My son Sam was born at 8:26 p.m. on May 19, 2006.

I went into labor at 12:30 a.m. on May 18. My husband and I had gone out for dinner. Assuming it would be our last "date" before we became three, I'd shaved my legs (hardly an easy thing at that stage) and dressed up a little. I think I'd slept a little over an hour when the contractions woke me up. I managed to fall back to sleep until a little after three. I stayed in bed, but had to pee frequently. My constant movement woke my husband up at about 4:00. We started to time my contractions, and called the midwife about an hour later. They were two to five minutes apart and lasting about a minute.

Diane came with Eva (her assistant) and Meadow (another assistant in the practice, taking over for Eva who was leaving for the weekend). The set up the birth tub and their equipment and Diane checked my cervix. I was about 3 centimeters dilated, only one more than I'd been for over a week.

My husband went to the grocery store and then made breakfast for everyone - pancakes. Then the midwives went home to get some sleep.

(To be continued)