Shortly after they arrived, around 9.30pm, Sakina checked me to see how far dilated I was, which turned out to be 6cm. I was happy to hear that, seeing as I'd passed the 4-5cm speed bump. A speed bump because with most of the childbirth videos we'd seen during our classes, it always seems to take the longest to get to and beyond that particular point. While being checked for dilation lying on the bed, I had a contraction there too. I have to say that that contraction lying down was so much worse than any of the contractions I'd had whilst sitting upright on the birthing ball. I had no idea it would make that much difference in pain, but it did. If I ever needed proof that being on your back is the worst position to be in, that was it.

Contractions were coming pretty hard and fast, and at times I'd get no break at all between two contractions, they'd just be one on top of the other and last for a very long time each. After that that I climbed into the pool for a while. The water was really hot, but it felt so incredibly good and really took the edge off for a while. I didn't stay in for all that long, because while the heat made me feel more relaxed on the one hand, it also made me nauseous to a degree on the other hand. So for a while I ended up leaning half out of the pool or standing up in the airconditioning breeze, which was a nice juxtaposition between hot and cold. Eventually I did end up throwing up everything out of my system. Also not uncommon during labour. I found that my body had a need to just void itself of everything in preperation of the pushing phase.

At some point I went to the bathroom and had numerous contractions there. They always say that the toilet is one of the best places to labour because you instinctively relax your muscles there. With the intensity and frequency of the contractions I was having at that point I was afraid I'd never get off the toilet, because the last thing I wanted to do was move through contractions, and the contractions didn't seem to slow or stop. I basically sat there for a while clasping PreZ's arms to get me through.

From the bathroom we went straight to the bedroom to lie down and be checked again, I had to stop on the way because I had another contraction. Once on the bed, the contractions got much worse thanks to the fact that I was lying down again. Sakina checked me and found that I was about 9cm with just a small lip of cervix left. She told me to push with the next contraction so she could push that last little lip away, which I did. I believe that's when the pushing contractions started because of what she was doing. The pushing contractions on the bed were incredibly painful and debillitating, and the idea of moving was so abhorrent that I almost considered just staying there, but thankfully Sakina and PreZ urged me to go to the pool because I'd been planning for a waterbirth the whole duration of my pregnancy, and they still had plenty of time to get me there. So with their help I made it back to the pool.

It was about 11.35pm when I got into the pool, at least I remember PreZ and Sakina discussing the time together and pondering whether the baby would be a 13th or 14th baby. Once in the pool I actually got a little bit of a break in contractions for a few minutes while there, so that I could kind of regroup mentally and physically. The urge to push soon came upon me though, and that's one call of nature that you just can't refuse. Billy Connolly once said in one of his stand-up routines in regards to the withdrawl method of birthcontrol, that at the moment of orgasm wild horses couldn't make his arse move in the opposite direction... well, similarly there is virtually no way that at the moment of a pushing urge you will not bear down... your body knows what it's supposed to be doing, and will do it whether you want it to or not. The idea of pushing without one of those contractions is also similarly foreign really, the amount of extra effort would be pretty immense.

After 25 minutes of pushing out came little Dashiell. A midnight baby. I felt he was a boy before I saw it, as I was moving him up towards my chest. PreZ, who was also in the pool, then got behind me and I leaned against him for a while with Dashiell on my chest. Once the cord stopped pulsing Sakina clamped it and PreZ got to cut it. Then Sakina took him, suctioned him and moved him into the bedroom to weigh him and check him, while PreZ and Enentsa moved me to the bedroom too. I was so exhausted and drained I could barely move, and once I was in bed I started shaking. It was like as soon as he came out, all the adrenaline plummited and exhaustion kicked in immediately.

Then I started to breastfeed him, while we waited for the pushing contractions to expell the placenta. I'm not sure how long it took before I felt them and pushed it out, my timelines are a bit fuzzy about much of the evening. Sakina checked it to make sure it was okay and had all been expelled. It now resides in the freezer until we decide what to do with it. Yes, really. Then when Dashiell was asleep, PreZ took him to cuddle and hold, while Sakina gave me a couple of stitches. It wasn't a perineal tear though, but more a few small internal lacerations. There was lidocaine for that, though I never even felt the needle for those injections.

And finally recuperation time. PreZ heated me some soup to eat and I drank plenty of fluids, and I felt surprisingly well and alert after that, and the weak shakey feeling went away too. We made the obligatory family phone calls to let the key people know what had happened, and told people online as well, and then finally tried to sleep a little bit. Something that we're still trying to do, almost 2 weeks later.

All in all it was certainly the most painful and tough experience I've ever gone through. But even hours later I was saying that I'd do it all over again... and that's not just the happy hormones talking. Very worthwhile indeed, but definitely tough and exhausting.