Nothing about Ella's arrival went the way Ellie and James had planned. The home birth became a hospital transfer. The hypnobirthing prep met a reality that had its own ideas. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, Ellie found a part of herself she hadn't accessed before — one that carried her through.

In Part 2 of Ella's birth story, Ellie and James pick up from eight centimeters dilated at the hospital and walk through the rest: the pushing stage, the moment the doula whispered "you have to go beyond what you think is possible," what it felt like to meet their daughter for the first time, and what the six weeks since coming home have actually looked like — including the parts nobody tells you to prepare for.

They also talk about love as something that grows over time rather than arriving all at once, James going from someone who n ...