Rawley had his own schedule

 (if there are misspellings or I forgot a word, sorry. I do not have much time to reread. Will do later :)

I have a free hand so I am jotting down the birth story of Rawley Oliver. He is now 5 weeks old and we are settling (FINALLY) into our new life as mother and son.

I was due August 23rd and that day came and went with NO signs of the little bean making an appearance. Most of you don't know but we had decided to have a home birth. Little did we know that the home we were planning to have our baby in was now sold and closing in a month.

We decided to have a home birth and chose our prior Doula from Sam's birth, Allyson, who was now a midwife. She was working under Betsy who was also our Midwife. After August 23rd came and went I was monitored a week after. They came to the house and did the standard checks, blood pressure, measuring the belly, pulpating to see where the head was. Everything was perfectly fine and normal. I on the other hand had to come to terms with the fact that there was no way I was going to be induced with the baby and it was coming when it wanted too. This was something I had to let go of and I never realized how much I was attached to the "guess date." With the support of my husband and my mom, who had been in town for the last 2 weeks, I finally decided that the baby IS IN CHARGE.

September came and so did the first week. After the first week of September I was monitored every 2-3 days. I even went in twice to do a non stress test to make sure the baby had a healthy heart and was moving as it should. Healthy little bean. During this time we were packing getting ready to move out by September 17th. The bank was closing and we had to be moved. My mom also had a ticket home to Montana September 12th. She was leaving no matter what. I was monitored one last time on Thursday September 9th, healthy and perfect, yet again. I left Well Rounded Mama and went to a job interview. Yes, I was offered a part time position as a social media specialist for a apartment management company. I was to start whenever I had time. :) 

Evening of Friday, September 10th. I woke up around 11pm having some sort of pressure in my belly. I had truly forgotten, from Sam's birth, what a "pressure wave" (hypnobabies term for contractions) felt like. I monitored these pressure waves for an hour. That hour seemed like it was 10 minutes. Yep, I was having them every 4-5 minutes, lasting 1 minute or so. After an hour, I went in and told Brian that it was our birthing time, he said ok and went back to sleep. After another hour, I woke him and asked him to start filling the birthing tub with water. We didn't know how long that would take and I didn't want to wait until I really wanted to get in. By this time, I had let Allyson and Betsy know and they were headed over. By 2 am, September 11th, they both arrived. The tub was set up in our room, along with candles and the birthing soundtrack from Sam's birth.

I walked around the house as I was having pressure waves. I would also lay down on the bed and relax all my muscles. We used Hypnobabies birthing method which taught me to relax my mind and the muscles in my body would follow. By 3 or 4ish I went to the bathroom and my plug came out. I then decided to get in the tub. What was so great is I was not checked every hour. I was only checked once and only because I had asked to see about where I was. This process was so relaxed and amazing.

I got in the tub or what I called "the watery pillow." I used a different birthing tub this time and oh the difference this made. Brian kept water going down my back as I went through more and more pressure waves. Around 4:30ish my body and baby were doing great and I felt I had to start pushing. My body had been in control the whole time and was in control now. My body pushed for around 17 minutes and our little boy was born. Sam woke just 30 minutes before and got to watch his little brother be born.

What was amazing, Rawley was born "in the caul." I had never heard of this but I guess it is very rare. To be "born in the caul" simply means a child is born with part of the amniotic sac or membrane adhered to the head and face. The caul is harmless and is easily removed by the doctor or midwife. It happens in 1/80,000 births. In medieval times the appearance of a caul on a newborn baby was seen as a sign of good luck.

He was born on a Saturday and my mom flew out that Sunday morning. Rawley wanted her to be apart of his arrival and planned it perfectly. We moved into our new home that following Wednesday. 3 days old and already taking everything very smoothly. It was very difficult for me to heal I think as quickly as I did with Sam, just because of trying to get the house in order. I do not sit very well.

It has been 6 weeks and many people have asked me "was I in pain? Be honest." I can truthfully say that I was never in any pain. The experience was intense and perfect at the same time. We went into this wanting the baby to be in control and no one else. I was 3 weeks past my due date and the midwife said Rawley was gustastionally 40 weeks, which means the GUESS date was way off. If I would of been in a hospital they would of induced much earlier and Rawley would of lost all control. Everything was perfect and just as it should be.

Here are just a few photos of the experience. They are backwards, sorry. I do not have time to move them.

All my love,

Linda