Bode and Morgan Miller have shared intimate details about the ‘incredible’ home birth of their identical twin boys Asher and Aksel late last year.
In a series of videos shared on her Instagram Stories, Morgan, 32, interviews Bode, 42, about the day as he recalls what it was like to help deliver their sons with the help of his mother, Jo Kenney, after their midwives failed to arrive on time.
‘Please be gentle as this is a very intimate and sacred space that I am opening up to you all…birth is such a personal decision and this is how I chose to birth my babies,’ she wrote in her first post.
Looking back: Bode and Morgan Miller have opened up about the ‘incredible’ home birth of their twin boys
Bundles of joy: Bode, 42, and Morgan, 32, welcomed identical twin boys Asher and Aksel on November 8, 2019, just a few days before her due date
‘I’m sharing because I want you to see we women are bad** mothers and our bodies are beautiful. It’s a scary emotional ride but damn, we are capable of so much more than we even know,’ she added.
‘Continue with an open mind and an open heart…and a strong stomach AND remember, you don’t have to continue if you don’t want to.’
The first clip begins with Bode opening up about the weeks leading up to the birth of the twins, who are now 15 weeks old.
‘One of the interesting parts about it was my prediction that I was going to have identical twin boys born on my birthday,’ he explains. ‘My birthday’s October 12 and as we got towards October 12 it was looking like it was very possible. It was within that window of early pregnancy for twins.’
The former Olympic skier goes on to note that Morgan is ‘stubborn’ and their sons ended up going ‘back in hibernation mode,’ which he says was ‘absolutely the right thing.’
Advice: In her first post, Morgan urged her followers to ‘continued with an open mind and an open heart’
Memories: In a series of videos shared on her Instagram Stories, Morgan interviews Bode about the day he delivered their sons after their midwives failed to arrive on time
Flashback: Morgan says she carried their twins for ’39 weeks and four days,’ noting it was her longest pregnancy
‘It was my longest pregnancy,’ Morgan adds. ‘I went 39 weeks and four days with twins, which is unheard of, and all of my other babies were early.’
After nearly a month, the couple decided to induce the birth with ‘baby rocket fuel’ while their children were in school.
‘You were like, “I’m over this,”‘ Bode recalls, and Morgan admits that she was ‘mentally, physically cooked.’
The couple was with Bode’s mother, who is a midwife, and after Morgan started to feel some contractions, he prepped for the delivery.
‘I was more or less in baby mode at that point,’ he explains. ‘I started filling up the tub, even though Morgan was like, “What are you doing? The water’s going to get cold. It’s gonna hurt.” I was like, “Alright, well, I’m filling it up.’
Start of it all: Before the midwives arrived, Bode helped his wife by pushing her hips and Morgan ‘felt the head start to come out’
So fast: Morgan planned on having a water birth, but she couldn’t make it to the tub when her contractions intensified. Her first son was born after just a few pushes
Ready to go: While they thought they had some time before their second son arrived, their second son was born shortly after
Morgan says around 2:15 in the afternoon she texted her midwife a picture of her contraction counter and told her not to rush coming over.
While they were on their way, she had a change of heart about having a home birth, but it was too late.
‘You said, “I don’t want to do this today. I’m going to the hospital. I want to get an epidural,”‘ Bode recalls. ‘I said, “Well that’s not going to happen. That window has passed.”‘
After about 15 minutes, Morgan’s contractions intensified, and she started to go into labor — before her midwives had arrived.
‘You went over to the other side of the bed and said, “Come push my hips,” so I got up and came over and pushed on them,’ Bode says of the moment. ‘And within like three contractions I could really feel them going apart when I was pushing them together, which means that baby’s head is really getting low down in there and actually pushing apart your pelvis.’
No waiting: The proud dad says their second ‘came in one contraction’
Reaction: Bode recalls his wife laughing hysterically while giving birth
‘So this is like 3 o’clock now,’ Morgan adds from behind the camera. ‘I’m on the other side of the bed and I looked at the tub on the other side of the room, decided it was too far for me to get there so fell to my knees on the side of the bed.’
Although they had prepared a birth kit, everything happened so quickly that they only had a towel nearby when it was time to welcome their sons.
Bode was helping his wife by pushing her hips and Morgan ‘felt the head start to come out.’
‘As soon as I let go, the baby kind of came out,’ he says, explaining that Morgan caught half of their son, and he caught the rest.
‘He was fully in the sack of water until his feet were all the way out,’ he notes. ‘He was more or less in this clear water balloon looking right at me out of the water, which was crazy.’
Crowd: After the boys were born, the midwives arrived, and Bode says it became a ‘jumble of mayhem’
What a day: The midwives, including Bode’s mother, Jo Kenney, helped clean the babies off and get Morgan in bed
Special moment: Bode’s mother gave him a sweet hug after his sons were born
Bonding time: ‘It was incredible. It couldn’t have been any better if you had scripted it,’ Bode says of the moment
After his son’s feet broke through the sack, Bode cleaned him off and passed him to his mother.
‘He was covered in vernix but completely healthy and happy,’ Bode recalls.
While they thought they had some time before their second son arrived, the proud dad says he ‘came in one contraction.’
After the boys were born, the midwives arrived, and Bode says it became a ‘jumble of mayhem.’
‘They were like, “Oh my god, holy s**t, what are you doing?” he recalls. ‘I was like, “I guess having babies? I don’t know.”‘
All smiles: Bode and Morgan shared heartwarming family photos of the moment just a few days after she gave birth
Astounding experience: The former Olympic ski racer said that delivering his twins was ‘one of the more crazy things I’ve ever experienced’
Intimate moment: ‘A day that couldn’t have been scripted and aligned more perfectly to bring these two into the world,’ Morgan wrote in her caption when sharing pictures of her twins
Morgan was hoping for a quick delivery before her kids got back from school, and she got both of her wishes.
‘It was incredible. It couldn’t have been any better if you had scripted it,’ Bode says. ‘It was literally ideal.’
Bode and Morgan announced the news of her pregnancy just 14 months after their daughter Emeline died.
The couple was attending a neighbor’s party in June 2018 when their daughter, who was just 19 months old at the time, ended up in the pool.
Emeline was rescued from the water, but paramedics were unable to revive her, and she later died in hospital.
Exciting! The couple announced they were expecting in August, just 14 months after they lost their daughter Emeline in a tragic drowning accident
Tragic: Emmy drowned in a neighbor’s swimming pool in June 2018 when she was just 19 months old. Her picture was featured on Morgan’s phone case (right)
Double trouble! Bode and Morgan have two sons, five-year-old Nash and one-year-old Easton, and a daughter Neesyn, 12, and son Samuel, seve, from Bode’s previous relationships
Morgan, who was pregnant with her son Easton at the time, said ‘losing a child while pregnant was the most confusing experience of my life.’
Bode and Morgan have two sons, five-year-old Nash and one-year-old Easton. They also have a daughter Neesyn, 12, and son Samuel, seven, from Bode’s previous relationships.
When Morgan announced in August that she was expecting twins, she called her pregnancy as a ‘miracle,’ one that she believes her daughter Emeline had ‘her hand’ in.
‘From the day I met my husband, he has always said he wanted identical twin boys born on his birthday,’ Morgan wrote on Instagram while announcing the joyous news.
‘We are due on the lucky day/angel number of 11/11 which is not far off from @millerbode birthday of 10/12. From the beginning of this pregnancy, we knew Emmy had her hands in this miracle somehow.’