1 in a Million (literally): At the Hospital...

Nathaniel and I checked into the hospital last night. Nathaniel (rightly, I believe) decided that there was a point where medicine and nature would be offering equal benefits and risks and that we needed to heed that point carefully. As we have no crystal ball to see how everything would really go down and no previous pregnancies on which to base our timeline, the due date seemed like a wise time to judge that equality. Thus, we surrendered to our doctors' request that we induce at 40 weeks... today.

I will abstain from all the gross violations that have already happened, but so far, I am struggling with our decision. The first thing they did was give me an IV port. Having a history of surgeries and a season of excessive medical intervention, IVs are one thing that I absolutely abhor - they put me on the verge of panic! Additionally, they've offered me Ambien to sleep and, seemingly wrestled me with my (very good) decision to refuse psychotropic drugs the night before giving birth. Momentarily, they will be in to hook up the pitocin, which also scares me. I am still committed to doing this without an epidural, but pitocin makes that less likely, as contractions are closer together, more intense, and longer in duration.

We've just met our nurse... she's a naturalist, so that's a MAJOR stress reliever. I would appreciate any prayers, positive thoughts, ritual dances, and/or any other methods for promoting quick and effective delivery.

I guess it's too late to turn back now...