I was 38 weeks along, the day after Easter 2007. I started to feel kind of tired and bloated the day before and figured it was because I ate too much candy! ;) All night long I was tossing and turning and not able to get comfortable but what else was new after being so pregnant and not being able to find a "good spot" in the middle of the night (except in the refrigerator).
I woke up early and got out of bed and drank some coffee. My husband Beeg was getting ready for work. I was talking about preparing for my friend to come over and do a belly casting. I went up to pee and noticed some brownish streaks ion the tissue paper (denial)..."must be nothing, this baby isn't coming until 41.5 weeks! He was my first."
8AM- I went back downstairs to tell Beeg about the streaks and then felt more wetness. I reached into my pajamas and between my legs to pull out this giant glob of yellow/brown mucous slimy stuff and just held it in my hand-- amazed at how much there was! My husband turned a beautiful shade of pale white and asked me what that was. Still in denial I claimed not to know it was my mucouse plug. Then he looked it up in the book to confirm. I said, "well, don't worry it could still be days, just go to work". He said, "well dont you think we should call karen and Christy"? I said, "well, okay but let's not over react here." (still in denial) Karen and Christy said no big deal, it should be a day or more. Just go on "as usual". So we did for an hour until 9AM- "POP" and "SPLASH"!!!! Out gushed my water all over the bottom stairs. There went my reality check...I guess this baby is coming today afterall!!! My husband ran out after realizing that we didn't have all of the "stuff" on the homebirth list. He headed out to 4 different stores to get the 4 things missing while my friend rushed over to do the belly casting...PS: (we never did get that casting or a fish net).
10AM-My contractions started mildly for about an hour and I felt the dull aches every 10-15 miuntes or so. But after an hour of that I was having strong contractions that came 5 minutes apart.
12noon-Beeg called Christy and she said she would be right over. I was 3 minutes apart when she had gotten there. I thought this baby might just pop out any second now. In our Baby/Body/Birth classes all the birth stories taught us that each birth was different. My mom said that she went out to the movies and took long walks during her contractions. There was no film or park time for this lady! I was on all fours just moaning and breathing through the cramps. It happened so fast. I think Christy must have thought I was far along because I heard her tell Karen to come on over quickly...that was at 2pm. Well, my sweet little boy was born the next morning at 1:39am. WOW!!!
It turned out that I went right into active labor and skipped the slow stage. The whole labor birth was amazing and beautiful and perfect.

I remember thinking the whole time that this really wasn't "as bad" as most people made it out to be. I kept waiting for the "bad" part but just kept saying to myself "this I can Handle". Yes, it hurt here and there and yes I moaned and whaled and grunted and groaned but that was what I needed to do to get my boy into this world. Once I explained that to my husband that I was okay and just needed to make those unbelievable noises and grip his hand painfully, he starterd to relax more. He was worried seeing me like that he said later but it was what I needed to do. I used tyhe aquadoula 4 times within the 13 hour labor. It got too hot after a while. I needed hands on my low back at all times, silence, no smells, no talking,sitting on the toilet backwards mostly or being on all fours. When my son was coming out, I hopped into the pool and was holding onto the side. They told me to slow down but the "ring of fire" was too intense and i just had to PUSH harder instead of breathing through it. OUT came my beautiful perfect boy into this world. He was loved immediately.
--Lauren Buckley, L.Ac.
<mailto:laurenbuckley@yahoo.com>