It’s taken me a while to write Bannor’s birth story…a whole year! I had high expectations that it would match the truly beautiful, pain-free, supernatural birth I had with Ellyson back in 2012. It wasn’t until I did more research on babies being born “in the caul” that I was able to adjust my perspective of my labor and appreciate just how special and amazing his birth really was! But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Anyone who knows me knows that I stay pregnant forever. Like, my babies really really love my womb and really like staying there. To the point of requiring lots of extra-detailed sonograms (I call them the 100-point inspections), daily check-ins with my midwife, and a daily review with a supervising OB to confirm it’s medically safe and sound for me to stay pregnant (betcha didn’t know there was so much hoopla over being past due, did ya?) We had induced with Zane at 41 weeks, and Ellyson arrived at 42 weeks, so we didn’t expect this time around to be much different. My midwife Donnellyn wisely didn’t even set a due “date”. Instead we had a due date range, knowing that my body loves being pregnant – anywhere from August 14th to September 6th. But I fully, 100% totally expected to have an August baby (yay for summer pregnancies!!) It never crossed my mind that I would still be pregnant in September!
August 14th (40 weeks) came and went, as we expected it to. August 21st (41 weeks) came and went, as we expected it to (though we thought a new grandson would have been a nice 59th birthday present to my father-in-law on the 20th, the Lord had other plans!). My mom arrived sometime that week, and then Zane started school August 27th. I *might* have scared everyone at the meet the teacher and back to school events, when they asked me my due date and I would say “two weeks ago!” (Hey, if I have to stay preggers forever, I can at least get SOME joy by seeing the reaction on people’s faces when they realize I could literally go into labor any minute!) I have to say, I was feeling GREAT. I mean, literally, great. I wasn’t miserable at all. I was happy and feeling good. I had been seeing my chiropractor weekly, doing my exercises for 20 minutes a day, walking 30 minutes a day, using my oils constantly, and eating fairly healthy. I can attest it all made a difference!
On Friday 8/28 I visited my my midwife, got another sono, and did a membrane sweep in hopes to get labor started. I guess I really thought it was going to happen, because Saturday, August 29th I had a total, utter meltdown when I woke up still not in labor. It’s the only day I wasn’t at peace or feeling ok. Our family rallied to take care of Zane & Ellyson, so that Mike & I could go out to eat and to see a movie in order to take my mind off of things (again, at least I had some fun seeing people’s sideways glances at me…so easy to read their faces!)
After accepting the fact that we’d definitely be having a September baby, I thought it would be cool to have a Labor Day baby on Sept 1st. My midwife agreed! (from the medical standpoint at least.) I went for another membrane sweep. My wonderful chiropractor friend Cynthia let me come to her house to get an extra special adjustment (she specializes in pregnant mothers and babies and knows just where the body needs to be to be primed for labor!) And on the way home…..we bought castor oil. Yep, something I’d sworn I’d NEVER resort to, but Donnellyn said it was time to get this party started! So I rubbed castor oil on my belly, and took a teaspoon every couple of hours as directed. (ick!) But as the day progressed on into night and I still wasn’t in labor, my prayers, as they had every day, changed from “come on labor, let’s get started!” to “please let me get a good night of rest!”
So, it’s ironic that after 2 weeks straight of praying to go into labor, when I finally did start feeling real contractions – I was praying for it to wait till the next day!! I started feeling contractions on and off around 8. They were still inconsistent at 9 and 10pm. I took a lavender bath in hopes to relax and slow them down so that I could get some sleep, but it was to no avail. By 11:45pm, it was clear to me that the adjustment, oils, and castor oil had all finally merged with God’s timing to get labor in gear! I woke Mike up (at least HE got some sleep!) At 1:30 I texted my lovely doula Tonya, and after a few minutes talking she agreed it was a good time to contact my midwife to let her know it was FINALLY time!
We arrived at the birth center at 2:30am, and the contractions were still 5 minutes apart. I was pleased to hear I was dilated 4 cm, effaced 90%, and at a -1 station. My midwife checked me in, and then the assistant midwife Hannah brewed the strongest cup of red raspberry tea ever – literally, 12 bags of tea in one gigantic mug. It was *awful*! I love red raspberry tea, but not at that strength! And I love Hannah, but at that moment I wasn’t a fan of her tea 
We got settled in the beautiful birthing suite and one of the first things the team (Donnellyn, Janet, Lincey, Tawny & Hannah) did was stop and pray over me, over Mike, and over the labor. It was wonderful and sweet and I loved that we invited God & the Holy Spirit into their very own miracle!!!
At that point the birthing ball became my best friend. I leaned on it for every contraction. I was feeling them mostly in my back, so Mike and Tonya were always by my side to push on my back and hips through each contraction. We started the diffuser – I am pretty sure we put a ton of Valor in there. I opened up my Peace & Calming oil and didn’t let it go for the rest of the morning! After I’d rested for awhile, the birthing team encouraged me to get up and be active. As much as all I wanted to do was stay on the comfy exercise ball, I knew that the more I moved, the faster labor would progress (movement and gravity seriously help!), and the sooner we’d hold our sweet boy!
I can vividly remember being in the lovely the birth center kitchen, laughing and talking with the birthing team, and then being overtaken by a contraction and having to lean on the kitchen counter to breathe through it. It was such a contrast of energy!! It was so wonderful to be surrounded by such a supportive, loving team every minute! From the kitchen I circled through the birthing center, and wound up sitting in the kids play room on a very comfortable futon. I’d already spent hours in the playroom with the kids (the birth center is really a hub of community, so we go there for classes and fellowship even when we aren’t pregnant!) At one point I was happily relaxing and laying back on the futon, and WHAM, a huge contraction hit. It was the most painful one up to that point, and I was totally in the wrong position to get through it. Thankfully Mike was right there to pull me up and hold on to me as I rode the intense waves!
At that point, I knew it was time to get back to the birthing suite. I knew I was starting to transition, and I really, really wanted to get into the water sooner than later. The birthing team said it wasn’t quite time yet, so I laid on my side on the bed while Mike read bible verses to me and rubbed my back as I made it through another few sets of painful contractions. I asked again to get into the water, and was told that I had to pee before I was allowed to. Crazy stipulations, I tell you! Now, you’d think it would be easy enough (especially with all that dang red raspberry leaf tea!) – but when you’re in the middle of labor, it’s not a normal task. Thankfully one of the loving midwives held a bottle of peppermint oil in front of me to inhale, and it helped me go (weird, but true!) I changed clothes and put on my “I’m going to ROCK this birth” sports bra, and FINALLY was allowed to get into the tub! AHHHHHHH! If you want to know what heaven feels like….get into warm water while you’re in labor.
I immediately relaxed, but upon the next contraction realized I was feeling everything in my back! I reached out for my doula Tonya, and from there on she was the one who got me through every contraction. It’s weird how different each labor is. With Ellyson, all I wanted was Mike. Tonya was there to guide him on how to best support me, and Donnellyn was managing everyone – but this labor – I knew Mike was there, but it was Tonya who calmed me best. With each contraction, she would gently run her fingers through my hair and say ““start at the crown of your head and lets work our way down. Relax your head, relax your neck, relax your shoulders, relax your torso, relax your hips, relax your legs, relax your calves, relax your toes.. now lets work our way back up and by the time we reach your head the contraction will be over”. I inhaled Peace & Calming through each contraction. We cycled through that more times than I could count! I absolutely loved the look of the birthing tub, but once in it, I realized it was quite large and I didn’t have anything to brace against. In hindsight I realize I should have voiced that, but I was in such an internal place that I couldn’t communicate it to anyone. If there was anything I wish I could change, it would be that…I wish I could have figured out a different position that allowed me to brace against the tub better. Instead, I was just floating through each contraction – which sounds good in theory, but it wasn’t working for me at that point!
At about 5:15, I started to push. This is where I realize I would have *really* liked a place to brace myself! I was feeling a LOT of pain in my back. At one point I definitely had that panicky feeling like there was no way I was going to be able to do this. No way. The team all reassured me I was doing great and making progress and they could see that the birth was imminent! Donnellyn was constantly checking the baby’s heartbeat. At one point they asked me if my water had broken, and I knew it hadn’t when I was out of the tub. I told them I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t paying attention to details then! I continued to push with each contraction, and couldn’t even rest in between because I was so uncomfortable and the baby was truly in the birth canal. I know that at some point, Tonya started playing the song I wanted for Bannor’s birth – “Waiting Here for You” and it was reassuring to know they thought I was getting really close. (LOVE that song even more now that it always reminds me of Bannor’s arrival!) I could hear Donnellyn remind me the right way to breathe – she kept telling me I had to breathe in deep and push from my belly, not from my face. She kept telling me I had to breathe properly to make sure the baby was getting oxygen too. Finally, she said we had to really work to get the baby out. She wasn’t super worried, and didn’t indicate it was an emergency, but they put oxygen on me and said it was really time to PUSH!!!!
Finally, at 5:59am, I gave birth to my second beautiful boy, amid excited exclamations that he was “in the caul!!” Now, most people don’t know what it means when I tell them Bannor was born “in the caul”. In scientific terms, it means that he was born with the amniotic sac still intact – he came out still in the “bubble” if you will. (You won’t see pics though, because they are a bit too graphic to share! But in the pic below you can see the membrane on my left hand)
Afterwards, they told me that with each of the later pushes, they could see my bag of waters (the amniotic sac) bulge out ahead of Bannor’s head. It’s then that they realized that my water had never broken! Once I heard that, I understood why I’d had so much more pain – I’d never gotten the release of that pressure. Not only was I pushing out the baby, I was also pushing out the entire amniotic sac!
It was just a few weeks ago that I researched the significance of caul births. The statistics are that fewer than 1 in 80,000 births are “en-caul”. A caul (also known as a cowl) is a membrane that covers the head and face of a newborn baby. Caul births are stated to be an extraordinarily rare event, and babies born in this way are sometimes said to have been “born with a veil.” They’re said to be born with life-long good luck and have a natural affinity towards water. Once I read all that, I realized that God had indeed answered my prayers and blessed me with another supernatural birth. This one wasn’t pain free by any means, but it was spectacularly special all on it’s own!
Once Bannor was born we oohed and ahhed over him, and marveled at how tiny he was (remember, Zane was 10lbs 7oz and Ellyson was 11lbs 15oz). Just like our other babies, he had cute squished up face with chubby cheeks you just wanted to nibble on and a perfect sweet little mouth that was adorable even through his initial crying. He relaxed quickly as he layed on my chest while we marveled at God’s perfection. Of course we were instantly in love!! While we were kissing on him and thanking God for Bannor’s arrival, Donnellyn held up the almost fully intact amniotic membrane. It was incredible. We were all astonished at the strength of the membrane, and the fact that she could pick it up and hold it up for us to see!
The next part is a bit graphic, but it’s too crazy not to include in my story – so skip to the next paragraph if you don’t like reading about blood. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you!) After we’d loved on Bannor for awhile, we decided it was time to move to the bed and that I’d deliver the placenta there while nursing the baby. Well, I stood up, and as soon as I swung one leg over the sparkling white tub lined with gorgeous white travertine stone, WHOOSH – the placenta literally fell out. And blood splattered everywhere. I mean….everywhere. On the tub. On the traverine tile. On the floor. The walls. The white curtains. Thankfully the placenta itself was not damaged (since we planned on keeping it to encapsulate it!) So after I made it over to the bed, the birth team got to work doing a super super detailed cleanup!
As soon as I laid down, we got Bannor latched and I started nursing him right away. It surprised me that even after nursing Zane and Ellyson, it still felt totally foreign with a newborn all over again. Thankfully Tonya was there to guide me once again! We loved getting to coo at every inch of our new little love. We noticed right away that he had exceptionally long fingers and extremely long feet, and joked that we had a new Paddlefoot in the family (his great-grandfather wore size 15/16 shoes and was called Paddlefoot due to his long skinny feet!)
After a while, the whole family came in. Zane and Ellyson first, and then grandparents and Aunties.
It was incredibly sweet to see just how excited Zane was to meet his little brother!! He immediately wanted to kiss him and hug him! (Zane is still that way to this day – every morning, he absolutely loves to kiss and hug Bannor!) Ellyson didn’t really seem to care (and has only recently started acknowledging that she does indeed love him).
Once everyone was able to see Bannor, Donnellyn did the newborn check and we waited excitedly for his stats. We all laughed to hear that our “smallest” baby was 9lbs 7oz, and 22 inches long!
After he passed all the newborn checks with flying colors, Bannor and I climbed back in the bathtub for a soothing herbal bath. It’s another little piece of heaven…warm water with a special mixture of herbs that have been steeped to bring out their potency. They are very healing and calming.
Bannor immediately loved it and was very calm and peaceful through the whole bath. Zane loved watching Bannor every minute and it was so sweet to watch him reach out over and over again to love on his new little brother!
Once we were refreshed by the bath, we climbed back in bed and everyone gathered around for a special time of prayer. We anointed Bannor with Frankincense, and then my father-in-law spoke Bannor’s verse over him: Isaiah 55:12 “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” Donnellyn and the birth team prayed over Bannor, and it was an incredibly beautiful, sweet way to round out the experience!
So from start to finish, I was in labor for just a little over 6 hours. They were a very intense 6 hours, but I was thankful for a quick and fast labor!! We stayed at the birthing center a little longer to visit with family and allow everyone turns to hold the baby. Donnellyn took Bannor and put his footprints on the wall (they have walls and walls covered with the footprints of all the babies born under the midwives’ care).
We took our time, enjoying our sweet little love in the gorgeous birthing suite. Outside it was a lovely day – the view from the birthing tub was a large open field, overlooking a green pasture and the barn where the donkey (Ellie Mae) and the chicken coop were at the back. It was lovely, intimate, and overall completely wonderful!
We were back home by 11am, and it was amazing to immediately settle in with our sweet boy, and set to the task of deciding on his name! We went into labor with no less than a dozen names and no idea which one was his (seriously!). And each hour we’d look at the names and look at him, and practice saying them, and none of them were right. By about day three, everyone (particularly family) was getting pretty anxious. Mike had stumbled across a name that I had immediately fallen in love with, but it was so different than anything we’d heard of or talked about before, that I had to really pray about it. He was researching the meanings of Christian names, and before he even saw “Bannor” he first saw the meaning – “Warrior of God” – and he thought, that’s totally cool! He saw that it was Scottish and then thought “Bannor” sounded pretty awesome. He mentioned it to me offhandedly when he brought up some food at one point. I immediately told him to write it down!
Two days later, (day five!!) and many different iterations of first names and middle names later, we finally officially declared our sweet baby boy as Bannor Sheriff Bacher. Sheriff is my mother-in-law Terrie’s maiden name, and we loved it and loved honoring her side of the family by giving Bannor that special namesake. A year later, I know without a doubt we picked the perfect name. He is indeed our Warrior of God, and I know that there are big plans and purposes ahead of him!!
Here’s the official birth video (again, thank you to Christy Stich of LifeArt Photography!) and also lots of Bannor’s newborn photos!
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