'Bachelor in Paradise' couple recounts the 'crazy' moment they delivered their baby in a closet
Bachelor nation's beloved "Paradise" couple Jade Roper Tolbert and Tanner Tolbert recently welcomed a new baby -- who was born healthy, happy and in their bedroom closet.
"We were told to expect him to come quick," Roper Tolbert told "Good Morning America" of the birth of their second child.
"Or quicker," her husband added. "It happened in under ..."
"An hour!" Roper Tolbert exclaimed.
The excited new mama posted a picture on Instagram of their bedroom closet following their surprise at-home delivery.
"When the water broke. We were actually watching, 'The Bachelorette' right here, the finale," Tolbert said. "So we called her midwife -- at the doctor. And she was, like, 'All right, just time your contractions. It's okay. Take a little time'"
Roper Tolbert said she had a playlist of birth affirmations and calming music.
"I was carrying my phone around listening to it, and I was trying to listen to it but it was just ... I couldn't keep on top of the pain or the contractions," she said.
"It was just so intense," she added. "I felt like so instinctual. Like, I am just surrendering to this process that's happening. And that's all I could do ... it was pretty crazy, but I just knew this is where I was gonna birth my baby."
Her husband recalled that he just heard a "blood curdling scream."
"She's like, 'It's happening,'" he added. "I was, like, 'We just need to get in the car. And I'll drive. And we'll get there and it'll be fine.' But she was, like, 'I can't. Tanner, I can't go down the stairs.'"
"And sure enough after we got her situated the baby's head was fully in the birth canal," Tolbert said.
They said they called 911 and both of their mothers. Paramedics arrived in just minutes, and the couple were soon holding their newborn baby in their arms.
Roper Tolbert said she was "in shock still five or six hours afterwards when we were -- in the hospital and just, like, holding him and just, like, I can't believe that actually just happened."
While their son, Brooks, had a dramatic entrance into the world, the couple's story gives many hope. Like so many couples, their conceiving journey included a miscarriage.
"I think it just makes you, like, so thankful when your baby's okay," Roper Tolbert said of her miscarriage. "You know, that was what was so scary."
"To hear that first cry and to, like -- the paramedics were so great. They let me, like, still, like, put him on my chest and do skin to skin and everything that I wanted as a mother," she added. "I'm just very, very thankful for everybody who was still there for me."
Tolbert added that, "Once you realize Mama and baby are healthy that's really all that matters."
The couple has spoken publicly about their struggles to conceive, and said they hope their story encourages others who may also be struggling.
"I've received so many messages from other women and men and just that there is hope," Roper Tolbert said.
Her husband added that he's learned that "even when things don't go your way ... the juice is worth the squeeze."
"Its worth the risk -- because that moment you do hold ... your child finally, it's worth all the ups and downs and weird path you took to get there," he said. " For sure."
