Part 1 - June 11th. I woke up just knowing this would be the last day of my pregnancy. we spent the day at home, outside with the whole family. my parents were here to take care of Collin and Ari when it was time for us to go to the hospital. I told everyone I had a feeling this was the day. the day passed by and we all went to bed. I think I had been asleep for about 20 minutes before I woke up feeling a strong contraction. we checked in at the hospital at 2.17am. they monitored me. my contractions weren’t that close together, but they were long and intense. as soon as the midwife said, “It’s hard to say if this is it or not”, I said; “I’m not leaving.” we asked the midwife for a membrane sweep to help induce labor. and she did. at 3.30am, we were moved to another room to see how things would progress. but I immediately felt stronger, more painful contractions after that. after 20–30 minutes, we called the midwife back because the contractions had become much more intense. we were moved again to a labor room. at 4.30am, I got nitrous oxide to help with the pain. after that, I lost track of time. but somewhere around 5am, the contractions became so intense I asked for an epidural (spinal). I remember saying to Robin, “what just happened?” when it kicked in. Holy moly! all the pain was gone and I got to rest for a bit. everything was happening so fast. unfortunately for a brief second, she somehow got stressed in my belly. I didn’t understand it a the time. but Robin did and when the midwife called in more doctors (as a standard precaution), he obviously got really scared! but she stabilised quickly by her own and in a few minutes they left the room again. grateful for the quick reactions if something would have been wrong! I kept my body moving, swaying back and forth to help her come further down. Robin was scratching my back and one of the midwives stayed in the room with us. everything was so calm and peaceful. I could still feel the contractions the entire time, but they were mild... CONTINUED CAPTION IN THE COMMENTS!