I had a great birthing experience.  I began to have contractions after dinner a night before I was supposed to be induced at 41 weeks.  I was thinking it was just gas.  My husband decided to time them and realize they were about 6 minutes apart.  I felt silly as they were not that painful, just uncomfortable and hard to breath for 30 seconds each.  At midnight we went to bed and the contractions were about 5 minutes apart.  My husband didn’t believe me when I was saying I was ok and made me say “pickles and ice cream” every time I had a contraction, saying that he would believe me if I had no problems speaking.  At 1 am we called the hospital and they told us to come in.  I took a full shower, run around the house turning all the lights, fans and appliances off, up and down the basement stairs.  I still felt silly when we got to the hospital, where they measured me still at about 3 cm.  They projected a very long day of labour.  At about 5 am contractions started to be much more painful and at 6:30 I asked for epidural which I got at 7:30 or so.  I was very nervous about it as I have back issues, but it was the best thing that I’ve done.  Within short time I dilated to 8 cm and even the doctors were surprised at how fast it happened.  They broke my water and at 10:30 I was ready to push.  I really enjoyed pushing as i felt it was a hard work that would meet satisfying results.  I requested a mirror to watch my progress to the amuzement of the nurse and intern attending my labour.  An hour later my daughter was born, and it was amazing to really feel giving birth without excruciating pain.  They placed her on my chest, I remember seeing her beautiful face for the first time.  She tried to nurse right away, I think the rest is a blur.  After they cleaned us both up, I got very very hungry and was able to eat only once they brought me to my room.  The only annoying thing was that it took longer than I would like to see my little girl after they took her for all checkups.  I did have to get episiotomy and that feeling of being cut was very very creepy, i had a few stiches that were painful to heal.  I also remember slight numbness in one leg for a day, but it might be not from epidual but related to my sciatica.  It was panful to sit for about a week, but I would repeat the same experience in a heartbeat.