With this pregnancy, Jeremy and I had different plans and thoughts on labor and delivery than we did with Chloe. Overall, it was a much better experience at the midwife's than at the hospital. I'm not at the point where I will say I would do it all over again, but I'm sure eventually I will. I started having contractions regularly Tuesday at 12:40am. I skipped the 7 & 5 min. ones and went straight to 3 minutes apart. After an hour of those, I called the midwife to let her know we were going to head that direction. We got there around 2:45 and got ourselves settled in. The birthcenter is so nice, it is like a huge bedroom with plenty of couches and chairs. I was only at a 3 at that time. So we waited a little while. At 4:50 I was dialated enough that she broke my water. The contractions kept getting stronger and I began to question whether we had made the right decision since I couldn't get drugs at the birthcenter. After she broke my water, I went and sat in the jacuzzi tub for a while (where I stayed until it was time to push). I felt so bad for Jeremy and his mom. As the contractions got stronger, I went from my breathing to warrior cries to real cries. No matter how hard a begged, no one could get me the drugs I wanted! When Nancy had left the room and I told Jeremy and Deena, "Quick, she's out of the room. Let's go to the hospital!" I was too far along to take any drugs, but I didn't know that at the time. At one point Nancy told me that I didn't really want any drugs, they weren't good for me or the baby. Dead serious I asked, "How bad would they affect him?" When she checked me for the last time, she told me to hang in there, I would be having this baby within 5 minutes. That was great news! After about 4-5 good pushes, Logan came out! Jeremy got to catch him and cut the umbilical cord! In the pictures of the last post he looks really purple, I think because the cord was wrapped around him pretty tight. Logan Steele Carpenter was born at 6:18am (after just 5 1/2 hours!) weighing 8 lbs even and 21" long. We weren't expecting him to be so big! But I didn't need an episiotomy and I didn't tear! I rested at the birthcenter for a couple hours and then we came home. It really was a great experience. Nancy is so clean and neat there was hardly any mess and it was such a calm atmosphere. Recovery has been great. I haven't needed any pain medicine and have been up and around the house. Deena has been with us since Sunday and it has been so nice to not worry about cooking or cleaning and just having that needed extra support. And Chloe loves having Gramma here to play with! Tuesday night Logan slept 7 hours- such a considerate child! Last night he only slept about 5 hours, but that still makes a great difference for me! He is so peaceful and content, truly a great baby. He makes plenty of noises but really only cries when he's cold from being changed. Chloe is my biggest helper! She gets me water all the time, helps throw away his diapers, wants to hold him all the time, gives him kisses constantly, and prays for him almost everytime he starts to fall asleep. She is so excited to be our big helper that we haven't run into jealousy issues. Dealing with 2 children really is a great juggling act, but I am loving every minute of it!