We were assisted in the birth by our wonderful midwife Alice and my best friend Dania. Labour started about a week earlier and continued with contractions (painless, but present) every four to ten minutes right up until 1:30 AM on Thursday morning when my first water broke, precipiating "real" contractions (ha). Everything went very smoothly; we walked around the neighborhood (up & down the hills until I thought I was going to die) for a few hours, came back in and had some breakfast at about 6 AM. At 7:30 my waters broke again, surprise, surprise and we were moving then. I went from being dilated 6 to a full 10 by 8:45. Then we started the pushing (which is where things got intense). I don't remember too much for about the next hour or so since I was very internal, almost like I was watching myself labour, but I DO remember them making me walk the staircase with the baby crowning to get him to shift into a position where he could be born since he was stuck sideways, neither posterior nor anterior (I hated everyone at that time). Anyway, I made it up & down 14 stairs and he was born 2 pushes later. My dearest husband was supporting me from behind and Dania & Alice caught him and handed him to me - he was soooooo beautiful and angry.

He only cried for a minute and then settled down at my breast and started looking around. The placenta was born a few minutes after; there were 2 sacs, so it's possible that Corbin may have had a twin for a little while. We're he happiest family on earth right now! There are some pictures on our website at www.angelfire.com/pq/trainedpshychotic/corbin.html

Our little wonder is now almost 8 months old and crawling, furniture cruising and getting into all kinds of trouble!

Gale, Josh & Corbin