So, I thought you folks might appreciate some of the story behind the birth?
Let me give you a little timeline

Sunday:
1:30am: Amber wakes in the night, and has contractions about 20 minutes apart. She didn't bother to wake Dave, b/c Brackston and Hicks have been so prevelant and often that they've become quite commonplace.

4am: Amber falls back asleep

8am: We wake up, and Amb is still having contractions about 20 minutes apart. She hasn't bothered to tell Dave yet.

11am: During church, we got a little distracted, the contractions were 2 minutes apart, but still very reasonable as far as the pain and intensity goes. We didn't really think anything significant was happening, b/c who starts at 2 minutes apart?

1pm: We start cooking some indoor BBq for our Jr. High leadership team. Amber heads to the bedroom to deal with the ever increasing intensity of the contractions. Dave starts to have an inkling that there might actually be something happening. (duh)

2:30 pm: Amber, apologizing profusely, announces that it's probably time to head out to the hospital. Everyone in the meeting grudgingly accepts her apology... well ok, we all kind of jumped up and Dave started running around like a moron, trying to get everything together. Everyone ends up on the front lawn, kinda standing around with weird, "I'm so excited, but don't really know what to do" looks on their faces.

3 pm: We arrive at the hospital and Amb gets hooked up to a heart rate monitor (for baby) Everything is looking good.

4pm: she's found to be 1cm dilated. She starts walking around, getting this thing moving (we didn't want to get sent home)

5pm: Amb is examined again, and found to be 2cm's. Excellent progress for only an hour.
We're officially admitted to the hospital, and moved to a birthing suite. (sweet)
(disclaimer: everything is getting a little hazy as far as timelines go)

9 or 10 ish: Amber's contractions have never backed down from 2 minutes apart, and have got very intense. She often gets no rest between any of them. She's been handling it really well, and we're all very proud. Around 10 she makes kind of a funny noise, and it seems that that one felt a little different. Felt like a pushing contraction. We're all quite optimistic, and a little excited. When the nurse said that Amber was only 3 cm, it took a lot of wind out of her sails. We all felt it. She started thinking about narcotics of some sort at that point.

10:30pm: Amber headed to the shower to try and relax. It worked until she got hit with more continuous contractions that never seemed to end. She got a shot of Demoral. It made her quite groggy, and say some funny things, but didn't really help for long.

3am: Demoral pretty much worn off for quite a while and the contractions still piled on top of each other and Amb doing everything she can. She was examined again and found to be 5cm. Only half there, and Amb pretty much wiped out. She decided it was time for an epidural.

3:30am: Epidurals are awesome! Such relief and sleep became possible! We all had a nap until...

5am: We woke up and Amb was completely dilated, the nurses decided to just let things take their course and let baby descend on his own.

5:40am: It's time to push, with Baby only a few inches away from the outside world.

6:35am: Caleb is born! It was a very long haul. We've become big fans of the epidural.

Recipe for successful labour: Healthy Baby, healthy Mom.
Mission accomplished!