As a mom of six, Jes Hogan thought she knew what to expect before welcoming her little boy. Yet when her baby Maxwell Alexander arrived in July, this little boy proved that his delivery was also going to be completely different than his siblings’ births — and one that the witnesses will never forget.
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Little Leapling PhotographyHogan had experienced an uncomplicated pregnancy and wanted an intervention-free birth. After she didn’t dilate past four centimeters, she and her husband, Travis, went home to patiently wait for her contractions to intensify before heading back to the hospital four days later
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Little Leapling PhotographyHogan woke up in the middle of the night to a “strange, long” contraction and things started moving quickly. They left the house before she could even put shoes on and Hogan felt the baby coming as they were in the car. But Travis promised to get her to the hospital and he was determined to keep his word — even if that meant running a few red lights.
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Little Leapling PhotographyHogan just made it through the second set of automatic doors and noted that she was lucky the floor wasn’t carpeted. She knew, even if the hospital staff didn’t realize it yet, this baby was being born right here. “I then started to take my pants off because I could feel my body pushing the baby’s head out,” she wrote on her birth photographer Little Leapling’s blog. “I reached down and could feel his head crowning with my hand.”
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Little Leapling PhotographyTravis and the nurse both held the baby’s head as they laid her down.
“I looked at my husband and said, ‘Travis catch him!'” Hogan recalled. “Without any hesitation he did just that as I felt my body involuntarily pushing his head the rest of the way out.”
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Little Leapling Photography“Of course when the time came, he didn’t have much of a choice,” Tammy Karin of Little Leapling Photography tells CafeMom. “Later, he told her, ‘It wasn’t as gross as I thought it would be.’ He was really excited and feels like he has a special bond with both his son and wife because of it.”
More from CafeMom: This Is What It Looks Like to Be ‘Postpartum & Pregnant’ at the Same Time
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Little Leapling PhotographyAfter the baby’s head was delivered, the nurse removed his cord that was wrapped around Maxwell’s head. “He arrived on the floor just inside the entrance of the emergency room at 3:38 a.m.,” she wrote. “Less than 25 minutes from the time my water broke at home, and only a few moments after we stepped inside the hospital.”
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Little Leapling PhotographyHe also wasn’t crying at first and gave everyone a scare. “As it turns out, this is just his demeanor so far,” she wrote. “It was a bit scary only because he was so incredibly bruised from his entrance, but then he let out several more cries as they rubbed his back.”
More from CafeMom: This Baby Rocks a ‘Placenta Bag’ & His Mom Doesn’t Care If People Hate It
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Little Leapling Photography“It’s worth mentioning that fate must have had a hand in this, the nurse that first reached us and helped guide baby the rest of the way out was an OB nurse at another hospital,” Hogan wrote. “She worked part time at our local ER, and I couldn’t be more glad that she was there that morning!”
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Little Leapling PhotographyTravis cut the baby’s cord on the hospital floor, and after checking Mom’s vitals, they started to move her to the maternity ward. “I was also totally in love with the little person laying on me, and even more completely in love with my husband who didn’t miss a beat and kept his word that we would, in fact, make it to the hospital,” she wrote. “Even if it was only a few steps inside! My god, I truly don’t think I’ve ever been more enamored with that man.”
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Little Leapling Photography“It’s still surreal. Baby is healthy, bruised, but so healthy …. And I know I mentioned him before, but Travis is truly my hero. I don’t have words for how thankful I am for him. He kept me calm, he kept us safe, he always takes excellent care of us, and he is the most beautiful father and husband,” she wrote. “…. It was my craziest birth, but also, the most perfect. It was not at all what I had planned, but it ended without any intervention, with a healthy baby, and amazing [supportive] people by our sides.”
