35 weeks!

I will be full in term in just two weeks and my due date is just five weeks away!!! Baby will be here so soon.

I have been seeking encouragement from other mamas who have birthed naturally. The biggest helps have been from my friend Whitney of Leaves of My Tree and my friend Brandi who let me attend her birth. I was there to encourage Brandi but I came away feeling very empowered.

I have been practicing focussing any time that I am in pain, which is often now. The techniques that seem to help me the most are imagining holding Adelaide. I imagine counting her fingers and toes. I imagine kissing her chunky tummy. I imagine Mitchell holding his daughter. Thoughts like these will help me get through labor. These thoughts seem to help me more than Non-Focused Listening and other techniques I have tried.

I am also working on giving into the pain and trusting my body to do what it is designed to do, rather than fight against it. This can be harder than it sounds in a culture so inundated with the idea that birth must be a "medical" event rather than a natural event. Mommas have birthed for thousands of years, all over the world without need for medication.