I had the amazing opportunity to be on Taylor’s birth team as her doula and photographer! As you will read in her own words below, this birth was exciting and FAST so I was only able to capture images from after their sweet baby girls arrival, and those “golden hour” moments were so dreamy. I’m so very grateful for Taylor and her family inviting me into their home birth space and celebrating alongside of them their daughters first minutes!

Now, for the story straight from Taylor herself:

“Starting around 38 weeks I noticed signs of false labor creeping up. I really convinced myself I was going to go late, so this put my husband, Joe, and I on our toes. We were stuck in the waiting game of never knowing if today was the day or not. After I hit 39 weeks, I started to get episodes of false labor almost every night. Then the cramping and practice contractions stopped for about two nights before picking up again Sunday night.

Most of that Monday I felt crampy and kind of sick. Nothing too crazy until the afternoon when I noticed a few more cramps that felt like contractions. I was sort of in denial but had a feeling things could be happening soon, so I started to get stuff prepped for the house and kids anyways. (Btw, this is a total sign you are about to go into labor. Denial while still preparing )

Around 9:00pm I got into bed, really hoping to get a few hours of sleep in case any steady contractions began. About 10 minutes after laying down I got the sensation of what felt like a baby kick combined with a contraction, and then a pop followed by a trickle. I knew my water had just broken but I refused to get out of bed to confirm thinking that would help me ignore the situation. Joe convinced me this was not going to work and I finally agreed.

I got out of bed and, as suspected, the trickle kept coming no matter how much I tried to deny what was happening. We decided to call Joe's parents to get the kids and dog for a sleepover in case it was a long night since my daughter had school in the morning. It took them about 20 minutes to get there and I wasn't having super strong contractions yet. My midwife told me to keep doing what I was doing and update her once they got stronger and more consistent. I took a shower to clean up and I tried to lay back down. I had updated my midwife and doula saying I was going to rest since I didn’t think anything would be happening soon. I only lasted about 20-30 minutes in bed before I had to get up again. Laying down made the contractions hard to work through so I went into the living room, turned on Harry Potter, and leaned over my exercise ball for a while.

My sister arrived right around 11:00pm, and by this time I needed to concentrate through my contractions. I had been trying to watch the movie to distract myself but it wasn't working. As the contractions became more intense I had to stand up and sway my hips through them. At this point they were all lasting 1 minute and between 3 1/2-5 minutes apart. Even though I couldn't talk through them, I still didn't think I was that far along.

The shower is my happy place so I decided to see if that would help me stay relaxed. Again, Joe had to be the voice of reason and suggested I call the midwife and our doula to let her know what was going on. I initially argued that I was fine and it would be a while, but finally relented and called our midwife back. She said her and her assistant would be heading over shortly. Our doula was on her way too!

The shower felt awesome and I was able to labor standing up with the water hitting my back. The hot water, swaying my hips, and breathing got me through what felt like hours of contractions. My mantra was “inhale peace, exhale tension” to remind me to relax and breathe through the intensity. Right before the assistant showed up I got a contraction where I felt slightly pushy during the peak. I got through the next few contractions without a problem. My midwife showed up right after this, checked on me and the baby, and said to let her know if I felt like I needed to push. Instinctively I got down on hands and knees because something felt right about it.

The next contraction I yelled for my midwife because my body instantly started pushing. I never felt panicked during my labor until this time. It was almost like I was hitting transition and the pushing phase at the same time, so I started to feel a bit out of control and like I couldn't do it anymore. A few pushes and a slight position change helped me to birth the baby in about 7 minutes at 12:29pm on April 20th.

My midwife handed the baby to me and I felt so excited/relieved/awestruck. I couldn't believe how fast things had happened or that our baby was really here. Someone finally asked if I had looked to see the sex of the baby, and I said I hadn't since it was Joe's job. He was able to be the one to tell us we had a BABY GIRL! I was so pumped because that was my hunch all along. I'll never forget the giant smile on Joe's face when he told us what we had.

With the help of my midwife and assistant, baby and I got out of the shower and immediately got to go lay in bed for skin to skin. She was screaming like it was her job and pinked up so fast. She yelled at us for a while, then finally settled down and was so alert. It took her about 45 minutes to nurse (I think), but when she did I thought she was never going to stop. Once she was done, they were able to do her screens right in our bed. Both of us looked great, so my birth team got ready to head home. Joe and I spent the next few hours talking, snacking, and soaking up our new human. We decided on a name around 3 or 4am. (It took a while to decide since the sex was a surprise. We didn’t have a name picked out). Once we named her Lenora, her and I got settled into bed to catch some much needed sleep.

My previous births were hospital births either augmented or induced with pitocin, so I had no idea what to expect this time around. During the entire labor, besides pushing, I was laughing and joking between contractions. I was able to breathe through every contraction and never considered them painful, only really intense. I couldn't have asked for a better experience.”