lifeissweetphoto.com

I’m truly honored to be able to capture moments like these. Welcome to the world Penny Joy. xoxo
If you’re interested in having your birth photographed, please feel free to email me at tara@lifeissweetphoto.com
there is a very limited number of birth sessions that I can accept for 2012.

Last Thursday night I got the call that a sweet little girl named Penelope Joy would be entering the world 3 weeks early! It was a crisp winter night when I arrived. This adorable couple labored through the night and then we all witness a beautiful sunrise and a partial rainbow from the window of the hospital room. We all new something pretty special was about to happen! Finally at 2:12 pm, a sweet 5lb 10oz baby girl joined us and the room lite up with emotion. It was truly beautiful.

Photographing births is an absolute privilege and one of my favorite things about photography.  I’m really a terrible writer, but here is the birth story written to the best of my ability.  Hopefully the pictures are a better portrayal…and if you have time make sure and watch the full slideshow at the end!

Okay, so Molly and I found out we were just a couple weeks apart in our pregnancies and it was so much fun to have someone to chit chat with about our similar joy and complaints throughout the 9 month journey.  When she mentioned that she wanted to hire me to photograph the big day I was so excited and told her that I would do everything in my power to be there and that as long as she went into labor before me then I wouldn’t miss it for the world!  (She only beat me by about 36 hours….I think I willed myself to keep baby Ty in my belly until I could photograph this for them!).  We were staying in close contact in the weeks prior and I was getting updates and unfortunately she wasn’t dilated at her weekly visits and there were no real signs of imminent labor, but she had a very strong feeling that this baby would come on October 1st. At my check ups I keep progressing to the point that I was 3.5 cm dilated and 60% effaced and I was very nervous that baby Ty was just going to fly right out of there towards the end. (You mommas know what I’m talking about during those last few weeks!!)

Well, sure enough…12:30am on October 1st– I just laid my head down on my pillow to go to sleep for the night and I get a text message that Molly’s water broke!  This mama was so tuned in to her body…I can’t believe she totally pin pointed the date perfectly.  So I race around and made double triple sure that everything is in my camera bag…batteries charged–check, memory cards cleared–check, lenses cleaned–check!  I had water and snacks for me (knowing that births can go for 8+ hours and I don’t usually get time to sneak away and eat). I was READY!  So then, I chat with her wonder hubby and they were ever so sweet and cognisant of my comfort that they wanted me to wait until they checked in and made sure things were moving along before I got down there….so I waited at home…and waited….and waited….WAY too excited to sleep. And finally made the trek down to Seton Medical center around 5am.  When I arrived Molly was doing great.  Contractions were getting stronger, and with the support of Jeff she breathed through them with total elegance and full composure.  She was making it look easy!  Which was good…since I was about to go through it, I don’t know how I would have felt had she been screaming like a banshee!  By about 6:30am Molly got some relief from pain medication administered through her IV, but by 8am that wasn’t providing enough relief so in came the anesthesiologist (thank heavens for epidurals!).  By 9am things were really moving along.  Molly started pushing by 9:20 and the beautiful Andi Lauren was born at 9:43am.  It was such a beautiful, smooth, calm and (dare I say it) peaceful birth.  I love looking through all the photographs and seeing the progression from when I arrived at 5am, still dark, in the calm of the night with just the intimacy of a husband and wife laboring through and growing their family.  And then watching the birth unfold as the morning developed and it turned into the most magnificent fall day.

After everything wrapped up, I was able to get home around 12:30pm and rest that afternoon…got a great nights rest and then went into labor the next evening myself!  My birth story will come soon in another post.

This family couldn’t be any sweeter and I truly love documenting several of their families milestones.  I am so lucky to have clients and (now friends) as wonderful as them.  Can you believe that they were sweet enough to bring us dinner just a couple weeks after giving birth herself?!!?  Seriously supermom!