The contractions started at eleven-thirty the night of Wednesday, the sevententh of April. I was lying in bed and decided to go into the living room and watch television to get my mind off of the contractions and to see if they would go away. I told Alexis that I was having contractions and that if they got worse I would let him know and we could go to the hospital. I watched the movie, "The Perfect Storm," a movie that I would not have watched if it had not been the only thing on the television at midnight a weeknight! That night it did it's job and got my mind off of the contractions. The contractions started off quite mild and gradually got more intense. At four in the morning the contractions were quite painful and I decided to make a tea and take a bath. I was timing the contractions which were about 10 minutes apart at the time that I took my bath. I was waiting for the contractions to become more regular. In the child birthing classes, the midwives said that we should wait until we have contractions every five minutes for two hours. I don't think that I ever had regular contractions and that is why I waited so long to go to the hospital. At six-thirty in the morning I was in tears and decided that even if the contractions were not regular, they had become unbearable and I decided to wake up Alex and go to the hospital. Obviously knowing that I was in labour all night, he didn't sleep. While he showered I finished my suitcase (since I didn't think that I would give birth for another week or so, I hadn't finished my suitcase.) While I showered, Alexis called the maternity and told them we were on our way. I was nervous as we left the house but I was so excited that we were finally going to meet the baby that we had been dreaming of for so long. On the way to the hospital, a twenty minute drive, I had four contractions. Alexis went to park the car while I waited hunched over in front of the hospital entrance. We got to the maternity reception at seven-thirty. Since the reception didn't open until eight-thirty, the lady behind the counter completely ignored me. I had to poke my head in the door to get her attention and ask for help. She asked me "c'est pourquoi?," or what I needed. I answered "I think I'm having my baby!.." They asked me to sit down and wait for the midwife. I was happy to be at the hospital and was impatient to have the epidural. The midwife led me to an exam room where she attached two monitors to my belly. One that measured the contractions, and the other that monitored the baby's heartbeat. I was lying down on my side and all I wanted to do was get up and take off the monitors that were a little too tight for my liking. Alex called the school and told them that he wouldn't be coming in. After about a half an hour, another midwife came in and after a quick exam she gave me a robe and led me into the delivery room. Once in the delivery room, the midwife, Madame Rebetez, asked me how I had imagined the birth. I said that I had wanted to use the bathtub to relieve that labour pains but at the moment I didn't want to get off the bed because it hurt too much to move. She said "what if I told you that you were going to give birth on the bed, naturally..." She explained that I was already eight centimetres dilated and that it was too late for the epidural. She said that I was ready to give birth, that I had done all the work at home and that I must have a very high pain tolerance. I was scared knowing that I couldn't have any pain relief but I didn't have any choice...it was time to push! We entered the delivery room at eight in the morning and Chloé was born at eleven o'clock. Three hours of pushing! The midwife kept saying "push, I can see the head!" The fact that I didn't have the epidural made the pushing easier because I could feel the contractions coming on and I felt a strong urge to push. After what seemed like hours and hours of pushing the midwife called the gynaecologist to help with the delivery. The gynaecologist decided to use the vacuum extraction to help the baby. Since I hadn’t slept all night, I was exhausted and although I was pushing with all my might, I didn’t have the force needed. During the delivery I was so tired I had my eyes closed most of the time. The midwife gave me a sugary solution to drink in order to wake me up. Since they had to use the vacuum extraction method, a paediatrician had to be present in the room in order to monitor the baby at its arrival. The room was full by the end of the delivery. There were three midwives, the gynaecologist and his intern, and the paediatrician and his intern. After three hours of pushing the baby showed her head followed by her beautiful body. I asked the midwife whether it was a boy or a girl. She replied “why don’t you look for yourself,” it was so magical to discover that we had a baby girl. They placed her beautiful body against mine and I discovered my beautiful baby girl Chloé. The midwife asked “what is this little girl’s name?” Since we were hesitating between two names, I looked at Alexis and he said Chloé. She lay on my belly for three hours while they poked and prodded me, collapsing three veins trying to insert the intravenous and stitching and re-stitching the tears caused by the delivery. Nothing mattered anymore because nothing could be worse than the contractions and we had our beautiful healthy baby girl!