Perfect timing: The birth of Isla
"My takeaway from our birth experience was the amazing resilience of the human body and a deep, unshakeable pride and admiration for Lauren, who handled something as tremendous as birth with the utmost strength and dignity."
Unbridled joy: The birth of Isla
"With every contraction, I was pushing—though again, involuntarily—but I really had no sense of how close or far I was from delivery. My body was boss, and it took all of my focus and energy to keep up."
It’s a boy: The birth of Roland
"My plan was to get into the water before needing to push this time, so I waited until I was just at the point of unawareness that I wouldn't care about being nearly naked in front of everyone."
Team effort: The birth of Topher
"With each push I had to bear down, hold my breath and send all of my energy down low to a sustained push for as long as I could. Then, I'd take a quick breath and do it all over again."
Through fire and water: The birth of Aaron James
"I kept telling Dan not to get excited because I was so convinced that it was a false alarm. I had been reading on baby forums about women having contractions for days—even weeks—who weren’t dilated or effaced at all, so I thought I needed a go at false labor before the real thing would happen."
