My daughter is a badass

When my daughter told my wife and I that she wanted to do a natural birth in our home, we were extremely worried. Home birth is something that we knew nothing about. We have only known the traditional way to give birth here in America. The traditional way here in America is when the woman goes into labor, you rush to the hospital and hope that you get there in time for the doctors to give the woman an epidural so she isn't in as much pain when she delivers.

Over the last nine months, my wife and I learned as much as we could about a natural home birth and how much better it is for the baby and the mother. We also learned the best ways that we could support her during her labor. Let me tell you, this was the scariest and most beautiful experience I have ever been a part of.

Her water broke on Tuesday afternoon. We had just gotten back from an appointment with her midwives. When she told us that her water broke, it was pretty exciting and then the shock started to come in that it was time for her baby to begin his journey to say hello to the world.

During the early stages of labor, we tried to just keep our normal routine, so we started making dinner and she just ignored the contractions as much as she could. After we ate, we all just hung out together for a while and watched some of her favorite shows. It was important for her to try and ignore labor as much as possible because if she would have focused on it, then her body could have stalled progress.

About 130 in the morning, we started making cupcakes for his birthday. This kept our minds off of things for a while, but we were all getting pretty tired because we weren't used to being up this late. So we tried to lay down and rest our bodies and our minds. My wife and daughter stayed in our room and I tried to sleep in the living room on the ground, but that wasn't the most restful thing ever.

Our daughter labored throughout the night and her contractions were getting more and more intense as time passed. About five in the morning, things were getting pretty painful for her and she moved out into the living room. Her contractions were lasting about a minute long and were pretty consistent, but we weren't at the point where we needed to call the midwives for them to show up yet.

Her contractions were ramping up pretty quickly and my wife and I were starting to get pretty exhausted by this point. During her contractions, my wife would apply pressure to her back to relieve the pain, but after about 8 hours or so of doing this, it was getting pretty tiring.

About 830 in the morning, we called the midwives and when they showed up, it was like a massive weight was lifted off our shoulders and we knew we weren't in this alone. We had reached the limit on what we knew we could do, so to have help get there was amazing.

Once the midwives got there with all their medical gear, it gave my wife and I a chance to relax a bit. Her three best friends showed up to support her as well.

The amount of love and support for my daughter through this was so beautiful to see. When they moved her to the birthing pool, things started to get pretty intense. It was so cool to see my daughter listen to her body and move it in ways to push her baby down further.

She tried to rest as much as she could between contractions. It was so cool to see how she controlled her breathing and kind of entered a meditative state. The majority of her laboring, she had her eyes closed and just trusted her body and her midwives.

I am so glad that I am a photographer and was able to capture so many beautiful moments of this birth. As I was taking photos, I was thinking how amazing it is to be able to be in our home doing this where she is the most comfortable and that she is surrounded by love the entire time. When most people hear that she is a single mother, I am sure they make assumptions about everything, but they really have no idea how much support and love she has.

The love from her friends is a beautiful thing to see. Her and her friends have been through so much together and their bond is amazing.

Seeing my daughter in so much pain was so hard for me. I was scared the entire time. Throughout this entire thing, I gained such an appreciation for my wife and what she went through to bring our children into this world.

My wife and I would take turns helping her through contractions and when I was helping, she took photos. Most fathers would not want to be there when their daughter is giving birth, but I felt honored to be there and I loved that I could support her through this.

At one point, I was holding onto my daughter's arms so she could lean back with all her weight and push. It was so cool to be able to have the strength to do that. I never would have been able to do that before, but over the last two years, we have been working on our health and we are so grateful for our bodies.

It was beautiful to watch my wife support our daughter as well. It is crazy how many emotions came up during this whole experience. There were times when our daughter would be crying out in pain and my wife and I would just look at each other and cry because it was so hard to see our little baby girl in so much pain.

The love I have for my wife grew so much throughout all of this as well. I have such a deeper appreciation for her and the amazing mother she has been to our kids. She really is the best person I know.

While she was in the pool, it helped relieve some of the pain associated with her contractions, but after two hours or so of pushing in the pool, her midwives moved her out of the pool because her labor was stalling and she needed to move positions.

Things got very intense after she was moved out of the pool. They had her in different squatting and lunge positions through contractions to open her body up and move the baby down lower.

They had her move into the hallway and I attached a bed sheet with a knot tied in it to the door frame and she held it as she lowered down into a squat and pushed. Then after her contractions, she would pull herself up with her arms and rest. It was incredible to see the strength and determination she had in this moment.

She had been in labor for over 24 hours by this point and had been pushing for four hours and she still had the strength to lift her bodyweight up with her arms each time. It was so hard to watch her go through this part because he was almost out and the pain was so bad for her.

This was the moment that her baby was out. You can see the immediate relief in her face. When he started crying, that was such an amazing thing to hear. Our daughter has been waiting so long to meet her baby and the moment was finally here.

Later that night, my wife and I finally had some time to decompress and process the entire two days. It was a whirlwind of emotions and looking back through all the pictures I took, there are hundreds, it is cool to see it all and realize that we did it.

It definitely is something that I never thought I would have ever gone through, but I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to be there for my little girl. I really wish that more fathers have this chance to support their daughters. This was the scariest and most beautiful thing I have ever had a chance to witness.

He was born on May 8th, and it was one of my favorite days here on this earth. The love we all have for this little man is incredible.