Brooke is a dear friend for the last 15 years and when she came to me to capture the birth of her second baby I was honoured. I'm sure you could imagine how excited she was when she announced her 3rd pregnancy. I was invited to re-join this family in the birth suite for the birth of their second baby. With messages multiple times a week filled with updates, questions and cute little photos I was filled with joy to be involved. As Brooke neared her due date, she was admitted to the hospital for decreased fetal movement. It was decided after a CTG trace that they would be inducing immediately. I picked up her Shannon as he was at home looking after the 2 toddlers and we headed for the hospital. It was about 8pm when we arrived. I chose to be there from the start, as her last birth baby was born within 3 hours of the first dose of gel (prostaglandin). When we arrived, they administered the first dose of the gel. We stayed in a triage room for half an hour to see if it would be a repeat of last time. At the half hour mark there wasn't any signs that she would travel through labour quickly and it was decided that Brooke would be moved to the ward until things progressed. Only her partner was allowed to stay with her on the ward, so I went and got dinner and relaxed just outside the hospital entrance. At 11:30, Brooke messaged me that she was regularly contracting with a screen print of her contraction timer. When I rung the bell to be let back in the midwife was hesitant but allowed me in while she went to speak to Brooke about what was going on. Her first words when she entered the room were "prostaglandin's can cause false contractions". When I pointed out that Brooke was in a 3:1:1 (3 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute or longer, for 1 hour) pattern she agreed to move Brooke across to birth suite to do an examination, and sure enough Brooke was now sitting at 3cm. She was reconnected to CTG monitor and tried to stay as active as possible during these early stages. At about 4am the midwife that had been looking after Brooke went to her lunch break and she was given another midwife during this time. This midwife monitored her CTG for about 45 minutes and decided it was not reading active contractions and that Brooke needed to be sent back to the ward. Brooke requested an OB to do an examination before agreeing to be moved. The OB checked and found Brooke had only progressed to 4cm and decided to artificially break her waters. Within minutes of having her waters broken, Brooke's contractions were back to back and increased in intensity fast. She hit transition very quickly (from past experiences with Brooke's birth, the moment she starts demanding pain relief, baby is only just around the corner. By this stage Brooke had her original midwife back who agreed to a diamorphine injection. The pain relief was administered and only moments later Brooke screamed that she had to push. Fetal ejection reflex kicked in quickly at this stage and the head was almost fully delivered when the midwife started assisting. The head was delivered in 3 pushes and the body in 2 pushes, so all up 5 pushes and baby was lifted to Mum's chest. Every moment leading up to the birth, Shannon was an incredible support to Brooke. He did everything in his power to support and help Brooke through her labour. As baby was placed on Mum's chest, Mum and Dad soaked up all the emotions surrounding the new addition to their family. The "we did it" moment will always be my favourite to capture and this beautiful birth was like watching a fairy tale. After birth Brooke's cord was cut without her knowledge and Dad was only offered to cut what remained of the cord to a stump. An injection to speed up the delivery of the placenta was administered only minutes later and before Brooke got a chance to realise, her 1 biggest thing on her birth plan, delayed cord clamping, had been taken away from her. Baby Bohdi was admired by Dad while he had a fantastic breastfeed. Following a feed, he had his weights and measurements done where he showed everyone his first cry. While Mum got cleaned up, Dad had his first snuggle with baby. Godmother Catiee and I were then offered a hold. Thank you, I loved my little snuggle! I finally left the hospital at about 7am, went home for a recharge nap and returned in the afternoon to capture Shannon and Brooke's fresh 48 session where Dillon and Londynn met their younger brother.