On June 1, 2017 we welcomed Nathan into the world. We had spent nine months waiting for his arrival although we did not know whether he would be a "he" or a "she", and as first time parents we did everything we could to prepare for our new baby which included packing a hospital bag for his due date of May 25, 2017. I had enlisted the support of three incredible midwives who guided me with knowledge and reassurance throughout my pregnancy which was fairly easy. The plan was for a natural hospital birth. One week following the much anticipated due date at around 10:30PM, after my husband was already fast asleep, I lay in bed and began to feel what I thought were contractions. For the next 8 hours I timed my contractions which were ranging from 8-15 minutes apart. When my husband woke up after a restful night of sleep, he was excited to learn that the baby was on its way and that it had waited till the morning to initiate its appearance...."not quite" I said. As contractions continued to come, now decreasing in intervals to 5-10 minutes apart, together we drove to a pre-scheduled appointment with the Midwife. As I was convinced that I was going to have the baby at a moment, I threw the hospital bag (with enough supplies to last us one full post-apocalyptic month), into the car. The Midwife broke the news that not only was I only 3cm dilated, but that the baby might only show up in 48 hours. Her advice was to go home and get some sleep and labour at home as long as possible. Sleep? I was hoping to leave her office with a blessing to head straight to the hospital for an unplanned epidural. Apparently my pain threshold was much less than I had thought. I returned home where my contractions continued to vary in frequency. early afternoon we drove to a pre-scheduled ultrasound where my contractions began to intensify. I was reassured that the baby was doing fine and so, we returned to our home. I filed the bath with water and continued to time my contractions which seemed to be all over the place ranging from 5-10 minutes in frequency. At 630PM, 20 hours after after feeling the initial contraction, I decided that I had had enough. I called my Midwife to tell her that I was heading to the hospital for an epidural and would be fine spending the next two days there if needed. We spend down the highway at 150 kmh as the hospital which my Midwives were affiliated with was a 45 minutes drive away following a mid-pregnancy move. We arrived in 20 minutes. I wobbled to the door, my contractions now 2 minutes apart. I was on a bed when my Midwife walked in at 7:30PM, 'I want an epidural...now!". She took one looks and said "You're 9cm, the baby is coming so there's no time for an epidural". After 45 minutes of pushing, with the incredible support of my husband and my Midwife team, Nathan was born.