During our second trimester your poppa had to leave for about six weeks on an exercise to the Philippines, so it was just you, me and the dogs hanging out at home. After poppa returned, you and I made your first trip across the ocean to go back to Texas to visit friends and family. It was while I was home that we received some really bad news that your poppa had been assigned to a special unit that would be a back up for deployment to Afghanistan. Part of the training would take place in California right during the time we were expecting you to be born. We were so sad that he might miss your arrival.

I told Archie I would not make it upstairs to labor and delivery and I needed to get back in the car. I got back on my knees and I felt and overwhelming urge to push. I told him to go in and call someone down because she felt like she was coming.

“It is not only that we want to bring about an easy labor, without risking injury to the mother or the child; we must go further. We must understand that childbirth is fundamentally a spiritual, as well as physical, achievement.” Grantly Dick-Read, 1953

For a couple of weeks before giving birth I had practice contractions throughout the day, every day. Side note, as part of my hypnobirthing training I will be calling several birthing terms by different names such as ‘contractions’ are ‘surges and ‘bloody show’ is ‘birthing show’. These terms were all used to keep my mind positive.

This surprised me because through my pregnancy I imagined myself laboring in the bathroom for the majority of my time home....