baby number 4 - born in our dining room

May 11, 2026

yet another labor starting off with me in denial, haha. despite 2 precipitous homebirths under my belt, our firsts birth in the hospital being induced has still wired my brain to never really believe I’m in spontaneous labor. backstory this time - I started having prodromal labor on Tuesday that never really went away.

by night 3 I was feeling so discouraged & exhausted. contractions every 10 minutes for days was so frustrating. labor has never been “painful” in a sense to me because my mind is so into the fact that it’s productive pain, but knowing my body was just spinning its wheels had me in a funk.

my beautiful midwife had told me the day prior that it’s common for moms of 3+ kids but that it’s also usually linked to an emotional hang up. I trusted that was probably the case but also had been feeling really dang good over the past week & like I had worked through a lot.

Thursday night Matthew & I both had a good cry out in the kitchen as he finished making (the yummiest) chicken parm. we stood & prayed over eachother & the kids came in one at a time & added to our huddle until we were in a group hug.

we had dinner & our usual bedtime routine & matthew went out to run some errands while i took a heavyyyy oil & epsom salt bath to try & chill my body out in hopes of some sleep.

when he got back we did spinning babies & decided to watch sweet home alabama in bed - literally one of my top 3 movies & he somehow had never seen. the prodromal had slowed a bit after dinner & I was only having a contraction every hour…but alas, it picked back up to every 10-15 minutes from midnight on.

I woke matthew up a few times to pray over me & I had scripture & strength tracks playing all night. I was so tired & just wanted to sleep longer than 10 minutes at a time. then the boys came in around 7 which is early for them. I asked Matthew to run me a bath while I snuggled the oldest two, hoping after that I could go back to bed & sleep.

once I was in the bath I felt a shift happen. I was able to relax & the early morning was peaceful - I actually thought “maybe they’ll finally stop & I can go back to bed & then fall into a routine for the days/weeks we have until baby comes.”

then a contraction I couldn’t do anything but breathe through came. then another. then Matthew said from our bedroom, “babe, are you sure they’re not getting closer together?” I shrugged it off & told him if he wanted to he could start timing them.

after 3 or 4 he decided to call our midwife because they were less than 5 min apart, which usually only lasts a bit for me, & she lives an hour away. he decided to start prepping our birth set up & filled all of the diffusers with our birth blend. I got out of the tub around 8:30 & knew it was actually happening because I couldn’t stop moving.

I stood infront of my dresser & cried in relief & just thanked God through every contraction (which were only every two minutes now) that I was finally out of prodromal. I was in labor!!! even more of a shock that it started in the morning.

I was sooo ready to be postpartum exhausted & not the kind of exhausted I had been. at this point contractions were every other minute so I grabbed a few chux pads (pausing with the waves) & laid on the bed with my hot water bottle.

matthew fed the kids while running the show like a freaking champ. he had the tub set up & filling, worship music playing, oils going everywhere, praying with the kids, kissing me & tidying as he went. seriously cannot fathom doing any of this without him.

once the tub was filling I sat on the toilet for a little & hummed honey in the rock through every contraction. Matthew came in & sat on the floor & joined me in worship. I knew I was entering transition as I felt my temperature start to rise & my mouth go dry. I felt so grounded & peaceful - I decided to try to check myself (I usually avoid this because I don’t want to discourage myself) & I could feel babes head at my fingertips! we had a ways to go, but it was just more confirmation & relief to my heart.

a little after 9:30 estee arrived & I was hopping in the tub (gingerly, being so careful with my pelvis).

daytime birth was wild, it was so fun to have the kids around & hearing them was honestly a great distraction for the most part.

I moved around a little & found it comfortable to just rest with my arms & head draped on the side of the tub. the kids were just flitting about - girly would come hold my fingers, the oldest come pat my head, or the middle tracing my face & arms telling me that he didn’t think the water was too hot for him (I was so in the zone that now I’m wondering if he wanted to get in, sweet boy). they were asking a million questions & thankfully estee was fielding most of them.

I hit that point - where I felt the panic surge. I am so grateful for the education the Lord has placed in my path each pregnancy because I could call it what it was, the adrenaline spike. I think it being daytime had me way more “with it” because I felt the need to narrate just about everything 😂

I told matthew I was pukey. this was my hint that it was going to get intense really fast. the next few contractions i knew baby was right there & any second I’d be experiencing fetal ejection reflex. I told everyone to take final guesses on gender (lol) & honed in on the waves - making sure everything was moving down & that I wasn’t holding anything in.

it was my loudest final moments of any labor, having the daylight streaming in & life bustling around was beautiful but my body definitely knew it all needed to be drowned out. making sure I kept my jaw loose & voice low I let out whatever came to the surface.

I felt my water break, & felt baby drop. “water just broke” I whispered to matthew. then, “heads out.”

I knew the moment I felt that sweet squishy face that this was a big baby. ready for the next push to be my last I was caught off guard by just getting a shoulder out. I asked God to calm me, to relax & not force it. I found a nuchal cord & released it as I felt baby’s head turning & looking around as they rotated just a little more.

from waters releasing to that whole, chunky babe coming out (at 10:30am on the dot, 3 hours from when true labor began) it was 7 minutes (longest pushing besides hospital birth). time stands still in those moments!

I looked up & saw our oldest with a face of tears & I smiled sooooo big. he was right once again - dude has been 3 for 3. I told them all that they had a new baby brother. matthew & I blew on baby’s face with encouragement from our midwife & baby let out his first big cry.

we sat back & just snuggled. kissing each of the siblings & my guy who is just the best support & just relishing in all the relief.

after an hour of catching our breath & the kids taking ~all~ the pictures of baby’s first time nursing, I stood & delivered the placenta - literally always feel the most relief after that. we transferred to the bed, checked vitals & let Matthew get some skin to skin in.

before doing all the measurements & sharing baby’s name with the kids I got to take a glorious outdoor shower & washed my hair with Matthew’s help. while he cared for me, estee changed our bedding & the kids watched dragon tales.