It's a boy!

It's been a little while since I stopped by here. Sorry! But I have good reason. My wee man arrived early and pretty speedily into the world on the 6th of October at the very civilized hour of 5.29pm.
It wasnt exactly as planned. And it caught everyone by surprise, but maybe because of that, it was a whoooole lot better than the last time I did the crazy baby birthing thing.
This is a slightly different post to usual. Nothing to do with books. But everything to do with getting up close and personal. I did contemplate titling this post - "In honor of independent midwives" but I didn't think it would be as catchy. I probably should've however, because I had the most wonderful midwife and have no doubt that if she hadnt been focused on giving me the natural birth I so desperately wanted, everything would have gone very differently. Perhaps I should explain.
In New Zealand, we're lucky enough to have a system where women can choose to have an independent midwife look after them for the duration of their pregnancy and for about six weeks after the birth. These fabulous women are on call, ALL THE TIME, can come to your house, meet you in hospital and have the respect and admiration of thousands of women and doctors around the country. It makes for building an intimate and genuine relationship, and for creating a level of trust that I dont know would exist in an ad hoc situation (I wouldnt know of course, having never experienced it).
I had a lovely midwife for my first pregnancy, but the birth itself ended up in a very emergency style C-section with lots of medical staff worried, bright lights shining, and a total lack of control and composure for me. I had really wanted as natural a birth as possible and instead I got all the pain of a full labour complete with "Instructed pushing" - "Push Michele, Push, harder, harder, no that's no good," AND then had all the pain afterwards of recovering from a C-section. Sigh.
So second time round I really hoped to avoid both surgery and medical intervention in general. Introducing my fabulous midwife, who kicked out all the "Oh dear, a previous C-section" worriers and just go on with the job. (Giving birth after a C-section comes with risks - this series has some great information if you're interested) Two hours after arriving at the hospital, I had a new baby boy, (a whole bunch of stitches) and a huge sense of relief that I'd managed to get this one out before his tightly wrapped cord did anything nasty to his oxygen levels.
After looking at the trace, and the faces of some of the hospital staff, it was pretty clear to me that my midwife really did me a great solid and I'm so grateful. Ending up with another emergency situation with all the panic and fear of the last one would have possibly got me very down and I'm so pleased to have met someone who both trusted the birthing process, me and her years of practical experience in working when a situation was dangerous and when it was something that just needed to be got through to move on to the next level.
I hope this hasnt been a whole lot of rambling. And if you have no interest in birth or babies, then I apologise - I'll be back talking about books REAL soon - I've got some exciting news about The Boss and Her Billionaire to share I promise.
But if you're a mom, want to be, or are just interested in the birthing process, I'm glad to have shared and I'd encourage all interested parties to have a read of the midwife thinking website I linked to above. It;s interesting to hear how this process goes around the world and the different experiences women have of this universal process.
Anyway, thought I'd just share my news. We're not sleeping much at the moment - but we'll get there - and in the mean time - I've been reading LOTS of books. Get ready for a whole lot of new ideas ;-)
Happy reading and thanks for stopping by
x Michele