The Sixth Year Is Here!

                         Here I am in labor, in the horse trough......

Today, six years ago I was in labor. It was about this time I had already been in labor for 12 hours and my midwife came to my house and gave me the unsettling news that I was only 5 centimeters dilated. Me, being the capricorn that I am, had prepared for this moment. Lots of preparation. 8 months of hypnobirthing training. 9 months of bikram pregnancy poses. Perineal stretching. All that was missing was an indoor toilet. We even had the horse trough our midwives brought to our house days before,  filled with lovely warm water for me to bliss out in while I was having "pressure surges". Painful contractions were not going to be an experience I was going to have. I had my native american flute music all queued up on my mp3 player. Soup was made for all my "birth helpers". I was ready!

Ok, now I am laughing about it.

Perhaps all my preparation prevented me from having a birth with complications. I did indeed have a home birth. My midwife tells me it was a very "normal" birth. 3 1/2 hours of pushing and 29 hours total, start to finish. It was not pain-free, and it was not easy. None of my labor preparations worked out how I thought. But, my little honey child came bursting out, snorting and crying in one massive push (because I was convinced I was dying at that point, and could not fathom ONE more contraction!) and all that hard work has been worth every single nanosecond to have the force of nature that is my most precious gift, my daughter. In the end, everything about her has been better than I ever expected or imagined. Happy Birthday to my sweet daughter, and happy birth day to me!