This is it! Part 2.

For the next 3 hours, while my daughter was in school and my son napped, I progressed rather quickly. My Midwife returned around 2pm and by then I was at 5cm.  My water bag was still in tact so she wanted me to really get going/walk around to try to get it to break.  Basically, do whatever was the least bit comfortable.  She suggested that my husband and I go for a little walk around our complex.  So, we did.  It was nice to walk around, but by that point my contractions were right on top of each other and they were STRONG.  Oh man, they hurt (understatement of the year).  I remember walking around and just literally hanging on my husband when a contraction came on.  And the nausea...  oh the nausea.  I felt like I had to puke.  I was careful not to eat too much earlier that day, but I did eat breakfast and snack a little so I was worried that it might come up.  I told my husband I wanted to go back home... I was really feeling it now.  REALLY.  We walked back into the house and I immediately sat down on the carpet, grabbed our make-shift bucket vomit holder and...  yep.  You know what happened next.  Fortunately it wasn't a lot.  Very little actually.  I remember my midwife saying to me, "now you look like you're in labor" and that made me smile.  It was really happening.  I was actually doing it. 

After about an hour and a half I needed to go lie down or do something to help with the pain and my midwife thought that would be a good time to check me again.  We walked into my room to find my mom on the phone...  confirming her hotel reservation for her and my babies and then, without me having to say a word, she left to pick up my baby girl from school.  It was about 3:30pm and I had dilated to 7cm.  That was the 1st time in all my labors I had gone that far without any pain medication/drugs or interventions.  An accomplishment I am most proud of.  

My mom returned home with my daughter around 4:15 and I was still in my room, in the midst of my transition, (the hardest and most painful contractions) and I was trying desperately not to feel defeated by the fact that my water bag was still intact.  I heard my son wake up from his nap and felt better when my niece ran to pick him up.  I wanted desperately to see him, hold him and tell him good night, but I was so concerned about letting him see me in such an unfamiliar state.  Both my husband and I knew that he would not be happy about coming in for a quick good bye.  Instead, my husband brought our daughter in and we said our good nights.  We explained the baby was coming and her abuela was going to take her and her brother to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner and then to a hotel for a sleep over.  My niece, (sister to the one attending my birth) volunteered to stay at the hotel with them and my sister and brother-in-law joined them for fun and play at Chuck E. Cheese.  Lucky Kiddos.  And from there, I was able to focus, 100% on having my baby.

Mentally, the idea that my water hadn't broke yet was unbearably rough to handle.  When my son was born my labor started with my water breaking so I was not prepared to get this far without it happening yet.  And I knew that until it broke my baby wasn't coming and I had to endure this pain that much longer.  Ahhhh!  My midwife suggested I try sitting on the toilet to encourage it...  sooooo, I did.  Oh man.  oh man, oh man, oooh man.  WORST. PAIN. EVER.  There was absolutely nothing I could do to relax to help handle the pain, except to just wait it out.  She wanted me to sit there for 5 contractions and then she said she'd check me again at 4:30... and we would talk about breaking it.  Something neither of us wanted.  I counted each and every contraction waiting ever so impatiently for #5 so I could get off that damn thing. I couldn't squeeze my husbands hand hard enough, hold onto anything hard enough to transfer the pain.  I was stuck with it and it wasn't going anywhere...  Breathe...  I just had to breathe.  4:30 rolled around, and so did my 5th contraction so we checked again.  This time after she checked me I felt a little bit of fluid leak out.  Just a little, but enough to know that it was amniotic fluid and there was hope yet for it to break on it's own!!!  And with that she told me I was dilated to 9cm.  Almost there!!!!!