If there were ever a woman who looked like a *goddess* during birth, it would have been Reagan.
This was definitely one of the calmest, fastest, and most lovely birth experiences I have ever been witness to. Such strength and beauty!
(Please click on “View Full Post” to read their birth story before watching their film. As always, this film is **completely modest**.)
A little backstory to begin. Reagan and I met about 4 years ago in a photography workshop here in Denver, CO. We really hit it off and exchanged information, following each other’s work and business as we grew and followed our own passions. Even though we live a good 45 minutes apart, we’ve stayed in touch and have started taking each other’s family photos every fall. As I transitioned into doing birth photography & videography full time, she loved following my new style. Once she told me she was pregnant again, we both got giddy over the idea of me capturing it! Even though it is still a pretty new concept in the world of photography, she didn’t need much convincing that this would be totally worth it.
She was due on Christmas Day, the same day as one of my other closest friends, whose birth I was also scheduled to capture (along with 5 other mommas in the surrounding weeks!) Needless to say, I sure was looking forward to the holidays this year!!
Reagan truly is one of the sweetest, kindest friends & moms I have ever met. As you can tell quite easily from their video, she fills every room with joy and laughter! I was SO looking forward to celebrating her daughter’s birth with her.
Now on to the birth day. I’ll let mom tell the story from her side first…
“It was December 31; my husband’s birthday and New Year’s Eve. Her estimated due date was Christmas Day, and we were now at 41 weeks. I had been thinking with my fourth child, she surely would come early so we had been thinking for weeks that any day could be THE DAY. I was beyond ready to meet this little girl and to not to be pregnant anymore. All day I was experiencing true labor contractions. They felt like they were coming from way down low and they were strong, almost achy, and long. However, they were very sporadic, each one only coming every one to two hours.
My 41 week doctor’s appointment was set for 4:30pm that day and we made it to the appointment. My midwife did a membrane sweep and confirmed I was at 5cm (I had been at 3cm since 38 weeks). After explaining what I had been experiencing throughout the day and the membrane sweep we felt it was best to not return to Evergreen (about 35 minutes away from the hospital) and just wait to see if things started to progress more rapidly as my births tend to go from really slow to super fast with no warning. So the family and I headed down to the Cherry Cricket restaurant for a birthday/New Year’s Eve dinner.
During dinner, I continued having sporadic contractions. After dinner a really strong one hit me as we were walking out to the car, then a few more in the car about 45 minutes apart. They were so strong that I felt this was the real deal. We dropped the boys off with their aunt, uncle and cousins and my 2 year old off with her Grandma and got to the hospital close to 8:30pm.
In the hospital, my contractions were still sporadic. It was nice to complete all admittance stuff, answer questions and get settled without having to get it all done between contractions. At 9:00 I took a bath to relax. While in the bath, I had two strong contractions and then they became more frequent. I decided to get out and lie down around 9:30. I started having chills, hot flashes and shaking legs. Between the contractions (and during), she was so active you can see the monitor moving on my stomach. I think she was trying to crawl out of my stomach! At 11:40 the midwife confirmed that I was fully dilated and if I had the urge to push, I could do that. However, the urge was not there, in fact no sensation was there except for total relaxation and peace. I could have taken a nap and I wanted too but I also was doing my best to have this baby on my husband’s birthday! About 20 minutes had passed, I looked at the clock and it was just past midnight. We missed my husband’s birthday and she was going to be born on her own day! I tried a new position and the contractions picked up again. They were really, really intense and were hard to breathe through. I found myself holding my breath, and tensing up due to the intensity of the contractions. I continued to breathe through the contractions the best I could and try to breathe my baby down. With a very strong contraction @ 12:27, I had the urge to push so I did and she came out head, body and all. She was sunny side up (that’s why I called her a little stinker…lol). I think she didn’t ease out with the contractions due to that fact. And here was my little baby, FINALLY in my arms.”
I usually have a pretty good sense of when a momma’s body and baby are getting ready to go into labor, but Reagan & Taryn threw me for a loop for the first time. THREE WEEKS prior Reagan had called me soon after a doctor’s visit where she found out she was 3cm dilated, and had started having regular contractions every night for a few days. Before her last daughter was born, she had contractions every evening for almost a week before she was born, so we thought her body was doing the same thing this time around.
We were wrong.
Late in the evening on December 14th, I got a text from her saying “Tonight might be it. Been having the most contractions so far, they take my breath away but only for a second.”
Knowing that she had delivered her last two kiddos REALLY fast, and the hospital she was delivering at was almost an hour away with no traffic or inclement weather, I knew I had to head out as soon as we knew this was it! So I slept in my clothes that night and had my bag packed and ready in the car. No dice. 😉
Little did we know it would be almost a full three weeks later that Taryn would wait to make her grand entrance!
A mere 4 hours after I photographed another birth, the timing worked out perfectly for me to capture the arrival of sweet little Taryn just 27 minutes into the New Year.
With what I could only describe as perfect peace and dignity, this beautiful fourth time momma breathed that little peanut down and out, so fast that none of us were anticipating her arrival until she was sliding into the patient midwife’s hands!
What a joy it was to be able to return several hours later to capture her three siblings meeting and holding her for the first time as well. So much love and joy exuding from this sweet family! Thank you, Reagan and Jeff, for allowing me to be small part of Taryn’s arrival into this world and your wonderful family. Love you all so much.
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Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia and Puyallup, Washington birth photographer & videographer
