How to know how far dilated you are?

[Meluchja]

Mel, It is very interesting. If I ever had another baby, I would definately do it again.

I kept feeling my cervix right up until the night I went into labor. I had lots of pre labor for a few weeks. I would say the week before he was born I really started to tell some differences, the lips of my cervix were feeling thiner and thiner. Then day before he was born, I would have said I was about 5cm dilated, I could put my two fingers inside the rim as far as they could seperate. Then the night it all happened, I woke up with a niggle of pain, so I went back to sleep, then about 20minutes later another but I still didn't know if it was "it". So I decided to have a shower to have another feel in there. It was then I instantly knew it was on for real, I could not feel a thing other than a hard lump right near the opening of my bits. There was no more "volcano" or "lips" as I had described it earlier, I was obviously 100% effaced, it felt amazing. All I could feel was my babies head, he was definately on the way. And 3 hours later, he was born, got to love pre labor!!

It was such an amazing experience, I would definately do it again.