I cried on my husband's shoulder while I tried to process everything. My husband offered me a blessing and I accepted it. Through the blessing I was calmed in knowing I would be safer at home than at a hospital. I knew that if I were to transfer to the hospital at that point, that I would end up hemorrhaging from the interventions from the hospital. These thoughts and feelings were strong and I felt better. I still felt bitter and angry about the audacity this guy had, but the blessing and confirmation I had from the spirit, helped me to feel better.

I decided to lay on my right side on the bed as a precaution since I still had some trepidation over "his" words. At about 7pm Sue Ellen called me back to tell me that this guy felt horrible about what he just did but that he would have felt even worse if he hadn't said anything. He also admitted that he could have handled it better, which we all agreed on. While on the phone with Sue Ellen I got my first contraction, when the second contraction hit at 7:06pm I told Sue. Still thinking I would take a while she said she was heading over to her mothers which is close to us and to keep her updated. We hung up with her and called my birth assistant, she was leaving the grocery store with her husband and was going to go home and drop off groceries and then come right on over. I soon decided to have Joe check me again real quick before things got intense. I wanted the peace of mind in knowing there wasn't a) blood and b) a prolapsed cord. ( I am a worrywart!) Joe saw and felt neither. Joe gave me words of encouragement and reminded me of the numerous times "this guy" had been extremely wrong in his other "predictions". I couldn't argue with that logic, and soon didn't have time to think about " bad things".

I soon had to breathe through my contractions but nothing I couldn't handle. I liked having the freedom of moving around. This was the first time I was able to really try other positions other than being strapped to a bed. I tried kneeling on the floor for awhile while leaning on the bed, which felt good for a bit. However, it wasn't long before I needed to start "running" to the bathroom for "relief" which was more like a balancing act as I waddled with either a chux or a Depends between my legs going back and forth from the bedroom to the bathroom. Soon the toilet was the most comfortable place to be since I was having many BM's already.

As many of you know once hard labor starts time slips away from you. Joe was soon running around like a mad man, he was downstairs checking on the girls making sure a movie was in the VCR, playing, to keep them occupied for a good 2 hours and on the phone with whoever called. I was starting to really vocalize more and more, and moaning through contractions, which never phased the girls. I was needing Joe to hold on to so I could transfer some of the pain on to him, since he was half of what caused this pregnancy. I also needed him to help me focus through contractions as they were getting more intense and lasting longer (we never did time them). All this happened while sitting on the toilet waiting for either Sue Ellen or my BA to get there.

Whenever Joe left me to help the girls out, I was left to sit and stare at the tub, which just kept calling to me. I just kept thinking about all of the descriptive words other women would use to describe how good they felt when they labored in the water. After an intense contraction I called for Joe. As he came into the bathroom with the phone in hand talking to Sue Ellen, I told him to fill the tub, but I grabbed onto him and buried my face into his belly and vocalized really loud before he could. Sue heard me and realized she needed to get here ASAP.

The tub was soon filled and I hopped in and boy did the water feel good. The buoyancy really did help with the pain. Minutes later, sometime after 8pm I heard the door and Joe answered it. It was Sue and I was vocalizing through another contraction. Joe and Sue settled her 3 kids and ours and ran upstairs to help me out. I was gradually tuning things out around me but was still able to talk in between contractions. As each new wave of contractions hit me I kept wishing for an epidural, but I knew I was close. Sue Ellen reminded me that the water was my epidural and started to help coach me through some intense contractions. Sue Ellen wasn't by my side too long before her 1year old daughter started to cry. Sue told me that Cass hadn't eaten yet and was really tired, then she asked if I care that she nursed Cass. I of course didn't care. So she went and grabbed Cass and sat back down beside me with a nursling and picked up where she left off, rubbing my belly and giving me positive affirmations. Sue instructed Joe to pour water onto my belly with a cup because it had helped her during her labor. When Joe started to pour water onto my belly it felt as if he was washing the pain away. It felt so much better.

Somewhere close to possibly 8:30pm I announced I felt pushy. Sue didn't believe me at first since she thought I looked in control. Also at that time another knock came from our door, but this time no one moved from my side. Sue's son had been instructed to open the door. It was my birth assistant. She came right upstairs to the bathroom, got her stuff opened and jumped right in as she asked to hear the baby with the Doppler. I lifted my belly out of the water slightly and she found the heartbeat right away, which sounded nice and strong. As the contractions came I felt the urge to bare down even more and my whole demeanor changed as I worked with what my body was telling me to do. It felt so good to push. It actually didn't hurt anymore when I pushed with the contractions, it just felt right.

My ear suddenly tuned into the side conversation about my positioning. My birth assistant noticed that I would probably need to get out of the tub because my legs weren't open wide enough. I had already figured this out before they had said anything but just hadn't repositioned myself. As I was pushing I could see them get some chux pads ready on the bathroom floor so they could try to move me. I said "NO" in between a contraction, and pulled my left leg out of the tub and draped it over the edge while I lifted my right leg as far back as I could put it all the while balancing on my hands to keep my tailbone off the hard tub surface. It was quite a balancing act.. So as soon as I was repositioned which only took a matter of seconds I pushed again. With this push came the feeling of the head coming out from the pubic bone and a sudden bulging feeling, as I felt Mason's head fill the birth canal. I soon felt a tingling sensation that I assumed was the "ring of fire" I had heard so much about. Trying to keep everyone up to date with my status I announced the "ring of fire" sensation under my breath while I was pushing. (The "ring of fire" really didn't burn for me it just kind of tingle, itched.)

"I see Mason's head!" and "Mason has hair!" Were some uttered words that I briefly caught but didn't fully digest. I soon heard someone tell my husband to support my perineum and to massage it. I felt Joe down there doing something, and it really irritated me, but I was too into pushing to even care to say anything. I soon heard the words "his head is out" I reached down and felt this massive head with hair bulging from between my legs. What an awesome thing to feel! With this new sense of "connection" to my son I was able to finally take a breath and relax a little when things started to go a little awry.

My birth assistant checked for a cord and found one and pulled it over his head with ease. Joe and the BA soon noticed there wasn't enough water in the tub to keep Mason's head emerged. Then they noticed what looked like a hand up by Mason's head while Mason was turning. As Joe reached for the "hand" it was soon realized that it was the cord. Now Mason's face soon hit the air and he tried to take his first breath. Noticing this the BA unplugged the tub, but it wasn't draining fast enough. Mason's head ended up back in the water as my husband saw bubbles come from Mason's nose, all the while I am pushing hard not really knowing what was happening. As soon as the birth assistant could get a good hold she pulled Mason from my body and put him right on my chest. A towel was thrown onto us and we heard him cry right away for but a second. We rubbed and coaxed him to do it again but louder and he did. I could not believe I had him in my arms. He was healthy and crying and pinked up right away. He was covered in vernix and his cord look big and healthy. Mason was gorgeous. I just sat in the draining tub in awe of the miracle that just occurred. I did it! I did all this in about 10 minutes, too!

Sitting in the tub admiring my new miracle, I realized that no pictures or video was taken of the birth. My husband ran and grabbed the video camera and the camera from the bedroom where we had planned to birth; handed the video camera to Sue Ellen and they both started to take pictures. Joe also ran downstairs and brought Sariah (3) and Rachel (2) in to meet their new brother. Sariah didn't like having so many people in the bathroom, so she only peeked in and quickly went back to her movie. Rachel was excited to see mommy holding a baby and wanted to kiss him right away. Joe had to coax her back down stairs while we "finished". Soon the cord had stopped pulsing and the BA instructed us it was time to cut the cord. Joe cut the cord and Mason was freed. Soon after I handed Mason off to his Dad as I got up to squat in the tub to birth the placenta. It came out with one push and was surprised by the pain I had when passing it, which led me to believe I had torn. I was wiped down and moved into the bedroom where I sat with Mason in the rocking chair for our first nursing session. He latched on right away too. We soon started calling family and friends about Mason's arrival. Many were relieved that things went so smoothly, since so many feared for our safety. (There is just no arguing with people when they aren't ready to hear the truth. Sometimes you just have to show them and be an example before they are curious enough to find the truth.)

After some time passed I handed Mason back to his daddy and moved back into the bathroom to shower off. I then moved back into the bedroom to be checked for tears. For some reason I knew I tore, and I blamed myself for not being in more control of my pushing. I ended up with 3 tears, one on each labia and one on my perineum. The labia tears were decided upon as "skid marks" and would heal fine on their own but that the perineum tear would need stitches. My birth assistant called one of her midwife friends and asked her to come and stitch me up. I ended up with 3 very painful stitches. The midwife and my birth assistant soon packed up and left us to bask in our new family.

Sue Ellen, Joe and I sat in the bedroom reliving the birth from each other's perspectives. Sue noted the energy she felt from my belly, when during one of the contractions/pushes Mason started to descend. Joe recalled the panic he felt when he saw bubbles come from Mason's nose. I reiterated the shock I felt on how fast the whole birth experience was and how the pain wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. As we let the day's experience envelope us we soon became tired. Sue Ellen packed up her sleeping children and returned to her family close to 1am.

Alone at last! Joe gathered Sariah and Rachel so they could finally get a closer look at their new brother. Sariah still wasn't sure of this new baby mom was holding while Rachel wanted to hug his head off, as we continually pried them apart. In order to get Sariah to understand a little better who this new baby was, we decided to take out her favorite pregnancy book so she could relate to the pictures. It worked. She soon warmed up to her new brother and wanted to hold him. Soon Joe put the girls to bed and we cuddled for the first time together with Mason on the outside rather than in between us. We could hardly believe we were finally a family of 5. We finally had the son we had been waiting so long for, from the moment Mason revealed his spirit to me before we even conceived, to the moment his body and spirit merged as one; he was Loved and Cherished.

I was finally able to understand how hard Satan works to make a peaceful loving birth environment one that is cold and filled with hatred. As the next day's sun started to rise, I cuddled Mason and reminisced of the previous day's events. My thoughts kept drifting towards that one phone call that could have changed everything. I soon realized that nothing this guy predicted even came true. An epiphany for me was soon reached as I realized that even if he was given this information by some sort of spirit, that I now knew it was not from a friendly spirit. I truly felt that Satan was trying to work through him to get me to go to the hospital. I know in my heart that if I had listen to this "evil" that I would have been in more danger at the hospital than where I was. Pitocin might have been used and I probably would have ruptured. The doctors may have panicked when they saw the cord crimped, causing them to cut Mason's cord too soon ending his oxygen and blood supply, thus causing more interventions with intibation and possible NICU crap, as well as many other possibilities.

I am grateful for the Spirit that guided me to listen to my own instincts. I am also grateful for my husband who was by my side encouraging me every step of the way to do what I felt the most comfortable with, who supported my decisions, and who even took the time to learn right along with me when we wanted to learn of something new. Thank you Joseph, and I Love You!