Ready for Treasure

Here we are five days post baby-due and still I'm waking up to a belly that seems to be growing like Jack's beanstalk. My maternity pants are tight across my backside, stretched to their large limit trying to cover my belly. My maternity shirts can't quite make it to cover the stretchy panel of the pants as hard as they are trying. It makes a girl wonder exactly how much baby a short person can hold before everything combusts - pants, shirt and belly.
I'm also starting to wonder what this birth experience will be like - if it should happen. On Sunday night my husband got out our hard-drive with all of the videos of our children's first moments. All of them full of screaming, red-faced, bleary-eyed babies in the warmer with a nurse busily giving them their Vitamin K shot and eye ointment while my husband patted them with his hand as big as their heads.
In that collection of videos was a short recording my husband did of me during the labor of my last child. It was a VBAC induction so the doctor was being cautious and didn't want to give me an epidural until my contractions were regular. When I dilated to a 5 and was uncomfortable they offered me the drug Stadol and I accepted. My husband has said ever after this that if I was a drinker, I would be a happy drunk. In the video I alternate between grimacing face and giggles. I mumble unintelligible words, groan and then open my eyes surprised their is a world around me, then giggle some more. At one point I suddenly opened my eyes and said, "I just had the funniest dream. I dreamed that Dr. Batista was in the room talking to me." And my husband said, "Dr. Batista was just in the room talking to you." And I giggled some more.
What will this birth be like? Painful? Funny? Bland? Sweet? Scary? I think that is part of the reason I want a VBAC instead of a cesection - because I'm looking for the story. A birth story is a treasure you get to carry and share for the rest of your life. I can't wait to open this chest - if I could just find the doggone X on the map.