It hurts!

I had the OP thing Stacy P talks about and I had back labor. My husband became an expert at jumping up from a half-sleep state and sticking his fist in my lower right side to provide counterpressure.

41 hours total labor. The first 24 hours I did naturally at home, and when I arrived at the hospital, I was not at all dilated. I was given pitocin (inducement) then and managed another four hours without the epidural. By then I was begging for the epidural. At the time, I was one center dilated, after 28 hours of labor. The next eight hours were pain-free bliss in comparison to what came before- and I went from 1 to 10 centimeters painlessly in that time. But having gone thru a whole drip cycle of the epidural, I was completely numb and didn't want my mom and husband to have to hold my legs up for me during pushing, so I declined the second bag of epidural medicine.

It took one hour for the epidural to wear off and by that time, I had started pushing. I felt everything. I pushed for four hours without the epidural. I vomited and swore a lot and flipped myself around against the doctor's advice (but by turning, I finally spun the baby into the correct position-- so I was proven right)-- I cried and made wisecracks and I mostly didn't believe I would ever be able to deliver my daughter.

Then she was in the world, and it was the best moment of my life.