The Birth of Joséphine

Announcing the arrival of our own Joséphine, born December 1st at 5:16am, weighing 8lbs 12oz and 21 inches long.

Early Labor…

Pregnancy and birth unfold like a long conversation between God and a mother’s heart, each child revealing something new through both the challenges and the joy. And little Joséphine’s story carried its own rhythm from the very beginning.

For four full weeks she teased us with on-and-off prodromal labor and countless “I think this may be it” moments that always ended with her still curled in tight, content to wait. Yet looking back, her timing was perfect. I believe my mind was holding her close until after Sadie’s first Ballet Storyline performance of The Nutcracker. And we were right, the morning after her third and final show ended, contractions returned. This time they stayed.

I kept the early waves tucked quietly to myself. One an hour until late afternoon, gentle enough that I wasn’t convinced. Around 4pm they shifted to every ten minutes, still mild but steady. At 5:02pm I texted our midwife to let her know this might actually be labor beginning. At 6pm I finally told Matthew, who joked and said, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” after so many false starts.

The evening unfolded softly. Contractions grew in pressure, but their pattern didn’t really change, so we moved through our night as we normally would: dinner, cuddles with the kids, a movie, settling the house. As much as excitement fluttered through me, I focused on saving my strength. I took a magnesium bath, tied up last details, and climbed into bed to rest.

Active Labor…

My body wouldn’t quite settle, so I gently eased through the miles circuit side-lying release, letting my mind quiet while helping baby find her best position. I truly didn’t know which path this labor would take, long and demanding like Sadie’s or fast and peaceful like James’.

The Quietude…

Around 1:20am, everything subtly changed. Contractions moved to every seven minutes with a new depth. Not long after, little James woke up fussy and couldn’t settle with Matthew. Instead of frustration, I felt something soften. I pulled him into our bed, held him close, and thought about how he was still “my baby” for only a few more hours. The pressure of contractions was intense. I breathed & gently rocked through each wave while holding James close, and felt myself thinking with each inhale “God, I trust you. You have us” and with each exhale, “Open, soften, Open…” My body relaxed. And somewhere in that hour, I drifted into sleep.

Transition…

Somehow, I slept through transition. Even now it feels surreal to write that.

At 4:15am, a powerful contraction woke me fully, the kind that makes you pause and wonder if something has shifted. I rode the next few quietly, but a new pressure was building with each one. By 4:40am, curiosity nudged me: was this closer than I realized? My mindset between contractions was so clear compared to our prior births when we were near… I checked myself and sure enough, I felt her head, still high, but unmistakably & fully present. That was the moment it became real.

“Oh no… I need to wake Matthew.”

The Birth…

I woke him at 4:45am, letting him know things were changing quickly, and stepped into the shower, still unaware of just how close she already was.

I still assumed we had time. I breathed, using a technique called Horse Lips to keep me completely relaxed versus my instinct to tense up. I swayed and rocked my hips, I tried to sink down into each wave. But the pressure became immense, and something told me to check again. When I did, I instinctively shifted my cervix, I felt fully dilated but it felt high and posterior.

The instant I made that adjustment, my body dropped straight into full fetal ejection reflex. It was immediate and unstoppable, nothing like the contractions before it.

The commotion awoke Sadie, so called for her to get Matthew, who was still trying to set up the birth pool. I knew now without question that I was not leaving the shower.

Until that moment I’d managed all my birthing tools, but now the intensity soared beyond everything. My AirPods fell out and I did not care, I dropped the birthing balls I held, I leaned forward and told Matthew to press into my lower back with everything he had. My body took over entirely.

One contraction and I felt her descend. Another and she was crowning. The 3rd, and her head was out. And after a brief pause, the 4th brought her into our world.

We caught her together, releasing a nuchal cord with one smooth movement, just minutes before our midwife walked through the door. She breathed, cried, pinked up beautifully, and showed her strength right away.

Sadie met her baby sister only seconds after her birth, a moment I will carry for the rest of my life. Her face was so beautiful and aw struck, instantly filled with so much tenderness and love.

James woke shortly after and has adored her from the very first second, determined that she’s his baby and he must hold her often. Both children stepped into their new roles with such tenderness and pride.

Joséphine’s birth was the most intense and somehow nearly painless, glorious experience. To birth your child with just God and your husband beside you is not something we planned, but it has become something carved into our hearts forever.

Reflection…

God gave me profound clarity throughout this pregnancy and birth to remember the doula education I pursued this year, to understand exactly that our bodies are beautifully designed for this, and to anchor myself next to Matthew as my steady, grounding strength. It felt entirely Holy Spirit–led, supernatural & transforming.

This little girl has already reshaped our lives and taught us so much about surrendering to the Lord.

Every birth is different. If asked after Sadie’s hospital birth, I would tell you that as strong as I am, I found birth extremely difficult. While I made it by the Grace of God and my husband’s unwavering support through that birth naturally, it was not something I would ever want to endure again. After years of research into physiological birth, I discovered just how interventions, nutrition, atmosphere and providers not only can effect the risk factors of birth, but how they disrupt our own bodies way of navigating through the hormonal patterns that are meant to guide our way both physically and mentally.

Then there was James. His birth was healing. It opened my eyes to how our bodies were created for this, and how we CAN affect it. Though real medical issues can and do arise, and in those moments modern medicine can be life saving, the classic hospital birth wasn’t the only safe way. An interesting statistic most do not know, is that a “low risk, planned home birth” is statistically safer than a “low risk, planned hospital birth.”

This has been proven throughout the world, and midwifery methods have now been adapted by many countries due to these undeniable studies.

After James, I had to know the science behind everything. I didn’t want speculation, I wanted the proof. I wanted to know how every aspect of birth unraveled. And found it. However, instead of this knowledge giving me more control, Joséphines birth taught me to surrender. After pursuing years of evidence based science, education, courses, certifications and studies, I knew the many ways of how birth could unravel, and the factors that can influence it. But I still struggled to fully give it up to God. Throughout her pregnancy, the Lord stripped me of this more times than I’d like to reflect on, and showed me how to surrender to both Him and my husband. I gained an invaluable softness from this birth, and cannot wait to continue pursuing it.

Ultimately, we can pursue something with the entirety of our soul, yet still everything lies in His hands… and only in that trust, and surrender, does peace live.

“When a woman births, she does not just give birth to a baby — she gives birth to herself.”