At 12:55am on 05/04/24, I awoke to a noticeable tightening in my abdomen. I was excited that things were happening, but I wasn’t ready to admit that this was actually labor yet. I laid in bed and started timing them, telling myself “if the next three are still three minutes apart, I’ll get up and start getting stuff ready just in case.” After a few more, I decided to start prepping our room and grabbing the last few things from around the house before waking my husband. It was such a surreal thing to be walking around the house, in the middle of the night, sharing contractions with my son, being on the edge of labor, it was beautiful. I was still unsure if this was it, or if I would just get some stuff ready and then fall back asleep. I did all the quiet things I could do to prepare: got the yoga ball, brought in the birth box with all of the supplies, and tidied our room. At around 1:30am while peeing, I lost my full mucous plug. I was so excited because I had been expecting bloody show for days with how crampy I had been. This was really the start of it! I decided to lay back down and wait for the intensity of the surges to tell me when to get up. At around 2:30am, I turned over, mid-surge, and woke my husband up. “This one is serious, it’s time to get up.” He didn’t hesitate a second, he said, “Okay,” got up, turned on his light, and pulled out his labor to-do list.

As he prepared our beautiful space, the intensity of each surge increased and I could not talk through them. As he turned on each electric candle and blew up the birth pool, my body flowed into active labor undeniably. Around 2:50am I called our doula and told her that I think this is it, but that I was still so calm in between contractions. I didn’t want to call everyone in too early! She knew that this was my second baby, and she heard me vocalize through a contraction before saying that she was going to head my way. I also called my midwife to give her and her assistant the heads up, but I told them I didn’t want them coming just yet. She encouraged me, and said that she’s ready to come to me when I’m ready to have her.

During the time that our doula was on her way, my husband sat next to me while I was on the yoga ball and held me through surges. They were definitely ramping up, but we were still joking and relaxing in between each of them. Our doula arrived around 3:45am and got settled. I told her that I am worried that I wouldn’t notice an increase in intensity (oh boy, how silly), and wouldn’t know when to call our midwife. She assured me that there will be noticeable changes and reminded me of how in-tune I have been with my body thus far. She was right.

Around 4:40am, after another hour of work, I started to get shakey in the legs and crying at the end of each surge. I knew that I was getting closer. My doula suggested having our midwife come and check on me and baby. It was perfect timing and I was very excited to see them. Our midwife and her assistant entered our space gently around 4:45am and decided that they were going to unpack and prepare for his arrival.

From the second they arrived, my body felt safe to start REALLY going. My contractions were around a minute long, and about 2-3minutes apart. I was vocalizing LOUDLY through them all, and my throat was slightly sore already. I instinctively stood up, bent down, and leaned through them. I am not sure when, but each contraction started to get SO intense. I was using all of my energy to get through each one, and couldn’t let myself think about the next. I just had to get through one at a time, something I have told my doula clients over and over, but man was it hard to put into action. I was really going through it by now, each one took away my breath. At 6:15am I told my midwife that I wanted a check, but that I didn’t want to know any numbers. I wanted validation and positional suggestions based off of his location in my body. (I later found out I was around 7cm, 90% effaced, +1). She did exactly that, and suggested side-laying with the peanut ball for 5 surges in each side. I hated that idea because laying down made them hurt so bad, but I could immediately feel the pressure lighten on my cervix when I laid down. She knew what I needed. I could tell he was making his way down, and my midwife knew that my body needed to rest in between these contractions that were practically on top of each other at this point. My doula rubbed my feet with lotion in between each surge and it felt so relieving. I did about 5 surges on each side, and could feel a shift in the sensation. I went to the bathroom and started feeling pushy while sitting on the toilet.

I came back and knelt next to the birth pool. During that next contraction at 7:19am, I could feel his head stretching my cervix as he entered the birth canal. My body started pushing. It was the most intense pressure, but also relief, that I’ve ever felt in my life. I immediately turned to my team and said, “He’s coming, I feel him moving down.” I got into the pool and felt FER on the next two contractions. Through whispers of “I can’t”and panting and swearing, he came down fast. My midwife said, “Taylor, reach down and feel your babies head.” Once I did, I was so reenergized. All of the work to prepare this space, my mind, my body, my partner, all leading to this moment. On the next push, his whole head came out. I had to pant to get through the pressure of him stretching my body. My uterus took a short break, and his head was out for around 2 minutes and 10 seconds (felt like 2 seconds) before my midwife suggested that I put a leg up to help him out. The second I raised my leg, my final push shot him out into the water. At 7:27am, he was here. Wow. Monty Ellis Frank.

I picked him up and brought him all the way to my chest, where Morgann noticed his cord was wrapped three times around his neck! I wasn’t worried about that in the slightest, but I was surprised that it was wrapped so many times and that I could still bring him all the way up to me. Turns out, I had a 44 inch cord, the longest my midwives had seen. When my midwife noticed it, she said “His cord is wrapped around his neck. Would you like to unwrap it, or would you like help?” “Help me please.” He was so slippery. She calmly unwrapped and counted each coil. She told me to talk to my sweet boy. His eyes were opening, but he was taking a little longer to come around. Nothing unusual, just a sweet babe doing his part in this transition. He eventually got a good cry out that brought tears to my eyes immediately. He was really here, I really did it. We laid in the pool as I felt my body start to push out my placenta. The water in the pool was starting to get cool, and little babe was starting to shiver, so I decided to switch to laying on the bed and wait for my placenta there. The immediate cramps were pretty rough, and I knew they would feel better when my placenta was out. I did some small pushes, but I underestimated how big it would be. I ended up asking my midwife for assistance in pushing it out and plop! There it was with some light pressure on my abdomen. We wrapped her up in a chux and placed her next to me while I snuggled my new baby. My husband had to go tend to our toddler, but I knew he was going to be back soon. I asked my team to wait for him to return to do any measurements, and they assured me that they were not in any rush and that we could take all the time we needed. While waiting in the early morning light, snuggling my new son, basking in the love-filled room, Monty pooped all over myself and him, a big poop for sure. When Ethan returned, we all stared in awe at this beautiful new addition to our family. His head was 14 inches, his shoulders were 15.5 inches, and his body was 21 3/4 inches. He was as long as my first baby, but significantly wider. He weighed 9 pounds 10 ounces (plus whatever that poop was). I was so proud of him for growing his body so well. Our midwives got the pool deflated, cleaned up, and put away. They got all of our laundry together (& took it with them because our drier broke one day before), and made me padsickles and a bottle of herbs. They prepared the bathroom with all of my postpartum supplies and changed my sheets before I returned to bed. They cleaned everything up, you could not tell there was a birth in that room less than two hours prior. Our doula captured all of our sweet moments. It was my dream birth. I spent weeks worrying about calling everyone too early or too late, or that our toddler would be awake during, or that I wouldn’t be able to mentally do it. None of that happened. It was PICTURE PERFECT. My team was the reason that pregnancy and birth was so magical. Even if things had gone awry, I would have felt so supported. This experienced has changed me and the way I mother forever.