The Birth Story of Magnolia Jubilee. 🌸

During the immediate days following the birth of my children, when I am laid up in bed in an adult diaper, covered in milk and spit up, lathered in nipple cream, and multiple beverages in hand (always) - I typically find it so therapeutic to take the time to write out the details of my birth story while they are still fresh in my mind. So, here it goes! This is the birth story of Magnolia Jubilee…

12/13/2024

At 39+1, I spent the day having a virtual prenatal meeting with a client, going Christmas caroling with friends from church (a bit of walking involved!) and celebrating a precious 1-year-old’s birthday at a beautiful Christmas-themed dinner. It was a long, eventful day, and when I finally laid down in bed with my husband, DeeMo, we began praying as we do every night. I all of a sudden felt a very foreign sensation - my water bag breaking with a big, uncontrollable gush.

I exclaimed “my water just broke!” and I immediately asked DeeMo if the water was clear and odorless - which thankfully, it was. I noted the time in my phone, 11:30pm, and suggested that we begin making final preparations in the event I started having contractions overnight.

We hadn’t completely finalized packing our hospital bags yet-(rookie mistake as a doula, I know…) so we immediately started doing so. My husband started a load of laundry, prepped the carseat and the car for the ride to the hospital, and texted our childcare in the event we needed to leave in the middle of the night.

I barely slept at all that night. I think the excitement of my water breaking raised my adrenaline and I never could turn my brain completely off after that. I think I was also in shock that my water broke before my contractions began, and I was trying to process what that could potentially mean for me and my labor and birth. With both of our two boys, my bag of waters broke in active labor, near transition, so I was definitely not expecting to experience pre-labor rupture of membranes with our third. However, I always say that birth is all about surrendering to the process - as so much of it is out of our control - so I tried to do just that.

12/14/2024

The next morning, I noticed I was feeling crampy and beginning to lose my mucus plug, which I was delighted to see. Things WERE obviously happening, albeit ever so slowly. We asked my mom who lives in Florida if she could change her flight to come in that same day instead of her previously scheduled flight that was set to arrive 4 days later - and thankfully, she was. I cancelled all my plans that day, as I really felt as though I needed to turn inward and focus on preparing my heart and mind for my impending labor and birth.

Around 2:00pm, I began noticing I was having very mild contractions on and off - mostly whenever I was standing. I took a walk in our very hilly neighborhood while my husband went to pick up my mom from the airport. While walking, I found comfort in listening to others birth stories on various podcasts and to my Christian Hypnobirthing tracks. I continued to have mild, inconsistent contractions throughout the evening and proceeded to lose bits of my mucus plug.

By Saturday evening, it had been 24 hours since my water broke. I reached out to a friend of mine who is a midwife-in-training to ask for her insight. She shared the following infographic with me, which I found to be extremely helpful as it empowered me to take ownership of my health and the health of our baby:

As I neared the 24 hour mark with still no active signs of labor in sight, I began tracking my temperature every 4 hours, taking a high dose of vitamin c, and monitoring baby’s movements, all while continuing to keep an eye on the color and odor of my continually leaking water. I did so because I know that the longer your waters have been released, the more prone you are to developing an infection. And, maybe most importantly - I listened to my intuition during this time. I did not allow anything or anyone into my circle of support that wasn’t confident in my ability to do things the way I felt led to do them. I felt confident that my body and my baby knew what they were doing, and just needed a little bit more time.

Additionally, I decided to ask for some late night suggestions in a Facebook group I am in called “Natural Christian Home Birth (Assisted and Unassisted.)” I knew the mamas in this group would be holistically and biblically minded in any of the suggestions that they gave. Out of all of the recommendations I recieved, the suggestion that stood out to me the most from other moms who had experienced pre-labor rupture of membranes was receiving chiropractic care in labor. I have had clients in the past who have had adjustments during labor but have never had to personally utilize this modality before. I decided I would reach out to a few of my chiropractor contacts in the area in the morning if I still hadn’t gone into labor on my own to see if any of them were able and willing to do a home visit to adjust me.

12/15/2024

Another night went by with still no signs of active labor, so I decided to text two lovely chiropractors in the area when I woke up - Dr. Hannah of Eden Chiropractic and Dr. Rachel of Atlanta Restoration Chiropractic. Dr. Rachel was out of town, but Dr. Hannah said she was available that same afternoon! I was so relieved.

I decided to go to church with my family like I normally would on a typical Sunday morning to distract myself a bit. Our church is close by and I knew that going would give me a renewed sense of peace during this time of waiting. While getting ready that morning, my husband actually had turned on the song “Wait on You” by Elevation and Maverick City Music on repeat. The lyrics reference the Bible passage Isaiah 40:31, which were exactly what I needed to hear.

“They that wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength

They shall mount up, up on wings

Like an eagle, and they soar

They shall walk, and not get weary

They shall run, and not faint

That's what happens when you wait.”

While at church I continued to have inconsistent contractions that I was starting to have to breathe through. After the service around 12:30pm, I asked for some women on the prayer team to pray over me and our baby. It was wonderful to receive words of encouragement and reminders of the promises of Scripture from them during such a vulnerable time.

On our way home from church, we stopped at Walgreens to grab more pads and some castor oil. I had heard mixed reviews about utilizing castor oil to induce labor, and honestly, I was super hesitant to take it. However, I was open to doing so if it could get me into active labor. But, lo and behold, Walgreens was sold out of it. So I took this as a sign and opted to try other things instead. That afternoon while waiting for Dr. Hannah to come over, I continued to check my temperature every 4 hours, take a high dose of vitamin c, and monitor baby’s movements while doing the miles circuit, squats, and forward leaning inversions.

If you made it this far… this is where the fun part starts. 😘 Dr. Hannah arrived around 6:00pm. She began to adjust my hips first, and immediately upon doing so discovered that my right hip was completely out of alignment. She adjusted my hips, my spine, my neck, and then began to do reflexology on my feet. I had never had reflexology done before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I noticed that when Dr. Hannah was applying pressure to certain areas of my feet that I would experience a tingling sensation in my hips and lower abdomen. I told her “whatever you are doing is working, I think!” Upon finishing, she did a final assessment and reiterated how much better my body felt! She left around 6:50pm.

Within 10-15 minutes of Dr. Hannah leaving, it was evident that my contractions were getting stronger and closer together. It was around 7:15pm, which is when our boys normally wind down for bed. My husband was going through their bedtime routine with them while my mom and I hung out in the kitchen. When a wave would come, she would rub my back which felt SO good. After riding a couple of the waves like that, I told my mom I needed her to switch with DeeMo so that he could be with me.

I went upstairs to our bathroom and intuitively knew things were progressing quickly. I am always drawn to water during my labors, so I got in the shower to help me cope while DeeMo quickly finished putting everything we needed in the car. My waves were every 3/4 minutes and they were INTENSE. Once he finished, I told him if we had any chance of making it to the hospital before the baby was born we’d better leave immediately… even though everything in me wanted to stay right where I was. He wholeheartedly agreed and helped me get dressed. I was beginning to have a hard time coping at this point, as I was clearly in transition. PSA to anyone still reading this: I don’t recommend going through transition in the car. 😅

My plan for this birth was to have a water birth at North Fulton, one of the only hospitals in the area to offer water birth. North Fulton is about 40 minutes away from where we currently live. When I got in the front seat of the car, I knelt backwards and remained in that upright position the whole ride. It was the only position that felt good.

My husband put the address for North Fulton in his GPS and started driving. About 2 minutes into the drive, I was beginning to have to resist the urge to push as I was feeling rectal pressure with every contraction. I told him “There is NO way we are going to make it to North Fulton. We need to go to Gwinnett Medical!” (I had assisted a few births there and knew it was the closest L&D.) He asked “Are you sure?!” And I quickly replied “Yes - go to Gwinnett Medical!” So we shifted our plans. The drive was like something out of a movie - I was moaning through the waves while DeeMo drove with one hand on the steering wheel and one hand on my back to support me and ensure I didn’t fall backwards. I was so grateful we got there quickly, we arrived around 8:10pm.

Before DeeMo got out of the car to find someone to assist us, I told him exactly what to tell them. I said, “Tell them your wife is involuntarily pushing!” He ran inside the double doors and within mere seconds, a number of nurses came to me with a wheelchair to help me get inside quickly. I told the first one who came to me “I specifically prayed for the people that would be with me in labor! Thank you for being here for me.” They were all SO kind and gracious.

We got into a L&D room and of course, I was asked a million questions about my pregnancy and health history while simultaneously trying to navigate transition contractions. I was honestly surprised by how level-headed I was in the moment, as there was a heck of a lot going on in me and around me. I turned to DeeMo and asked “Where’s the birth plan?!” to help offset some of their questions. In our quick exit from the car, DeeMo had forgotten to grab the bag with my birth plan in it, so he had to run back to the car to get it.

I later found out that on his way back to our room, he SPRINTED down the long hallway that connected the main entrance to our room. While doing so, he was joined by the on-call midwife who was on the other side of the hospital at the time when I arrived. He later recounted their interactions to me… that as he was running he asked her “Hey! Where are you going?!” and she replied, “To a birth!” And he responded, “Maybe we are going to the same one!” 😅 They soon both discovered that they were, indeed, going to the same birth.

The only position that felt good was being upright at this point, so I moaned through a few more contractions while standing. In-between I asked one of the nurses that I recognized if she could take some photos for us, and she graciously agreed to.  Daneille, the Certified Nurse Midwife on call, looked over my birth plan and told me what a great job I was doing. Another nurse asked if I wanted to take off my pants because she knew birth was imminent, and of course I obliged, with her help.

Suddenly, I knew baby Morris was coming. The rectal pressure was SO intense, and I began to feel that very familiar sensation I had felt 2x before - that of her head beginning to crown. I had initially wanted to catch the baby, or possibly DeeMo if I couldn’t - but, when the actual moment came, it was all I could do to say aloud “can someone catch the baby?!” Thankfully, Daneille, my amazing midwife, quickly sprang into action and caught our baby midair at 8:33pm. It had been 18 minutes from the time we arrived to the hospital to the time the baby was born! 🤯

As I moved to sit on the edge of the bed to hold Baby Morris, DeeMo thought he saw baby boy parts (which really were just the umbilical cord.) He exclaimed “it’s a boy!” and I responded “really?!”

A quick note on the topic of gender disappointment: Upon discovering we were pregnant with baby #3, I reached out to a friend of mine who is also a doula and had just recently had her third boy. We chatted about why she chose to wait to discover her third son’s gender at his birth - and that is, to help try to avoid any possible feelings of gender disappointment. My friend loved the idea of having a girl, but knew that she didn’t want to feel any negative emotions or resentment towards her third baby if they were in fact another boy. The thought process behind this decision to wait to find out the gender is that in physiological, unmedicated, spontaneous labor and birth - oxytocin, aka “the love hormone,” is present and helps to promote immediate bonding. Ultimately, I really resonated with the idea of waiting again and knew that this would be the best way to find out what we were having. If you are hoping for a particular gender, I would highly recommend waiting until birth to find out - if you can wait that long!

I immediately asked the midwife “can we just double check?” and she helped me lift and shift Magnolia’s body and leg. She exclaimed, “that doesn’t look like a boy to me…” to which I responded, “that doesn’t look like a boy to me either!” 😭 Cue the sobs.

That was quite possibly one of the most incredible moments of my life. Whenever anyone would ask about my thoughts regarding whether we were expecting a boy or a girl - I would always tell them, “I’ve basically convinced myself that it’s a boy. But if it’s a girl, it’ll be the shock of my life.” And then, when that moment actually came, to say I was shocked is an understatement! I could hardly believe it. We have a daughter! 🥹

After a few minutes of sitting on the side of the bed, just reveling in Magnolia’s sweetness, Daneille recommended I lay down to birth the placenta and do skin to skin. There were thankfully no complications with the placenta, and Daneille waited until the cord turned white before suggesting DeeMo cut it. She then did a routine perennial inspection and discovered that I only had a small laceration and did not need any stitches. 🙌🏽

I went in with very specific things on my birth plan that I did NOT want, and one of the main things was to not have a heplock placed upon admission as well as Pitocin after the birth. Daneille monitored my blood loss closely, and ultimately decided that I did not need Pitocin based off of the amount of blood loss I had experienced. Magnolia did skin-to-skin with my husband for a bit while I got up to go to the restroom.

After the golden hour (the first hour immediately after birth typically reserved for skin-to-skin bonding) Magnolia had her newborn examination. We were so curious to see how much she weighed! Turns out that she was the smallest of our babies, weighing in at 6lbs 13oz. DeeMo stayed by her side the whole time.

Although my birth this third time around went NOTHING like I had expected it to, I can genuinely say now, in hindsight, that I wouldn’t change a thing about it. I cannot say enough good things about the care we received at Northside Gwinnett. Every nurse and care provider we encountered was extremely pleasant, helpful, and considerate of my wishes.

Welcome to the world, sweet Magnolia!