October 27, 2009. 9 months pregnant (or 10, depending on who you ask to do the math for you).

This morning I woke up as usual after a fitful night of trying to find a comfortable sleeping position. My husband was outside working and loading up the truck with old building materials we planned on taking to the landfill.

I helped him with the lighter stuff and then we were on our way. After that task was completed we headed into the city which is about a 30 minute drive. We ate lunch and visited with extended family we hadn’t seen for awhile. Walking into the restaurant I started to feel different. This was our first child so I really didn’t know what to expect when contractions did start but they were easy to handle and coming about every 45 minutes anyway so I didn’t think too much about it.

I mean, we were excited but we didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves. After visiting for a bit with family we went to the grocery store. Contractions now were every 15 minutes and still not unbearable. After we got home we rested for a little bit and then I got this urge to clean the whole house.

I noticed the contractions getting a little harder and closer together but I knew I needed to stay relaxed and enjoy this process. Once contractions were about 4 minutes apart around 1AM on October 28th, we knew we didn’t have much longer.

I had been taking baths about every 2 hours all night long because the warm water helped keep me from getting tense and it relaxed me even more. I had also done plenty of walking around and moving however I could to keep myself from tensing up.

My body knew what it was doing and I had studied enough to know what was happening but it’s different going through it.

Around 1:45AM the pain was getting pretty intense in my lower back so I walked around some and squatted by the end of the bed. My husband tried counter-pressure techniques to help me through the contractions but there wasn’t much relief. I decided I wanted to take another bath.

In the bath I felt the baby’s head getting closer and closer to being born. At around 3:10AM I decided I needed to get out of the bath immediately. Everything changed and I knew it was time to push. We made it back to our bedroom which is just down the hall. I wanted to be on the bed in some manner but I could not get up since it is rather high.

My husband sat on the floor by our bed and I was leaning over him and I felt the urge to push once. I pushed a little as I felt I should.

Nothing.

Another contraction comes almost immediately after the previous and I felt the same urge. Nothing. The third time was, again, almost immediate and I push a little… next thing I know there is a baby on the towels below where I was squatting. My husband didn’t even know he was born until I moved and told him!

I had planned on my husband catching the baby but he was born all at once and much faster than I thought would happen. Baby was born face up (thus all the lower back pain!) and he ended up being 10 pound and 21 1/2 inches long.

BIG baby and my first at that! Baby went straight to breast and nursed like a pro – and 8 months later he still does!

Placenta was delivered about 15 minutes later and we cut the cord after it stopped pulsing. I took a bite of the placenta to help stop bleeding and then we planted it with a new tree we had just for the occasion.

We didn’t know the gender as we believe ultrasounds to be more detrimental than they are worth. We had no assistance and while we had prepared ourselves for everything and studied everything there is nothing quite like having your body take control and have the baby the way it was intended.

We did no prenatal exams or testing either and I never even took a pregnancy test. When you are pregnant, you know. Why bother verifying that? We believe that in other countries from conception to delivery is taken as a natural process and interference isn’t necessary.

I think a woman’s intuition will kick in if there is a problem with baby in utero and she will decide what to do at that point. Unassisted birth was amazing and I will do it the same way with all my children. I felt safe and comfortable and at no point did I have doubts or get scared.

I thought I might back out because of fear but a woman’s body is very powerful and can handle much.