WHAT?! You're going NATURAL?!!!!!!

So we met with our doula yesterday afternoon to make a birth plan for when this little guy decides it's time to come out. What is a doula, you ask? She's there for extra support, whatever that may mean for each individual. For us, she's going to be extra support for Chris, who'll be my support. She has ideas for different labor positions and breathing techniques, massage techniques and aromatherapy - basically, her goal is to help us have the kind of labor we have in mind.

Which includes...dum dum DUM... a medicated-free birth. WHAT?!! you say? No epidural?!! Are you CRAZY?!!!!

Well yes, maybe a little bit.

Everyone seems to have an opinion about epidurals. I've received various advice from everyone including my midwife (who supports a natural birth) to women passing me on the street ("Get the epidural as soon as you walk in the door, honey!").

But the bottom line, of course, is what is best for us. What makes us most comfortable. Now, I am a self-proclaimed Wuss. A wuss with a capital W. I get a blister on my foot and I run crying to Chris to put a Band-Aid on it. I have NO pain tolerance whatsoever. So what makes me think that this is the best option?

For one, childbirth is a natural occurance. The pain is painful, of course, (duh) but it is a good pain. It's accomplishing something. Like when you have a really awesome workout and your muscles are so sore the next day that you can barely stand, but it feels good at the same time because you know how powerful your body is and what it is capable of doing. I plan on going into childbirth with this same mentality - not viewing the pain as a bad thing, something to be "fixed", but as a tool to feel powerful and prideful in what my body is doing: bringing our child into the world.

That said, I have promised Chris (who is not so eager about seeing me in unbearable pain) that above all else, I will be flexible. Our end goal, no matter how we get there, is to have a healthy Baby Boy. The rest of the journey is just that - a journey, not the destination. No matter how it happens, we are leaving the hospital with our tiny little boy, which is the most amazing thing in the world!