Johnny woke up and fell asleep again in the womb countless times, completely losing track of time. It was always dark and warm in the womb and he had no way to know if he had slept for some minutes or a whole day. He had no idea what was going on in the outside world or where on earth he had ended up either, but he soon figured out the voice he sometimes heard was his mother's, so at least he knew he was still human. He didn't understand a word of what she said, though. Sometimes he could hear other voices very faintly, muffled by her body and almost drowned out by the rushing sound of the blood in her veins - but none of them ever said anything he understood.
He tried to explore his own body with his hands, but it was hard to do in the limited space of the womb, and it took him a while to figure out that the little nub between his legs meant he was still a boy.
The womb was getting tighter around him as he grew. When mom was standing up and walking around now , he noticed that he was upside down, with his head deep down inside her and his feet high up, but for some reason it didn't bother him at all. Sometimes when he moved his legs, inevitably kicking the wall of the womb, he felt mom put her hand on her belly where his foot was - he always enjoyed these little interactions with her. When he felt she was lying down to rest or sleep, he liked to move and kick a lot because she'd sometimes sing a lullaby to calm him down then, and he loved the sound of her singing carried to him through her body. He couldn't wait to see her, even though he had no idea what life after birth would be like for him.
When the womb started to tighten around him, then relaxed and soon tightened again, he knew he'd find out soon. At first, he could still sleep through contractions, but as they became more intense they kept him awake. He heard his mom's strained breathing and occasional moans of pain during contractions, and he hoped labor wasn't too painful for her and it'd be over soon. But a lot of contractions passed until he finally felt something pop and the water around him flowed out past his head. Now the birth was becoming quite unpleasant for him as well, his head was forced into the very narrow birth canal by stronger and stronger contractions. His whole body was being squeezed and he just wanted it to stop when he suddenly felt cold air at the top of his head - a sign that it had finally reached the end of the birth canal and made contact with the outside world. The next contractions freed his whole head from the womb.
He opened his eyes, but didn't really see anything as a huge hand in a plastic glove covered his face and reached for his neck. He knew it belonged to a midwife or doctor who just wanted to help him get born safely, still he found it quite unpleasant. He heard a lot of voices all speaking a language he couldn't understand. But he recognized his mother's voice when she said something, he could hear her exhaustion, pain but also joy and anticipation.
Another contraction came and he felt Mom give one last huge push. The gloved hands guided his shoulders out of her vagina, and suddenly his entire body slipped out effortlessly, to be held by the owner of the hands. A lot of things happened at once, Johnny was loosely wrapped in cloth and someone forced a plastic thing up his nostrils to suck out the liquid from the womb. He didn't like it at all. He opened his mouth, coughing up more liquid and the plastic thing was used in his mouth too. He cried in protest, hearing his own faint, hoarse but still quite loud baby voice for the first time.
For a short moment, he wished he had just remained inside the womb, but then he was placed on a warm, soft body - mommy! He heard her voice as she talked to him soothingly and it immediately calmed him down, he stopped crying and relaxed in the arms of the person who'd nurtured and carried him in her body and just pushed him out with tremendous effort. Johnny felt boundless love and gratitude for her and couldn't wait to grow up by her side.
He noticed he was quite tired from the birth, but it wasn't time to sleep yet. First, it was time for...