Location: First Coast Midwifery Birth Center, Jacksonville, FL

Birth photographer: Dallas Arthur Birth Stories & Support

The joy of this birth! Labor can look completely different from person to person, birth to birth. Quiet, focused births are beautiful. Roaring, screaming births are beautiful. Relaxed, casual births are beautiful. And Kayla’s definitely fell into the last category! She arrived at the birth center in active labor (a good thing, because they had quite a drive coming from southern Georgia!), full of smiles and laughter, and was able to fully enjoy her labor with her husband and two older children by her side. She worked hard, dug deep, and brought her baby into the world on her own terms, in a very different experience than her first two hospital births.

Congrats, Kayla! You did it!

I woke up around 1:30 am with what I thought was just Braxton hicks and decided to get up and walk around and see if they went away. They did not and seemed pretty consistent but not close together yet so I decided to get in a warm bath around 2:45 am to make myself a little more comfortable. As soon as I sat down in the tub I felt a small gush like maybe my water had broke but it was hard to tell since I was sitting in water.

I was pretty sure my water had broke so I called my midwife and she told me to get a swab from my birthing kit to check and make sure it was amniotic fluid, and it was! By this time my contractions were around 5 minutes apart so she told me to head to the birthing center. We left our house around 3:20 am and got there around 4.

When we got to the birthing center my contractions were around 2 minutes apart and felt pretty strong.

I got in the tub and the warm water helped so much with the pain.

I tried to just breathe through my contractions and tell myself they wouldn’t last long and each one was bringing me one step closer to meeting our baby!

The midwives Brianna and Sharon and my birth photographer Dallas were amazing support! They rubbed my back and brought me drinks and cold towels and reassured me that I could do this! It was such a blessing to have them there!

My husband and kids were wonderful. Checking on me telling me “you got this” and just being there to hold my hand and make me feel loved and supported.

I had the weirdest back pain on my left side that went all the way down my leg during the last part of my labor. Like the baby was pushing on a nerve. I had never experienced this with my previous babies, It was intense and I started feeling like I couldn’t handle it much longer but my husband held my hand and knew just what encouraging words to say to help me get through it.

I really can’t remember exactly how long I pushed I know it wasn’t long but it felt like forever and it felt like it was over in a flash all at the same time.

I kept thinking I’m so tired how am I going to push this baby out. But somehow i squeezed my husbands hand and got the surge of adrenaline I needed to meet my baby!

Our baby was finally born at 6:36 am. Meeting your new baby for the first time is the most amazing feeling. It’s something I can’t even describe with words.

It’s like all of these good feelings rushing through you all at once and you want to laugh and cry at the same time. Even though you’ve carried them for 9 months finally getting to hold them in your arms is so surreal.

We had been waiting to find out the sex of our baby and I had a feeling the whole time it was a boy, I was right! He looked just like I had pictured, the spitting image of his sister when she was born.

I nursed him right after he was born and couldn’t have been more in love with him, he was perfect!

Our kids Lydia (3) and Nolan (10) came with us to the birth and they were so happy to finally get to meet their little brother.

Nolan cut the cord and it was such a special moment!

We surprised the rest of our family calling to tell them the baby was already here and we were heading home!

Getting to go home right after the birth was amazing! Our family got to come meet him at our home, I got to take the best nap with our new sweet little baby, and we slept in our own beds that night! It was truly a perfect day!

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