I shared Gilbert’s written birth story with a small smattering of photo previews long ago, shortly after his birth. But for various reasons — none of them very interesting — I have not shared the motherload of incredibly artful images my gifted birth photographer, Cherith Hope, created for us.

But now that he’s 9 months old, it seems a good time to go back down that memory lane and also to share the visual story.

It starts in the middle of the night, when I thought I was in labor. I got candles and lighting set up, music playing, summoned my midwife and photographer….

You can see in the next photos that I am NOT in labor land. I’m far to present, self-conscious and chatty.

So we decided I should get out of the pool and go to bed. The birth team went downstairs to rest, then ultimately left.

Labor was not established. Until the early morning when the sun began to rise. And then suddenly it began in earnest. I was writhing in full-on and very painful transition. (No photos of that). So we called the team back over… (many more details are of course in the written story).

Agitated, I tried every position I could think of. Nothing felt good.

But then his head was coming, and born.

Contractions stayed strong but pushing accomplished nothing. Shoulders felt caught. I called to my midwife to assist. She did a gentle maneuver to help loose his shoulders…

And out he came…

I don’t know if I’ve ever been so expressive after any of my other births!

In my hurry to get my baby into my arms, we hadn’t yet passed him through my legs (his cord was running under my thigh and up my side). So then it was time to pass him through…

It was time to move to the bed to await the placenta. (Spoiler alert: it took a long time).

One of many reasons to love home birth is this right here: the older siblings being able to meet and greet and touch their new sibling so soon after birth.

Doing all the things to try to get that placenta to come.

Ultimately, a manual extraction was what I opted for. No photos of that. Oof.

But isn’t my wooden heart-shaped placenta bowl beautiful?

Placenta “tour” for the kids accomplished, it was now time for the cord burning ceremony.

My eldest surprised me with a beautiful “eggs in a basket” necklace that she made. One egg per child. So sweet.

And that’s a wrap!