I started having contractions at 5pm on 01/24, they felt like pressure and just made me feel uncomfortable at first. made it to the hospital at 7pm and my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and the pain was manageable. The labour and delivery floor was busy to say the least so hubby and I had to wait in the early labouring room to be admitted. There were about 9 other women waiting to be admitted because it was a busy night with everyone coming in at once. I was given a bed in the triage area and told the nurse that i was going to need all the pain medication they had. I needed lots of pain meds when I had my son, so i wanted to make them aware of my plan to stay on top of the pain because things move slow when it comes to actually receiving the pain meds. I also told them that nobody ever had much luck getting an IV in me. They froze my arm, put hot cloths on my hands an finally got the IV in after 6 pokes and misses. I was at 3-4 cm by 9pm and they gave me morphine which helped me to relax between the contractions which were getting pretty painful and coming evey minute. They also gave me some gravol because the morphine was making me feel sick. By 11pm I was 7-8cm and walked to the delivery room, begging for them to request my epidural so they could get it started. In the delivery room they checked me and I was ready to start pushing and they told me it was too late to get the epidural. I was so scared and barely managing to breath through the contractions. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to keep going but with some positive words from my husband and the nurse I was able to keep going. I was in active labour for 1 hour and pushed for 10 minutes and my daughter, Ella Dawn Grace Melanson was born at 12:10am on 01/25 which was her due date. It was the most painful thing I have ever experienced but the relief after was immediate. The cord was wrapped around her neck and it tore off when the Dr. tried to take it off her neck, so she didn't cry right away and she was blue when they put her on my chest. I'm so lucky to not have any tearing and my baby was healthly which is all I could ask for. She is now 5 days old and breast feeding like a champ and she is up in weight with lots of pees and poops every day. So in love with her and so happy to have her sleeping on my chest while I type this.