A Baby-Moon or Full Moon Baby?
How were we to know that labor was near? His due date was August 7th, 2025. On Sunday July 6th, 2025 I donned my bathing suit for our monthly progress picture and my once round belly now resembled a watermelon. I could feel him engaged nice and low and attributed his progress to our time recently spent in the swimming pool. A friend at church even noted that my belly had dropped. I was relieved that I was not the only one to notice this dramatic difference.
I was diligently ingesting $100 worth of Dr. Christopher’s herbal concoctions - Birth Prep, Complete Tissue (to prevent tearing) and the Lower Bowel formula to support the constant battle of constipation during pregnancy. I had been trying to regulate but still struggling slightly. It was not a complete surprise to me when on Wednesday, July 9th, I started to feel intense pressure while going to the bathroom. Was my colon obstructed? How could one feel that pressure while simply squatting on the potty?
At the beginning of July, Bob and I scheduled a baby-moon vacation in Las Vegas and had recently made our hotel reservations and purchased tickets to the new New York themed Cirque du Soleil show on Friday night. I had all five of our bags packed, two for Las Vegas and three for a two night stay at Grandma's house. I even managed to pack a bin of toys for the boys to be entertained or to entertain Grandma at her house for forty eight hours. I set my alarm for 7 am on Thursday morning for our adventure south. There was a small sense of trepidation that I would be uncomfortable in 110° heat without a concrete plan to stay wet & cool for 2 days in the desert. I packed numerous swim suits and cover ups, and felt elated to have one weekend together before we became a family of six.
I was deep in sleep dreaming of rainbows and unicorns when the pillow between my legs became drenched with fluid. In the bathroom, I was alarmed there was so much fluid, and that the fluid was not clear, but pink with blood. My incredible midwife, Sarah answered on the first ring, the full Moon had pulled another mom into labor and thus the Midwive had been called, she was awake and on duty. I continued to text her images of my pads completely soaked pink, feeling worried that the standard bloody show had exceeded it's limits; but she reassured me that all was within range of normalcy. I was not feeling encouraged as my last Premature Rupture of Membranes led to Christian’s C-Section nearly eight years ago. With the births of our second and third babies, my water did not break until I was pushing. Sarah reassured me it’s acceptable for labor to begin after your water breaks, and there is not an imaginary clock attached within the walls of my uterus that 24 hours later, evacuation was imminent. In her own experience, a mother did not start labor until 5 days after her water was broken. It took me an hour, but I finally accepted the fact, we were not going on our Baby-moon but having a baby because of the full moon.
Bob was extremely supportive and had already texted his mom, Nancy. My water broke at 1:40 am, and finally at 4 am I was able to relax and go back to bed. I hoped to have a labor similar to Liam’s with contractions ramping up in the early morning and within a few hours be in active labor. When I woke up the next morning, my fears of a "long labor" were beginning to set in as I had not experienced one meaningful contraction all night. There had been brief and infrequent tightenings that took place but nothing to write home about. I decided to notify my family on the family text thread and reassures we would let them know of future progress. It was 10 am when I suggested that Bob take the boys to Ninja kids for a few hours before going to Grandma Nancy’s. Both Bob and I began putzing around trying to make preparations for our baby to arrive a month early and for labor. Our nursery still had the reading nest and a disassembled crib but luckily my husband has set it up four times and knew how to make quick work of the setup. I had the boys around the house, not wanting my In-Laws to be on the clock any earlier than they needed to be. Nancy brought over Shepherd’s pie for dinner on Thursday night and Bob decided that we would not wait for labor to start, we would ship out the children that night! It was a very surreal feeling knowing it would be my last night pregnant. It was also discouraging that we had gone all day long without any signs of labor.
I switched my anticipated date of July 10th to a different date. At this point, I was not confident our baby would arrive on July 11th and was dreading a potential hospital transfer if baby boy decided to delay his arrival. Why would he dramatically break his water then wait and wait to start his final descent? My sister in law Carly called and reassured me that he would come but maybe just needed to make sure we were not 400 miles away from home in a strange town without the aid of our provider. That reassurance gave me peace and confidence that everything would work out according to plan.
I prepared for bed with the hopes that we would not sleep but welcome a baby instead. To my true surprise I slept until 3:30 am without a single contraction and then was only awake to go to the bathroom. I played a hypno birthing track and willed myself to have “open” thoughts. Around 8 am I had one progressive contraction and we planned for my Midwife to visit and check on me and the baby. In the meantime, she texted me an outline of how to get labor going
9 am - 2 bags dandelion tea, 6 Birth prep capsules
9:30 - pump
10 - Castor oil massage on belly
10:30 - pump
11 - Castor oil, 2 kidney pills
11:30 - curb walking, pump
12 - 2 bags tea, 2 Royal bee jelly capsules
12:30 - pump
1 - raspberry leaf tea
1:30 - pump, 4 Birth prep capsules
2 - midwives brew
My heart sank reading this text as I wanted his labor to be unscheduled and peaceful. I didn't want to stress about the timing of the interventions and push him along. But I also knew that he needed to be born today as we were approaching 30 hours since my waters were broken.
Baby had a crib in his nursery now, the carseat was installed, and we were ready for his arrival! the only thing I could think of was that we had not taken maternity photos. I got to work getting the old barn painted and curled my hair. We took a handful of fun photos out in the backyard and there was one contraction that required my concentration and my focused breathing.
My goal for this labor was to remain grounded during the contractions, confident and certain that I could take on each sixty second contraction with grace and ease. Sarah arrived around noon to check on me and baby. While doing the measurements, we noted that I had lost 4 inches from the size of my belly after my water broke.
Both baby and I looked great and so we decided that it was time to help tip the scales and naturally induce labor! Sarah pulled out her herbal remedies. And by pulling out the remedies, she pulled out all the stops! I swear I downed a dozen pills and a drink called "Contraction Boost". Even before she finished the checkup and left I had to stand and sway to manage the intensity of the contraction. We prepared for our curb walk (put on pants) and I noted how this mix of tinctures felt like a Pitocin contraction and I was not happy about it! My goal of staying grounded was being thwarted by these herbal remedies. All of a sudden I needed help with each contraction and felt the familiar pulls and tightenings deep within me. There is nothing like the feeling of being in labor, and surrending to it all!
As we walked on the edge of the sidewalk, I had to slow dance with Bob every few minutes. Because I wanted to rest in the shade I would start to hobble to get to the next tree before my contraction really ramped up. We laughed because I looked like Gollum or an aged woman in just an instant once that contraction hit. As we were heading home, Papi called and I had to hand him off to Bob to manage a strong surge. Yeah, my body was responding. So I texted that to Sarah. "My body is responding!" Her response was "Whoot". That made me laugh, and also consider sending a more direct message.
Bob suggested we call but I reminded him that even our fastest labor was 10 hours from the time contractions started regularly. I truly believed we had just started the race instead of the reality that we were mere minutes from the finish line. I sat on the dilation station both front and backwards and played hypnobirthing tracks to get in the right headspace and prepare baby to descend down and out. Bob inflated the birth tub. He texted on his phone to one of the numbers within the contact that it might be time for a check. 8 minutes later he received a reply – wrong number.
He then noticed my animalistic behaviors while I demanded a fan, help and for the intensity of the contractions to pass. I proclaimed “I’m going to throw up” and he handed me the frog urinal sitiing on the edge of the tub. I couldn't imagine throwing up in the urinal, so I shifted to the toilet but felt so hot and uncomfortable through the contraction that I shifted back to the sink with the fan whisking away the sweat on my brow. Labor is physically hard work!
Bob began texting from my phone since that thread was active. He texted Sarah the code to the front door, and the message "come Right in! She’s feeling the urge to push. How far out are you?" He Sent those text messages at 2:34 pm and 2:39pm.
At the same moment, I shouted to call the midwife! Bob placed the call, and she was on the phone with us as I dropped to my knees. I can recall the adage that when one is ready to deliver their baby they will drop to the ground. I felt an urge to push. Sarah said she was sixteen minutes away, and I knew that she would not make it. I couldn’t stop the feeling and had to urge to push and noticed a lot of blood & fluid. I had my left leg out in a gated table top position and was looking under my legs. I saw Bob had somehow managed to put on his orange shop gloves. That sneaky Bob!
I started bearing down and Bob proclaimed, “I see his hair.” Sarah asked what color was his skin. I tried to pant/push, to prevent tearing so I gave few smaller pushes, three little pants. I felt him descend and Bob proclaimed that his head was out. Sarah told us to push out his body but I waited a few seconds for a contraction to return again. After Bob slipped the cord over his head, his body wriggled out into the loving arms of his father. Bob shouted, "You did it! He's here!" and showed me the baby around my left arm but then passed the baby under my legs because of the umbilical cord. Our precious baby was here, snuggled up to my chest. I shifted to an awkward seated position and cradled the tiniest little baby in my arms. He was covered in vernix, blood and a full head of dark hair just like I had predicted. We have two blonde babies, and one boy who had dark, black hair.
The most beautiful sound was his tender cries (more like whimpering) right away. It was such a relief that he was vocal and warm in my arms. His body was pink and he was here! Four weeks early, in my arms with no one but me and Bob and the angels in the room.
I had such a surge of adrenaline and felt amazing. Neither Bob or I felt scared, we both just followed our instincts and for the first time in four births Bob was down under, catching our baby boy. I did in fact check while he was in my arms that he is a boy! 2:48 pm was the declared time of birth according to the phone records of our midwife; but later, we received a notification from Bob’s apple watch that had alerted him to a Loud Environment Sound at 2:50 pm.
There was a lot of blood on the floor but Bob still snapped a picture of this beautiful moment. One of the Midwives, Talia arrived a few minutes later and began to check on me and baby. We moved to the bed where I was able to birth the placenta and get a few stitches for a 2nd degree tear. Baby boy was 6 lbs, 18 inches long, and just utter perfection. Perfect eyes, fingers, toes, biceps, legs and one of his ears pointed like an elf. He began to nurse and stayed latched much longer than my other babies. I didn’t have the warm towels this time and felt the shakes in my legs. Bob made me a protein drink and took photos of our wondrous baby boy.
11:19 am was the time of our last maternity photo and 2:56 pm was the time stamp on the photo taken in the bathroom. Talk about an adventure. For over thirty-seven hours my water was broken and then just two hours of labor. On our walk I had bet Bob a million dollars I was not in active labor. I told him there was no way I was 6 cm dilated, when just a few minutes ago, I experienced my first contraction. I will never know if it was the curb walking, the hypno-birthing tracks or if cervical change was gradual from the time my water broke yesterday. The birth was more intense for the last forty minutes but the pushing stage was much shorter than I experienced with our previous babies. The euphoria was by far the greatest of all of the births I have experienced. We are so grateful for his safe and adventurous arrival. Hello little one, welcome to our world!
Birth Story of Ashton Robert Ziroll - July 11th, 2025
To prepare for birth visit Birth Made Mindful, and listen to The Best Birth Podcast!