diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index aecb92ad0..38aab54ac 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -1242,6 +1242,19 @@ version = "1.0.5"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "92773504d58c093f6de2459af4af33faa518c13451eb8f2b5698ed3d36e7c813"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "ease-off"
+version = "0.1.6"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "20e90ae5e739d99dc0406f9a4e2307a999625e2414d2ecc4fbb4ded8a3945f77"
+dependencies = [
+ "async-io",
+ "pin-project",
+ "rand",
+ "thiserror 1.0.69",
+ "tokio",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "either"
 version = "1.15.0"
@@ -3544,10 +3557,10 @@ dependencies = [
  "chrono",
  "crc",
  "crossbeam-queue",
+ "ease-off",
  "either",
  "event-listener 5.4.0",
  "futures-core",
- "futures-intrusive",
  "futures-io",
  "futures-util",
  "hashbrown 0.16.0",
@@ -3560,6 +3573,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "memchr",
  "native-tls",
  "percent-encoding",
+ "pin-project-lite",
  "rust_decimal",
  "rustls",
  "rustls-native-certs",
diff --git a/sqlx-core/src/error.rs b/sqlx-core/src/error.rs
index ff416ed2f..00b1a6406 100644
--- a/sqlx-core/src/error.rs
+++ b/sqlx-core/src/error.rs
@@ -289,13 +289,13 @@ pub trait DatabaseError: 'static + Send + Sync + StdError {
     /// For example, the Postgres driver overrides this to return `true` for the following error codes:
     ///
     /// * `53300 too_many_connections`: returned when the maximum connections are exceeded
-    /// on the server. Assumed to be the result of a temporary overcommit
-    /// (e.g. an extra application replica being spun up to replace one that is going down).
+    ///   on the server. Assumed to be the result of a temporary overcommit
+    ///   (e.g. an extra application replica being spun up to replace one that is going down).
     ///   * This error being consistently logged or returned is a likely indicator of a misconfiguration;
     ///     the sum of [`PoolOptions::max_connections`] for all replicas should not exceed
     ///     the maximum connections allowed by the server.
     /// * `57P03 cannot_connect_now`: returned when the database server is still starting up
-    /// and the tcop component is not ready to accept connections yet.
+    ///   and the tcop component is not ready to accept connections yet.
     fn is_retryable_connect_error(&self) -> bool {
         false
     }
diff --git a/sqlx-core/src/pool/connect.rs b/sqlx-core/src/pool/connect.rs
index 187dab929..f1f7ce7d4 100644
--- a/sqlx-core/src/pool/connect.rs
+++ b/sqlx-core/src/pool/connect.rs
@@ -1,21 +1,18 @@
 use crate::connection::{ConnectOptions, Connection};
 use crate::database::Database;
-use crate::pool::connection::{Floating, Live};
+use crate::pool::connection::Floating;
 use crate::pool::inner::PoolInner;
 use crate::pool::PoolConnection;
 use crate::rt::JoinHandle;
 use crate::Error;
 use ease_off::EaseOff;
-use event_listener::{Event, EventListener};
+use event_listener::Event;
 use std::fmt::{Display, Formatter};
 use std::future::Future;
-use std::pin::Pin;
 use std::ptr;
 use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicUsize, Ordering};
-use std::sync::{Arc, RwLock};
-use std::task::{Context, Poll};
-use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
-use tracing::Instrument;
+use std::sync::Arc;
+use std::time::Instant;
 
 use std::io;
 
@@ -74,7 +71,7 @@ use std::io;
 /// `set_connect_options` and `get_connect_options` were removed in 0.9.0 because they complicated
 /// the pool internals. They can be reimplemented by capturing a mutex, or similar, in the callback.
 ///
-/// This example uses Postgres and [`tokio::sync::Mutex`] but may be adapted to any driver
+/// This example uses Postgres and [`tokio::sync::RwLock`] but may be adapted to any driver
 /// or `async-std`, respectively.
 ///
 /// ```rust,no_run
@@ -197,11 +194,11 @@ pub trait PoolConnector<DB: Database>: Send + Sync + 'static {
     ///
     /// * [`io::ErrorKind::ConnectionRefused`]
     /// * Database errors for which
-    /// [`is_retryable_connect_error`][crate::error::DatabaseError::is_retryable_connect_error]
-    /// returns `true`.
+    ///   [`is_retryable_connect_error`][crate::error::DatabaseError::is_retryable_connect_error]
+    ///   returns `true`.
     /// * [`Error::PoolConnector`] with `retryable: true`.
-    /// This error kind is not returned internally and is designed to allow this method to return
-    /// arbitrary error types not otherwise supported.
+    ///   This error kind is not returned internally and is designed to allow this method to return
+    ///   arbitrary error types not otherwise supported.
     ///
     /// Manual implementations of this method may also use the signature:
     /// ```rust,ignore
@@ -363,7 +360,7 @@ impl ConnectionCounter {
         // Check that `self` can increase size first before we check the parent.
         let acquired = self.acquire_permit_self(pool).await;
 
-        if let Some(parent) = &pool.options.parent_pool {
+        if let Some(parent) = pool.parent() {
             let (_, permit) = parent.0.counter.acquire_permit_self(&parent.0).await;
 
             // consume the parent permit
diff --git a/sqlx-core/src/pool/connection.rs b/sqlx-core/src/pool/connection.rs
index f4d6e765c..76e4e24b0 100644
--- a/sqlx-core/src/pool/connection.rs
+++ b/sqlx-core/src/pool/connection.rs
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@ use std::ops::{Deref, DerefMut};
 use std::sync::Arc;
 use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
 
-use crate::sync::AsyncSemaphoreReleaser;
-
 use crate::connection::Connection;
 use crate::database::Database;
 use crate::error::Error;
diff --git a/sqlx-core/src/pool/inner.rs b/sqlx-core/src/pool/inner.rs
index a700f9fa4..da9b0add3 100644
--- a/sqlx-core/src/pool/inner.rs
+++ b/sqlx-core/src/pool/inner.rs
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ impl<DB: Database> PoolInner<DB> {
         }
     }
 
-    fn parent(&self) -> Option<&Pool<DB>> {
+    pub(super) fn parent(&self) -> Option<&Pool<DB>> {
         self.options.parent_pool.as_ref()
     }
 
diff --git a/sqlx-core/src/pool/mod.rs b/sqlx-core/src/pool/mod.rs
index 0caa1161c..978f101da 100644
--- a/sqlx-core/src/pool/mod.rs
+++ b/sqlx-core/src/pool/mod.rs
@@ -59,7 +59,6 @@ use std::future::Future;
 use std::pin::{pin, Pin};
 use std::sync::Arc;
 use std::task::{ready, Context, Poll};
-use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
 
 use event_listener::EventListener;
 use futures_core::FusedFuture;
@@ -628,15 +627,6 @@ impl FusedFuture for CloseEvent {
     }
 }
 
-/// get the time between the deadline and now and use that as our timeout
-///
-/// returns `Error::PoolTimedOut` if the deadline is in the past
-fn deadline_as_timeout(deadline: Instant) -> Result<Duration, Error> {
-    deadline
-        .checked_duration_since(Instant::now())
-        .ok_or(Error::PoolTimedOut)
-}
-
 #[test]
 #[allow(dead_code)]
 fn assert_pool_traits() {
diff --git a/sqlx-core/src/rt/mod.rs b/sqlx-core/src/rt/mod.rs
index 1da096d93..0044139f5 100644
--- a/sqlx-core/src/rt/mod.rs
+++ b/sqlx-core/src/rt/mod.rs
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ pub async fn timeout_at<F: Future>(deadline: Instant, f: F) -> Result<F::Output,
     }
 
     #[cfg(not(feature = "_rt-async-std"))]
-    missing_rt((duration, f))
+    missing_rt((deadline, f))
 }
 
 pub async fn sleep(duration: Duration) {