions! I then had to get up to vomit and decided to have a warm bath. I labored in the bath from about 12 am to 2 am. Contractions were between 6 and 8 minutes apart and lasted for about a minute. They were intense but I made it through by making long "Ahhhhh" sounds to match the pain. I felt a "pop" at 2 am which was my waters breaking and I started vomiting again.  My mum and husband rushed me back to hospital and I used the Tens machine in the car. I told my husband that if I wasn't more than 5 cm I would be considering an epidural. When I got to hospital I felt the need to push and the midwives confirmed I was over 9 cm dilated- I couldn't believe it! I pushed slowly from 2.30 am and at 4.05 am my husband announced that we have a darling boy, and a big one at that! He is 9 lb 1, birthed vaginally without drugs, and I only required 1 sucture (as both sides of my labia were grazed and the Dr didn't want them getting stuck together as they heal).