Why I love giving birth

I'm currently twenty four weeks pregnant and I was recently thinking disparaging thoughts about pregnancy as a whole. I get so bogged down in all the morning sickness and exhaustion and the emotional ups and downs. It's hard for me to handle being sick all the time when I have this incredibly important job to do in taking care of my two children that have already been born. I feel guilty taking away from them and I feel guilty not taking better care of myself, both for myself and for our new baby's sake. I was thinking about this the other day and thinking that if pregnancy were easier I'd probably have a whole bunch of babies. I don't even mind labor and birth. In my experience it hasn't been that bad. Actually, I kind of like giving birth. Does that sound crazy? Sure giving birth is painful, messy, scary, and a whole mess of other unpleasant things, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Reasons why I like birth:

•It's satisfying. I feel like I've just accomplished something amazing through sheer determination. I tend to be a quitter and birth is not something you can really quit. I love that I can say look what I was able to endure and accomplish on my own! Plus in the end you get a deliciously wonderful baby to hold in your arms!

•You get to fall in love. That whole hormone cocktail that my body pumps out when I'm hold a freshly birthed baby still attached to my body is amazing. I don't know whether to cry or laugh and I can't take my eyes off this amazing little person I am so amazingly in love with and absolutely in awe of. I can't believe I'm lucky enough to get the privilege of getting to know this little person let alone be it's mother!

•Birth makes me feel beautiful! I remember being in the bathroom after Jackson was born, I mean directly after having given birth, and looking in the mirror and thinking "Oh my god I have never been prettier in my life!". My skin  looked amazing and my eyes were shining. Sure I was a disgusting bloody messy, but I still felt so good about myself I just entirely didn't care!

•Birth is a workout. It's intense and physical and gives you that same high and makes your body feel exhausted, but good like after a good workout. I swear it doesn't seem like it's possible to feel good and have energy after no sleep and a marathon of physical exertion, but that's exactly how I feel.

•In our case we get to finally find out the gender of our baby! We choose to wait until birth to find out the gender and that moment when I get to look down and know who this baby is and what name they will have is exciting.

I may not be enjoying this pregnancy as much as I may like, but I am sincerely looking forward to giving birth again!