Sitting on my bed, I stared at the brand new creature in my arms. She was beautiful, eyes open wide, staring in wonder at the fuzzy world around her. She was so small as I held her, and yet she had seemed SO BIG just a few minutes before (if you know what I mean). But how did we get here, to this magical dreamland of oxytocin-induced bliss? My birth story does not start with “I went into labor at x time.” It needs just a little more background. Warning: This story is pretty detailed. Depending on how much you actually want to know about birth, proceed with caution. At around 36 weeks, I began to develop PUPPP, which stands for pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy. In short, it is the worst rash that you can possibly imagine. It has no known cause, though some theories include an over-taxed liver, an allergic reaction to the baby's cells, or overstretched skin. It typically starts in the belly's stretch marks. It is more common in first pregnancies, particularly