The Short List

We learned our lesson very early on - do not tell anyone, including your family, the names you are thinking of naming your child. It's not their decision and their input will not be helpful.

So, to that end, we have developed a short list of names, are vetting them in our own way and will announce our pick soon after it's owner is born.

And no, we will not give you even a teeny tiny hint.

Your Doubtfulness Makes Me Even More Stubborn

Just so you know, the more I feel like you doubt that this will be a natural birth, the stronger my conviction that it indeed will be.

Each day I get closer to my baby's day of birth, the stronger my conviction that:

1. My body can do this.
2. Woman have been doing this for thousands of years with significantly less and worse health care than I have had my entire life.
3. A hospital birth will take away from me everything that I am looking forward to with this birth.
4. My husband will be the perfect partner for me in this new experience and together we will make it through strong and healthy.
5. The majority of reasons that people end up with medical interventions can be easily avoided by not starting down a medical path in the first place.
6. Birth was not meant to be confined on it's back with an i.v. in a hospital bed in a cold room with strangers moving in and out.
7. This is the way it was meant to be.

So step off.