Updated November 04, 2014.

This is the birth story of my miracle baby. After eight pregnancies, we finally had our son, Isaac.

Being two weeks overdue wasn't much fun. It wasn't the actual being pregnant part, but the attitude of a lot of people around me. I would wake up in the morning capable of facing another day of pregnancy, and then the phone calls would start. At first they were pleasant inquiries as to my health, but in the end they became harsh criticisms for my path.

It never really occurred to me that I would go very far over, because I hadn't with my first two children. So I happily bought a small Halloween outfit considering my due date was 10 days prior to Halloween. Halloween came, and I went on a mad trick-or-treating evening trying to get the baby out. After the three miles of walking my son and husband had bailed out, along with my nephew and his dad. My sister, Hilary, our five year old, and Jenna, my four year old niece remained with me. We had a ton of candy, but no baby.

Sunday after picking Hilary up from religious school we went for a drive out in the country to look at the new houses, dream a bit and to ride on the bumpy roads. We also had dinner with Kevin's mother and nephews at a local restaurant. I came home for a nice bath and a nap. Around eleven o'clock I started feeling really sick to my stomach and had an episode of violent vomiting.

Everyone was excited, it must be labor! Not me, I knew it wasn't labor, but I think it was a nice case of food poisoning.

I waited several hours and tried to drink a bit of water, that came up too. I started to worry about dehydration. I called Mary Ann, our midwife, around two in the morning. I asked her if I could take a Phenergan for the vomiting. She said that was a great idea because dehydration could bring on labor which would not be fun with the vomiting.

Another bath and a bit of calm and I talked myself out of the medication. I figured that it would make me sleepy and then I would go into labor feeling rotten. So I just went to bed. I actually slept fairly well and for a whole five hours!

I got up and wanted out of the house. Normally, I'm a very outgoing person, but the last few months of pregnancy found me not enjoying being in public. The first mall was too loud and I had such a hard time walking we spent most of the time sitting on a bench watching everyone else walk by. Off to the next mall, where they had a baby hat that matched a new blanket Kevin had fallen in love with. We got into a conversation about birth with one of the clerks, and I told her that this baby would probably come in the next day or so. She laughed.

Kevin took me out for a nice lunch. I was really hungry after being sick the night before. I ate fried food! Half way through the meal I really started to wonder if I would regret my choice later. I wasn't really aware that I was having contractions, just that I was "spacing out" every few minutes and watching the New York Marathon on TV. By the time lunch was over I really wanted the check and it seemed like forever before the waiter brought it. Everything seemed really strange and I just wanted to get home.

Once home, I went to my bath tub (See a pattern here?). Kevin laid down for a quick nap. I got on the computer, answered some email, and talked on IRC for a bit, and then I needed Kevin.