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Rylan's Birth Story

The Birth story of Rylan Kensy King
As written by his mother, Shana Marie King
Born 6/9/2011, 2:50 AM, 7lbs 10 oz, 20 3/4 inches long, 13.5 inch head circumference.


My birth story with Rylan starts several weeks before he was born. We were slightly nervous of making it to the hospital in time as we had been planning on birthing at a hospital about 30 minutes from us downtown St. Paul. Now granted, there is a hospital just 2 miles from us but there are not ANY midwives that have privileges there and no option of water birth; two things I really wanted for my birth. I first had selected the midwife group I was with because they had a great reputation and a very low c-section rate. One of the hospital choices was St. Joseph’s and they have a stellar reputation for natural birth and I was kind of excited about being able to utilize that facility and have my water birth. With each appointment during my pregnancy I just felt more distanced from the group and never clicked with any of the midwives I saw. With Aydia I had a midwife that I loved and trusted wholeheartedly; this time I wasn’t finding that and I was getting discouraged but trusted that my birth experience would still be a great one.


Then I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. As I continued testing my blood sugars for a few weeks I noticed that no matter what I ate it seemed like my numbers never went above the levels they wanted me at. I started thinking I had a false positive with my testing. At my appointments I was measuring small and I was right on track with any other normal healthy pregnancy. I grew more confident that I had a false positive. Then at my 34 week appointment the clinic I was with told me that I wouldn’t be allowed to go past my estimated due date of June 2nd; something I wasn’t comfortable with and I refused to be induced just based on a label. There had been no ultrasounds to check his growth at this point since 24 weeks and no medical indication that an induction would be necessary. I was devastated. Induction was NOT an option for me unless there was a medical reason and I didn’t feel like it was justified at all in even bringing it up yet. So I discussed my options with my husband. Option 1 was to do a homebirth, but money was tight so even though it would have been our first choice we chose not to. Unassisted birth, as tempting as it was is something that my husband wasn’t comfortable with and I respect those wishes, even though we did have a hospital 2 miles away should something go wrong. My 3rd option was to seek out my old midwife that I had with Aydia and discuss things with her to see if I could transfer care. I knew she had moved to Hudson Physicians and we knew we could have a very fast birth so we debated back and forth over this before I made the call. But the more we talked about it the more it settled in that it was our only option in order to have a birthing experience best for both me and Rylan.


So at almost 35 weeks I made the switch to my midwife Stephanie Johnson. I left my first appointment from her feeling empowered again in my birthing choices and knowing that I had made the right choice. I trusted her. I didn’t trust the other group. I felt confident now that my birthing experience was going to be wonderful. We did a growth ultrasound right away and discovered that he was well within the perfect growth for his gestation. Even the doctor who performed the ultrasound agreed based on my numbers and the measurements that I likely had a false positive. However since I did get that positive on the test, we all agreed that it would be best if I did non-stress tests twice weekly to monitor him, just to be safe. At each appointment he passed without issues. My body started to make progress towards birth and by 39 weeks I was 2 cms and 75% effaced and measuring only about 37 weeks along. I expected to go into labor between 39 and 40 weeks since Aydia came right at 40. We spent that entire week walking, going bowling, using evening primrose oil, having sex, eating spicy foods, you name it and we tried it but little Rylan stayed where he was. At 40 weeks I was 3 cms along and honestly kind of shocked that I was still pregnant. Another ultrasound showed a perfectly healthy baby boy just content and cozy inside his Mommy.


I was also very happy now in my choice to switch providers as the other group would have wanted me induced by this time and it was obvious that Rylan wasn’t quite ready to come on his own yet. I wanted him to choose his own birthday as I really do think that babies know best as to when to be born, whether it’s at 37 weeks for some or 43 weeks for others! Going overdue however was a new experience for me and each day that passed after my due date grew more difficult. Physically I actually felt pretty good as Rylan hadn’t dropped yet and I was able to get around without any difficulties. However emotionally I was ready. By Wednesday at 40 weeks and 6 days I was hitting a wall. I was emotionally exhausted and felt like crying at everything. My daughter was trying my patience and so were the rest of my family. I spent some time that morning thinking about things and realizing how stressed out I was and how tense my body was. So I decided that whole day I needed to attempt to relax as much as possible. I drank some wine to relax my muscles and then took a one and a half hour bath while listening to my HypnoBirthing tracks. I went to get acupuncture done and that night before bed Brandon gave me a massage to help loosen my muscles. When I went to bed I felt some cramping but nothing that gave me indications of any sort of surges. I had a hard time falling asleep and finally drifted off a little before midnight.


I woke up to a strong surge and when it was over I looked at the clock and it said 2:02 AM. I turned back over and drifted back to sleep as I had been woken up by similar surges before. Then I woke up to another, stayed in the same position and quickly had a 3rd. I rolled back other and look at the clock which said 2:10 AM. I knew this was it as the 3 surges within about 9 minutes were pretty consistent with how Aydia’s labor started. I went to stand up and immediately felt amniotic fluid coming out. As soon as I was standing it really started coming out. I quickly woke up Brandon and he was out of bed and getting things ready to go right away. I noticed that there was light meconium in the amniotic fluid. I called my doula and birth photographers immediately so they could get on the road and then called labor and delivery and let them know to page Stephanie that I was on my way as my water had broke. I hurried upstairs to throw a pad in my underwear to catch the amniotic fluid and woke up my Mom to let her know we were leaving. I wasn’t officially timing things yet but pretty sure the surges were consistent at about 2-3 minutes apart but not uncomfortable yet.


Stephanie called me as we were leaving the house and said she would meet us there and that they were getting the water birth tub filled up for me. We were out the door by 2:22 AM. Brandon did stick to only about 10 over the speed limit as while we obviously wanted to get there quickly we also wanted to be safe. I started timing my surges and they were about 30-45 seconds in length right at 2 minutes apart. With each surge I used a technique mentioned by Ina May Gaskin where I used a low mooing sound to get through each one. By relaxing the jaw like this it also relaxed the muscles allowing things to not tense up. I rode each surge and didn’t fight them and they weren’t that bad, just a very strong tightening squeeze that rose up and fell each time. The surges quickly picked up to about a minute in length coming every 2 minutes. Between each one I was great, talking with Brandon, and focusing on what was happening to my body and getting excited that our son was on his way. When we had been in the car about 20 minutes I noticed that the surges were picking up in intensity and I was squeezing Brandon’s arm while using my sounds to get through each one. One particular surge lasted a full 2 minutes, and then I had a 15 second break and another one came on. I knew at this point that birth was very close.


We made it to Interstate 94 from 694 and I suddenly felt the extreme pressure of the baby entering the birth canal. We had only been in the car about 25 minutes at this point and were about 8 minutes from the hospital. My surges had been right on top of each other and all I could get out to Brandon was, “FUCK BRANDON! FUCK!” He thought it was because I was experiencing pain but really I was trying to tell him that the baby was coming. I had a break as we were coming down the ramp and I quickly stripped off my underwear and moved my skirt aside. I reached up and could feel Rylan’s head about an inch up the birth canal. I told Brandon to call 911 because the baby was coming. I’m pretty sure he told me, “We’ll make it baby, don’t worry!” So I told him, “No, you don’t understand, the baby is coming NOW!” So he got on the phone with dispatch but kept driving…he was determined that we were going to make it to the hospital!


I had unbuckled by this point and had shifted up in the seat kind of balancing on my left hip with my right leg pushing up against the door to lift me off the seat some. At this point I stopped noticing the intensity of the surges and concentrated on Rylan. I stopped making any noises and actually was transcribing to Brandon what I was feeling. A surge came and Rylan’s head crowned. I kept my hand bracing his head ready for him to make the next move with my body. My body surged immediately and Rylan’s head came out and his body immediately followed. I already had my hand bracing his head and I quickly hooked my fingers under his arms and drew him up onto my chest. I don’t think Brandon even realized that he had been born! I exclaimed something to Brandon about him being here and then focused only on Rylan. He wasn’t crying immediately so I vigorously rubbed him while keeping him under a layer of my skirt to keep him warm. I did blow in his face a few times as well. I couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not but he still hadn’t cried after 30 or 45 seconds so I gently put my mouth over his mouth and nose and blew gently into him. He immediately started crying. Not once was I worried, I knew his umbilical cord was still attached so he was getting oxygen from that. Dispatch was trying to tell Brandon to find a safety pin or a lace to tie off the cord and I remember that I was very adamant to Brandon that we were not clamping the cord! He asked several times, I think he was in shock. I relaxed back into the seat and just kissed Rylan all over and kept him warm, amazed and feeling empowered over what had just happened. He wasn’t interested in breast feeding yet and after about 5 minutes he stopped crying and just relaxed and started to open his eyes up at me.


At this point a Sheriff’s deputy showed up and just kind of asked if I was doing okay and we were both excellent so he just stood outside the car chatting with Brandon…who was still basically in shock and hadn’t really even checked out his son yet! I called Nicole, our doula, to let her know what happened and then Labor and Delivery and spoke with Stephanie as she was standing right there. She was proud of me for not clamping the cord. Right when I hung up with her a first responder from fire rescue showed up and he also wanted to clamp and cut the cord and I had to defend it once again that I was leaving it intact. He even tried telling me that we needed to clamp it as Rylan was on my chest above the placenta. I just kind of looked at him and said, “It’s fine. We’re NOT clamping the cord. I already spoke with my midwife and she also said we shouldn’t do it so we’re leaving it alone.” He listened to Rylan’s lungs and then backed away as well, Rylan was still cuddled up on my chest, occasionally crying out but mostly just snuggling in, covered by my birth skirt and my robe had been placed on top of us at this point as well.


Nicole then showed up as she was coming up behind us on the freeway. As she did the deputy asked Brandon if he knew her and he said no, and I quickly jumped in with, “Yes you do! It’s Nicole!” Ha, poor Brandon still didn’t really know what had happened I think. I think I had my wits about me much more than he did the whole time. Nicole jumped in the car with us just amazed at everything and telling me how proud of me she was. I had also called our birth photographer Melissa and of course she had just passed us when I did so she decided to go onto the hospital and wait for us there. The ambulance showed up about 10 minutes after birth and checked out our vitals and then I was transferred out of the car into the ambulance to head onto Hudson hospital. I had guessed the time of birth at this point to be about 2:50 as I had looked at the clock several minutes after birth making the entire labor about 50 minutes long. It was probably about 3:15 or 3:20 by the time we arrived at the hospital. I went through ER first where basically all they did was check my blood pressure and his vitals again. Then Stephanie quickly pressured them into releasing me to the labor and delivery ward and into the water birth room. It was around 3:45 when Brandon cut the cord and I delivered the placenta thus officially completing the birth. Rylan stayed on my chest while Stephanie checked me out and gave me 2 small stitches…amazing considering that my perineum basically didn’t have any time to stretch considering how fast Rylan came!



After checking for any hemorrhaging Brandon was able to hold Rylan for a brief moment while I was able to get off the table and into the water birth tub. Rylan was handed to me as soon as I was in there and we spent a good 30 minutes relaxing in the tub. It was heaven! Rylan stretched out and relaxed and you could tell he loved it. He latched for the first time while in the tub as well and took to breastfeeding right away. The tub has lights in it that can be different colors and we choose blue. It was just perfect, everything about his birth was perfect and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Sure, it was an unplanned, unassisted, freeway birth going about 80 miles per hour down the road, but it was simply put, AMAZING. I feel very empowered now and even more so do I trust birth, my babies, and my body.

We were also interviewed by WCCO on Thursday afternoon and it aired on the 10:00 news cast. Here is a link to that story: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/06/09/wyoming-minn-couple-delivers-baby-off-of-interstate/

Happy Due Date to me!

Well June 2nd. I didn't think I was going to see this date and still be pregnant, and neither did my midwife. Honestly though I'm kind of happy I'm still pregnant. Call it selfish but that means that I get just another few days (or hours or weeks) to him all to myself. I'm kind of sad today now that my due date is here and knowing that this journey is so close to being over already. This pregnancy just flew by and I wish I would have had more time to treasure it knowing that this is most likely (100% likely according to husband) my last pregnancy. As hard as this one was in the beginning the 2nd half of this pregnancy has been really enjoyable and I'm really going to miss feeling my little guy moving inside me. Obviously I'm excited to meet him and see what he looks like and watch him grow and develop outside of me but it's a bittersweet thing knowing that this is almost done.



Today I had my NST/40 week check up and things went perfect. He passed the NST in the minimum 20 minutes like he normally does. I'm measuring 38 weeks instead of 40, so he's likely not a BIG baby (although who really knows) and I'm making quite a bit of progress. I'm 3 cms, 75% effaced and very soft. He still hasn't dropped, which is why I'm still super comfortable at this point and not feeling like I'm ready to be done with this pregnancy yet. Because of all this I'm sooo happy that I switched to Stephanie though. With the old clinic they would have wanted me induced by today just because I hit my due date because of the label of gestational diabetes. Stupid label. I still don't think I have it. The last two mornings my fasting number, which needs to be 95 or lower, was at 83 and 82. Last night for dinner I had BBQ chicken, a big baked potato, cauliflower, and a HUGE helping of chocolate lava cake because it was my Dad's birthday. Yeah, 2 hours later I'm supposed to be 120 or lower and I expected to be over because of the cake. I was at 112. I don't have gestational diabetes and nothing anyone can say will ever convince me that I actually do have it. Oh, and I've gained a whole 5 pounds now for this whole pregnancy; most of it the past 2 weeks because of the weather getting warmer and some retention/swelling that I'm starting to have.



So I guess we'll see if I have Twinkle this weekend or if he's going to hang around for a bit longer. I'm kind of getting the feeling that I have around a week left but who knows. If I make it till Monday I have another NST and actually a growth and biophysical profile ultrasound to check on him. I'm sure everything will go smoothly with that. Hopefully though my next update will be that I had the baby! In the mean time, enjoy the latest pictures.

39 weeks; let's get going!

39 weeks pregnant. This was my goal was to get this far and then have this baby before I hit 40 weeks. I've been practicing my HypnoBirthing and listening to my May 27th CD as much as possible. Looks like things are progressing nicely as well and my midwife is very optimistic that this baby will be here in just a few days. She doesn't think I'll make it to my next appointment on my actual estimated due date of June 2nd (next Thursday). She was right with Aydia, lets hope she's right on this one too!



The last two NSTs I've had have gone very smoothly. Both times he passed right in about the 20 minute mark. On Monday I had a few small contractions while on the monitor and he reacted beautifully to them. I started loosing my plug a bit on Sunday night and that happened only 10 hours before Aydia was born but this time it's more of a gradual loss vs a lot at once like it was with her. I did have her sweep my membranes on Monday and we did it again today as well. On Monday I was still at the 1 cm and 50% but today I'm at 2cms and 75% so I've made a bit of progress! That's where I was when I went into labor with Aydia with the exception that she was a little lower than this little guy is now. Another big difference is that I measured right at 39 weeks at this point with Aydia and I'm measuring 36 weeks today, so maybe he'll be quite a bit smaller? It could be that he's also more off to one side still as well. It's so hard to tell. Anyway, she did a sweep today and said she even felt the bag of waters bulging out a bit so we're praying that things happen soon now. I'm walking, drinking my red raspberry leaf tea, using evening primrose oil and of course I'm *supposed* to be having sex too...we'll see. ;-) Send any and all labor vibes my way please, I'm planning on having this baby by the weekend's end so we're on "Operation Get Twinkle OUT!" right now.

38 weeks

Today I had my typical NST and 38 week appointment. First off, I'm still only 1cm and 50% and Twinkle is still hanging out pretty high so nothing is really happening. The only thing happening right now is that he's slowing down a lot. Pretty much to the point of where Aydia was as far as activity, which is really odd for this baby since he's almost constantly moving. I mentioned it to Stephanie and then we did the NST. With the NST we're looking for a 20 minute period with at least 2 heart accelerations in it. Today he just wasn't cooperating. First he kept moving off the monitor, then he finally stayed on but didn't do any accelerations. Finally after about 45 minutes she gave me some apple juice to drink to see if he would wake up a bit. 30 minutes later he had finally had a 20 minute period with the accelerations.



So I almost failed the NST today. If I had they would have sent me for a Bio-Physical Profile, which is an ultrasound that looks for specific things like a certain amount of arm/leg movements and practice breathing and checking blood flow from the placenta to the baby. Luckily I ended up passing though. I did however measure really small today, 34 weeks instead of 38. I'm pretty sure this little guy is going to be smaller then Aydia was. He might be long but I don't think he's going to be big. Honestly with that information, plus the slower baby, I'm kind of surprised they didn't send me in for a BPP to check amniotic fluid levels. But an OB signed off on it since Stephanie had to go deliver a baby and wasn't able to check things off at the end of the appointment so I'll trust that they know what they are doing there. Kind of makes me nervous though. Tonight however he's back to his normal active self, so maybe it's just that he's saving up his energy for our birthing time.



Still gearing up for a May 27th birth date with my HypnoBirthing CD but I'm allowing my mind to be open to dates before that. Like starting tomorrow we're supposed to get Thunderstorms coming through sporadically until Sunday morning. Maybe one will be severe enough and change the Barometric pressure enough to send me into labor? I'm open to that.

37 weeks and the waiting begins

37 weeks along! That's kind of a big week mark to hit in pregnancy as it means that if Twinkle were to be born at this point he would be considered full term. It also opens up the door to water birth officially. I mentioned last week that I'm doing 2 Non-Stress Tests a week from this point on. I had my 3rd one done today, all have been fabulous when it comes to results. Today we were able to get him to stay on the monitor right from the start so it only took 20 minutes vs on Monday where he we were trying to figure out the best place to track him and it took about 50 minutes. Luckily since he's always so active he shows plenty of accelerations within that time to pass considering that he only needs to show 2 of them.

The Non-Stress Tests are actually to monitor the placenta's health. When he shows at least 2 accelerations in a 20 minute period that shows that the placenta is functioning correctly and getting the correct blood supply and oxygen to him for him to continue thriving. No one is honestly concerned that my placenta will deteriorate but since I have that damn Gestational Diabetes label we have to do it to make sure, even though my numbers are still perfect without even really trying or even modifying my diet.

Aydia comes with me on these appointments as I have them all scheduled for around 11am on both Mondays and Thursdays and no one else is of course home at that time to watch her. Both Stephanie and her nurse Kristen compliment her each time on how well behaved she is! She sits happily for the 30-60 minutes it takes to get everything done eating a snack and watching a Veggie Tales movie and occasionally talking with me. She never attempts to wander away from her chair or anything, just sits there as content as can be. THANK GOODNESS! I don't know what I would do if she were a super active child...which is probably what Twinkle will be.

Comparing the two pregnancies I know that he is MUCH more active then Aydia ever was. She moved around of course, but more stretches and never active periods of more then 15-20 minutes and then relatively quiet for at least an hour. Twinkle likes to squirm and squirm and squirm. I get a quiet period out of him for about an hour in the afternoon, other then that he's ALWAYS moving. At night I'm up every 30 minutes at least due to his activity. Seems like every night I'm waking around 4:30 to use the bathroom (thankfully just the one time a night as I'm limiting my water intake in the evenings) but then I'm up till at least 5:30 or 6:00 waiting for him to calm down so I can fall back asleep. We're in for it with this child, I can tell. I swear to you that my labor will start with my water breaking first this time again because he's going to kick or punch so hard one of these times that he's going to rupture the membranes! HA!

Anyway, after the appointment I'm at the same stats as last week, 1 cm and 50% effaced. I feel like he's lower then last week but he's still floating above my pelvis so birth looks to be several weeks away still; which is more then fine with me! I'm choosing my birthing day as May 27th. My doula with Aydia is due right after me and she's choosing the same day. We're both doing HypnoBirth and she is actually a Hypnobirth instructor now and a trained Hypno-therapist. She has made a CD for herself centering around the 27th as her birthing day and is burning me a copy and I should get that early next week to listen to. I'll be 39 weeks and 1 day on the 27th and I've just felt that date resonating with me this whole pregnancy. It will at least be the day my birth process begins, that I honestly feel and believe, part of me thinks he might actually be born early on the 28th though, just like his big sister. Either way, I'm looking forward to birthing my little guy and experiencing birth again. It was such an amazing and empowering experience with Aydia and I'm honestly excited about it. Trust your body, trust your baby, trust birth. :-)

Well hello there!

Well aren't I just the horrible blogger?!? Over 2 years later and I'm finally posting an update. First of all, Aydia is over 2 now! She's a very sweet girl who loves to talk! Every day it seems like her vocabulary just expands times 10! She is able to tell us most of the time what she wants. Oh, and she's pretty much potty trained! Not at nap or overnights but she tells us when she has to go potty during the day so we're done with day time diapers. I don't quite trust her when we're out and about yet so I do put her in a diaper on outings but she'll normally tell me then as well and that diaper stays dry most of the time.

Here is a picture of our big girl!

The other big news is that Aydia is going to be a big sister! In like 3-4 weeks! Told you I was really behind in updating! I'm 36 weeks pregnant today with a little boy. We have a name picked out but for now we've been calling him Baby Twinkle, which was a name Aydia came up with. We asked her at about 6 weeks into the pregnancy what we should call the baby and she said Twinkle so we went with it. Because of that his theme is all stars, from his bedding to his decorations.

This pregnancy has been MUCH different from Aydia's. With her I had it very easy, hardly any morning sickness and I was comfortable for most of the pregnancy and I had no complications. This time around I was sooo sick. I actually ended up on a prescription to help keep me from throwing up and to keep the nausea at bay. I did loose 15 lbs because of the whole morning sickness part, and actually I haven't even gained it all back. I'm currently still 2.5 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight. With Aydia I ended up gaining 22 lbs over my starting weight and I experienced a 5lb weight loss immediately after birth with her, so I'll be in a good place for weight once this baby comes I think. Ironically I've also been diagnosed with gestational diabetes this time which I didn't have with Aydia. However I'm under the impression, as well as my midwife and the OB I recently saw, that I likely had a false positive. My numbers are well under control and he's measuring right on track. However since I have the Dx I have to follow certain protocol that I didn't with Aydia just to double check on him. That has led to an interesting change in events for us.

I started out this pregnancy going to Generations clinic. Unfortunately Stephanie, my midwife with Aydia, had moved to Hudson Physicians and we just felt like it was too far of a drive to risk once I hit labor. Generations has a FANTASTIC c-section rate and they deliver at St. Joes which also is the best hospital in the twin cities for natural birth and I could do a water birth there. Sadly I never really clicked with any of the midwives at Generations. I didn't feel that same connection with any of them that I had with Stephanie. Also, at my 34 week appointment the midwife I saw that day told me that I wouldn't be "allowed" to go past my due date. Wait a minute, hold the phone. Now I may have the label of gestational diabetes but I'm showing absolutely no signs of it. I measured 33.5 weeks at that appointment so technically small, and no ultrasound had been done to determine what size he was in. There was NO medical reason at that point that induction should have already been brought up. Now I don't think that I'll make it to my EDD this time around but at the same time I didn't want an induction threat hanging over my head. Being a birth doula I do feel like I'm much more educated then the average woman on birth and I refuse to be induced for no sound medical reason. I left that appointment feeling tense and not trusting the group anymore.

Brandon and I had a long discussion that night about what to do. We discussed doing a home birth, something that honestly would be my first choice and if insurance would cover it we would be doing for this pregnancy. But we just can't afford to be spending that much money when insurance will pay for all but $500 of my whole pregnancy and birth in a hospital. I even brought up doing unassisted childbirth briefly but neither of us were completely comfortable with that idea. This whole pregnancy I kept telling him how much I missed Stephanie and that I felt like this wouldn't be happening if I had been seeing her. So after our conversation I decided to give her a call. I spoke with her and she was kind of shocked that they were already talking induction as well. She told me that she would be "thrilled to catch my baby!" So we made the switch to Hudson Physicians.

Our drive is going to be a bit longer, and now I'll be birthing our little boy in WI instead of MN but I feel sooo much more confident in everything now. I've had 2 appointments with her already. The first one at 35 weeks where we just chatted for 45 minutes about how this whole pregnancy has been going and a quick measurement of my belly and a heartbeat check. Then I saw her last night as well for my 36 week appointment which also included doing an ultrasound to check his growth (because of the GD) and a Non-Stress Test (NST) to check to see if the placenta is functioning correctly. Everything was PERFECT. He's measuring at 36w4d, which is right within normal but he has 38w5d legs! Long baby I'm growing! His estimated weight (which can be off by 2lbs either way) was 6lbs 6 oz which puts him right on track with Aydia's birth weight of 8lbs 9oz since they gain about 1/2lb a week from this point on. I also had my GBS test performed, which I'm assuming I'll find out the results next week, and a quick cervical check. I'm already 1 cm and 50% effaced! I'm doubting he'll wait till his due date of June 2nd to come out.

I'm excited to deliver at Hudson hospital, it's absolutely gorgeous since it's only 7 years old. It's small, but they have a low c-section rate of about 15%, which compared to the national average is wonderful. The World Health Organization says anything above 15% is unacceptable. Better then the hospital closest to us which is sitting at 27%! But they also don't have any midwives that deliver there so that hospital isn't even an option for us. (I don't trust hospitals that don't trust birth and allow midwives.) I'll be doing a water birth this time around assuming we make it in time as well. Their water birth tub is gorgeous! This time it's in my notes to fill up the water birth tub while we're on the way so we are able to make it. If you read Aydia's birth story below you'll see that there wasn't enough time for them to fill it up for me as they didn't realize how fast I was going to go.

I'm using a doula again, a wonderful friend of mine who I did my doula training with and we'll also be using the same birth photographer as we had for Aydia's birth. I'll also be doing HypnoBirthing/HypnoBabies combination this time around like with Aydia. And this time my midwife Stephanie WILL be the one to be at my birth!!! I'm beyond excited about this as I love her so much as my provider. The only day she won't be around will be May 14th for her son's college graduation so no labor on that day please! We have quite the plan in place for when I go into labor since Aydia's was fairly quick and I feel confident that I'll make it to the hospital in time. And if by chance I give birth on the way there I'm okay with that as well! I trust my body, my baby and birth! I'm getting so excited for our birthing day now.

Pictures of our little man:

And my belly pictures thus far, weeks 4-36: