I show right away and have already grown out of my clothes, and lucky for me my sister gave me all of her old maternity clothes which is great because she's a wonderful hippie so they all look nicer than my non-maternity clothes.  I grow so fast because I am 5'1" and 110 pounds and the baby has nowhere to go but out.

Pregnancy is like 9 months of meditation practice for me, and this time it is particularly challenging.  I spend every day keeping my muscles calm and relaxed and practicing deep breathing as a kind of walking meditation of motherhood.  I also spend every day cleaning, homeschooling, teaching diplomacy to young children, working as a part-time web administrator, and finding the time to think of more free dates with my husband.  I actually don't enjoy pregnancy at all... it is a necessary step to holding a cute, cuddly baby and seeing it grow.  But I do enjoy the challenge or relaxation.

I have had two drug-free child births.  The first one still ended up with intervention, but it could have ended up as a Cesarean if I had been drugged or had not been mentally prepared to handle the pain.  24 hours of labour is quite long enough.  The second baby actually hurt worse...I could feel that my body knew exactly what it was doing, and was much more efficient at contractions.  My body managed to cut labour down to 8 hours, with no interventions.  Total hospital time for both deliveries was 11 hours, and the only reason I was in the hospital the second time was so the midwife could meet us there and the hospital could handle the cleanup.

This time around it will be a home birth.  I want my children near to welcome this new being into the world, and I don't want to go anywhere afterwards.  I love being home.