Saturday, 10/11/25 We went to Glorias for dinner and I joked that the last time I went to Gloria’s I found out I was pregnant the next day, watch me have a baby this time the next day. I was having some Braxton hicks while at dinner that were consistent every 10-15 min. We had the best night eating and Noah played in the fountains before we packed up and headed home.

I took a unisom and went to bed straight after we got Noah down. Didn’t do any exercises or drastic “let’s go into labor” measures. I think I knew something was happening and I would need rest.

I slept well for a few hours and started waking up with some stronger Braxton hicks here and there. At 3:40am I woke up with a contraction that I thought “that definitely wasn’t just a Braxton hicks” and they continued about every 20 minutes like that until we woke up just before 8am. Noah crawled into bed with us and we laid there and rested while I had contractions every 15 min or so for a little while. We finally got up and moving around 8:30 or 9 and as soon as I got up they started clearly coming on stronger, but again, not really anything that was alarming or super painful. I just breathed through them and felt like this was the beginning of probably 10-12 or so hours of labor starting.

Once we were up at 9, I texted my doula (Shelly Brittan with Birthing Naturally DFW) and midwife (Courtney Watson with Cardinal Way Midwifery) to let them know that I was having some contractions that were about 3 min apart but only lasting 45 seconds or so. At about 9:30 they had started getting longer and stronger and Hunter sent a picture of my contraction timer app to Shelly and Courtney because I was in such denial.

Hunter and I decided wether the baby comes today or in the next 3 days, it would be nice to go ahead and send the dogs to his parents, so at 10am after we had breakfast and got Noah set, he took Noah and the dogs to his parents to drop the dogs off. 

I got in the bathtub to have a minute alone, and my contractions slowed in time between but were very strong when they came. Hunter told Shelly to head over and Courtney was already sitting out front just chilling in her car incase anything happened. I was starting to feel a lot of pressure to preform and wanted to be alone scared that this baby wasn’t coming for hours and hours longer and I didn’t want to put anyone out of their way to be there. I had a good cry in the bathtub while listening to “Clean - live” on my birth playlist. I got out and dressed and at about 11am, Hunter and Noah were home and at 11:30 Shelly arrived, then Celine and Nick (my sister, who was going to take pics, and her husband who was going to watch Noah for us). We made a snack in the kitchen and I had some contractions while we ate and chatted.

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Shelly was doing some belly lifting on me, and I was doing inversions and psoas release on the fireplace to try and get Rowan positioned better in my pelvis. After about 30-45 min, things were progressing. I was sitting on the ball in the kitchen at 12:30 still snacking and had a very strong contraction that Noah heard me vocalizing through and came to me concerned. I got to hold my first baby on the ball and then when another contraction hit, I knew it was time to move to the bedroom.

I thought I would want water this labor, but I didn’t want shower or bath, being on the floor in my bathroom laboring on my knees was exactly where my body wanted to be. For about an hour I labored there, then had to move to the bed to labor down through some contractions to protect my prolapse. That was really difficult. Throughout this whole hour - to hour and a half, we were all still chatting and laughing, I was eating and drinking, and it was great. 

I would say sometime around 2:30 or 2:45, I remember hitting transition. I was in the bed and asked for a puke bag (although I thankfully never threw up), and remember getting clammy and sweaty and saying “I can’t do this", I don’t want to do this anymore!” I vividly remember realizing this was transition and about 15 min later I started feeling his head coming down. The next contraction I started pushing and felt my water bag pop and break all over the bed, then his head was suddenly there the next contraction.

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The ring of fire hit and I was in total SHOCK that he was that close to coming out. It wasn’t until this moment I realized… we’re having a baby today… NOW. I pushed as hard as my body could, it’s like the sensation of vomiting, or scratching an itch you can’t get - pushing. I didn’t have to push for very long, I managed to get his head out in just a few pushes. A minute and a half later, his body came flying out. It was so fast, I think my pushing was like 10 minutes total. It felt like a few giant long pushed through a couple of contractions and he was here! Barely a first degree tear, and no stitches required. Rowan was born at 3:19pm!

I was in disbelief that he was here. That I had just done that. I felt like such a badass! I was shocked. Overjoyed. He was perfect and beautiful.

We got about 3 hours with him here at home on oxygen, he latched beautifully, but we had to make a call to paramedics to transfer us to Baylor Mckinney since Rowan was requiring a lot more oxygen than we anticipated and wasn’t able to stabilize. We were transferred and spent the following 5 days in the NICU with sweet our Rowan on oxygen. He did beautifully all 5 days we were there, and got to come home on day 5 with no further complications!

It was such a redemptive birth for me after my first, much MUCH longer harder labor. I had the BEST birth team in the world!