We met with Emme, my birth doula today. She's a very calm person who has attended more than four hundred births.

"I think you're going to have a relatively fast and uncomplicated labor," she pronounced, citing several factors from my experience with Shef as evidence.

She also said that Shef "wasn't THAT big" at nine pounds and fourteen ounces. "That's still a baby," she told me knowledgeably.

I really like this woman, it goes without saying.