I was troubled and anxious when I learned I was pregnant with my third baby.  I was overwhelmed, tandem nursing my nine month old son and 26 month old daughter.

My husband Kevin hugged me and said, "Now you can have the homebirth you always wanted."  That made me feel better, and I asked him how he would feel if we had the baby in water.  He laughed and said, "Can you even see normal from where you are?"

My pregnancy was healthy and beautiful.  I began taking red raspberry leaves on the advice of my midwife, and didn't have the anemia I was plagued with during my other two pregnancies.  I gained a good healthy 50 pounds and for the first time, went beyond my due date.

Keven works at 3:00am.  Ten minutes before the alarm went off I woke to go to the bathroom.  Not unusual.  When the alarm went off, I needed to go again.  That was unusual.  I turned on the light and saw a little bit of blood.  I called my midwife, Sherri, and sent Kevin to work with the promise that I would call him if it was anything.

My children slept, so the house was quiet and dark.  I went down to wait for Sherri, pacing and pacing until I remembered walking speeds up labor.  I sat down until she arrived.

We went upstairs to the guest room because the children were in the big bed.  My contractions were mild, and I thought Sherri would tell me I was around four centimeters dilated.  She announced I was at eight, and we needed Kevin back.  She said I was in the thick of labour, and it wouldn't get any more intense.  I thought she was crazy.  This was pleasure.

Alone, while Sherri called her assistant, I experienced each contraction and had deep thoughts, and began to shiver a bit.  I wanted to take a bath and get warm, but Sherri said it would speed things up.  I waited till Kevin arrived, and Sherri ran the water for me.

While we waited Kevin and I practiced breathing.  What was darn serious business with my previous births was plain funny with this one.  We would try, lose count, laugh, start over, lose count, give up, wait for the next contraction, then repeat the whole thing.

The bath was ready and we walked to the bathroom together.  Just standing changed the entire nature of my contractions, from mild to powerful, and I had two, close together.  I didn't take my night shirt off, but I stepped into the tub.  Standing there, it felt too hot.  I had another contraction.  I put my hand down and felt something soft.  I thought certainly I was having a prolapsed uterus, a baby could not come out with so little effort!  "Sherri, I feel something," I called.

"It's just the baby's head," she answered calmly, so I didn't become alarmed.  Kevin helped me put one foot on the bath mat, and as I lifted the other, and shifted my weight, my water broke and the baby's head whooshed out at the same time.

Sherri and Kevin lowered us to a squat, and Sherri helped me ease the baby the rest of the way out.  Sherri laughed, "You didn't even grunt."

We settled into bed again.  It had only been an hour since my first trip to the bathroom.  My beautiful little girl, Logan Lorayne Honea weighed 8lbs, 12 oz.

Maybe this birth was so easy because it was my third one.  Or because I was at home, comfortable and free to do what I wanted.  Or because I had been drinking red raspberry leaf tea, recommended by midwives everywhere, for a good, strong, healthy uterus and baby.  Whatever the reason, it was a simple, happy, quirky-as-any birth.