When I was 36 weeks pregnant, my midwives asked me to write my perfect birth story. I sat down and wrote out everything I could think of from the time of day my labour started to what I would eat afterwards! As I was writing it, I knew that birth is rarely predictable and that I would be very lucky if it went as perfectly as the story I was writing. Little did I know it would be even better!

I had a wonderful pregnancy, which went by very quickly. I was so prepared for this little one, had read dozens of books and knew what I wanted out of this birth experience. I had been seeing midwives throughout my pregnancy and was very happy with them. We refused the routine 18-week ultrasound since it caused us so much trouble with our first (all unfounded). We were planning a home waterbirth (VBAC) and the pool was set up, the hose ready and my belly cast was hanging on the wall as a focal point. As the end approached, I was getting that "had enough" feeling and just wanted to hold my little one in my arms and find out if I had a son or daughter.

My first inkling that something was going to happen soon was when I was four days "overdue". I had lunch that day, and then promptly threw it up. I was feeling pretty miserable so I made my husband come home from work and took a three-hour nap. I'm so glad I did!

I went to bed that evening thinking maybe I just had a touch of food poisoning or something since nothing else was happening. I was in it for the long haul. My first had been almost two weeks overdue and I was expecting the same this time. At 11:00 that evening I woke up to a contraction. I knew right away that this was it, so I snuck out of bed to get things ready.

By 1:30 I needed my husband with me, so I went upstairs to wake him. After a few confused minutes he finally figured out what was going on and jumped up to help me get the plastic sheet on the bed. We then went down to the living room so that I could labor on my birth ball for a while.

At this point my mom, who was here to look after my two-year- old daughter during the birth, came upstairs to get a fruit plate ready for the midwives. I decided that it felt best to sit on the edge of the couch and rock my hips through the contractions. I labored like this for a couple of hours, pausing to snack on fruit between contractions, for about two hours. At that point we called our midwives.

Penny (midwife) arrived about half hour later and asked if I wanted an internal. I said I did. She said that I was three to four centimeters and that the bag of waters was bulging. About halfway through her sentence I heard a "pop". She later told me that she had no intention of breaking it. I was relieved to find that this didn't make the contractions any more painful.

I moved to my birth ball and labored there until about 7:00 a.m. I was amazed at how normal I felt between contractions. My first was breech and I had intense back labour that never went away. I asked Penny to let me know where I was at because the pool was starting to seem like a good idea. She announced that I was a good six and I raced up the stairs, threw off my clothes and hopped in. The warm water was really great for relaxing me between contractions! I actually fell asleep a few times. Django (hubby) sat behind me on a chair and I leaned back against his legs. At this point the contractions were actually getting painful whereas before they were just kind of intense feeling. I tried using visualization and found it wasn't working at all. Active awareness seemed to be working the best and the window was opened so that I could focus on the sounds outside too.

Just before 9:00 I started feel the need to push. Every time that urge took over my body I would growl. I couldn't believe how powerful that urge was! Penny decided to call our other midwife Joy and tell her to head over. Then she checked me and said I was almost complete, just a lip all around. She tried to push it away with the next contraction, but I screamed bloody murder. That hurt the worst, far more than crowning! I was still basically eight centimeters at this point so I was trying not to push with contractions. During the next two or three contractions I started to fight the pain and moaned my way through them. I was kind of floating on my back. My husband held up my body by leaning over me from behind and massaging my lower back. Hayley (daughter) came upstairs at some point and gave me a kiss. She looked a little scared so Grandma took her downstairs again. She told my mom that I was "making too much noise".

I was getting a little worried because the pain was so bad and I thought I had a little longer to go since I still had a lip all the way around my cervix. It turns out that those two or three really intense contractions had finished opening my cervix and pushed the baby way down. I was so relieved to find out that I could go with my pushing urge now, since it was becoming impossible not to. When the next contraction stared I got into a squat holding on to my husband's hands for support and pushed. I felt something inside me move! I did another contraction in a squat like this and started feeling cramps in my bum muscles so I leaned back into my husband's arms and pushed that way. We both help my legs up and that seemed to work the best.

I pushed like this for about an hour, occasionally getting into a squat to push. The water made it very easy to get into other positions. Joy arrived after about an hour of pushing. She got a cool washcloth to wipe my forehead with. It felt sooo nice. I was doing four or five pushes with each contraction and Penny finally said that the baby had brown hair. I reached down to feel the baby. The little head felt like a walnut, all wrinkled and soft. I said that it didn't feel like a baby to me, but I was assured that it was indeed a baby! Penny listened to his heart and said that it was perfect, hadn't even faltered the entire time, even with the little head being squished so tightly.

At this point I decided that I had had enough and I wanted my baby now! I started to push with every ounce of strength I had and was growling loudly with each push. I could hear Penny and Joy whispering about my rigid perineum and was thinking that I really didn't care if I ripped anymore, that I just wanted my baby. I started to fall asleep between every contraction and wake up only long enough to push. Finally after about half an hour of this Penny said that the baby was crowning. I was surprised that I didn't feel any burning. It turned out that he crowned for a good twenty minutes. Penny said the next day that her arm was hurting from supporting my perineum for so long. I had to work my butt off for every millimeter of head! I kept thinking that I must have a tear by now. I even had to work to get the baby's little nose out. By now my mom and two-year-old were watching too. My daughter kept saying, "Come on, baby". I remember thinking that I wanted to be as calm as possible so that she didn't get too scared and miss her sibling being born.

Once the head was out I waited for the next contraction and pushed as hard as I could twice and the shoulders popped right out. I reached down and lifted my perfect little baby onto my chest. From the pictures my mom took it looked as though I was surprised that it was actually a baby! I just stared in amazement for a few minutes and listened to him cry for a minute. Then my mom asked me what it was. I'd completely forgotten to look! I lifted up the blanket covering him and announced that it was a boy. Then I realized that I was looking at the umbilical cord. I moved it and saw that it was indeed a boy.

My daughter rushed over to the tub and asked the baby if he would like a drink of water. At this point both my mom and my husband started crying. I was still in shock that it was over and that I had a son! We cuddled in the water for a while and Django went to go put the "Big Sister" shirt that Hayley had made on our daughter.

The midwives pulled the baby and I out of the tub and I lay down on the bed. I was a little worried about the condition on my perineum and was very happy when Penny announced that I wouldn't need a single stitch. I only had a small abrasion and no tears! We chose this time to let everybody know our son's name would be Aeden Brandt Dunn. My mom had been pestering me for the past five months to tell her, and I was glad when she said that she liked it. Aeden lay on my stomach and we felt the cord pulsing for quite a while. I felt the urge to push and pushed gently twice and the placenta plopped out on to the carefully placed pad on the bed. I was worried that it would hurt, but it feel great when it came out…instant relief. Penny ended up having to pull out a little of the membranes that had stayed inside and it hurt when it was dragging over my sore perineum.

We clamped his cord and I cut it. He was having a little trouble with mucous so Penny put some rescue remedy on his forehead and rubbed his back a few times. Hayley jumped up on the bed and decided that she had waited long enough to nurse and just helped herself. We all chuckled and Joy said that it would help my uterus to clamp down anyways. Everybody took a guess on Aeden's weight and I said nine pounds. Both midwives though he was about eight-and-a- half. Penny put him into the sling/scale and announced that he was indeed eight pounds, fifteen ounces.

Aeden had a large hematoma on the back of his head from spending so much time on my perineum so we decided to go with the Vitamin K injection. It didn't seem to bother him much, but I hated that he had to have a needle already. I put on a frozen pad with calendula on it and threw on my housecoat. Aeden started to root around a little so I sat on the bed to nurse him. He latched on and nursed for a few minutes. I was very relieved that he was a natural nurser after all the troubles I had with my daughter.

Penny drew a bath for Aeden and I and we hopped in. We turned the bathroom lights off so they wouldn't bother his eyes. My mom brought me some apple juice since I was pretty dehydrated. I gulped that down and then drank three more glasses too. It was amazing to watch Aeden in the bath! He uncurled his limbs and looked around at everybody. He moved his arms and legs very slowly and it looked like he was swimming! I started to feel a little dizzy and we got out of the bath so that I could eat some wraps my mom had made.

Django snuggled up to his son for a while and I lay down on the bed. I decided that I was feeling pretty gross and Penny checked out my abdomen. We decided that I needed to go pee, which I did for about three minutes straight. I felt much better after this! Penny and Joy tidied up everything and emptied the pool while Aeden and I cuddled in bed. Django and my mom helped tidy up everything. An hour later you would never know that a baby had been born there!

Penny and Joy came in for a few pictures and some hugs before heading out (poor Penny hadn't slept in days and had attended a birth just before ours). At this point my brother arrived and brought a blanket and pillow downstairs to the couch for me. I dozed on the couch for a bit and woke up feeling good. I was amazed at how good I felt compared with how I felt after the c-section with my first. The next-door neighbors were having a birthday party for their daughter. It seems that they could hear me when I was pushing so everybody knew the baby was here. I held him up over the fence and showed him off. Everybody agreed that he was incredibly handsome.

Aeden is an extremely calm baby. We've only heard him actually cry twice now at a week old. He has an amazing array of sounds though, and we love his little chirps, squeaks and grunts. Hayley adores her little brother and constantly wants to hold him. Tandem nursing is going well, and Hayley likes to hold Aeden's hands while they nurse. This birth was an amazing healing experience for me. I am very proud of myself and amazed at what my body can do!