Every birth photographer fears not making it to the birth in time and missing the delivery. It’s the things our nightmares are made of. It will happen, in my career I will miss a birth from a baby being born so quickly. But I never, in a million years, imagined I could nearly miss a birth while in the hospital’s waiting room, a mere 50 yards from my sweet client’s room. At 4 weeks postpartum myself, I was shooting my first birth after having my own baby and therefore needing to pump while at the hospital. Everyone was so understanding and gracious, even giving me a nice private room in the NICU to pump! Nolan’s very kind family offered to buy me lunch and I obliged. And thankfully so! Had I not stayed to eat lunch with them I most definitely would’ve missed this birth. After eating lunch I decided I better return to Kelly’s room and grab my pump for one last pumping session before things got moving. Upon returning to her room, I could clearly see she was in transition and in pain. The nurse checked her within seconds of me being in the room. Kelly was at 8cm. Mentally I thought I still had time to pump, bent down to get what I needed, before hearing a very distinct vocal range (to put things mildly). I turned around to realize the baby’s head was crowning! Organized chaos ensued. Yelling for doctor, pleading with Kelly not to push… in comes the doctor. Cool, calm, and collected, just in time to, quite literally, catch sweet Evie. Dr. E was amazing throughout the day. He had such a calm presence about him, even early on when Kelly thought her labor wasn’t progressing. His quiet reassurance was quite encouraging. And even in what seemed like craziness, all of the nurses and medical staff handled the moment like seasoned pros.
As photographers we have the pleasure of time-stamps on our photos… while editing, I looked back through these images leading up to delivery. From the time I stepped back into her room after lunch, to the time the baby was born was 3 minutes ladies and gentlemen. 3 MINUTES! She progressed from 8cm-10cm and baby born in 3 minutes.
Kelly was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. All natural, beautiful, powerful!
She had been rocking along all morning to her hypnobirth audio, smiling, laughing, loving on her husband.
These two! I swear, I’ve never seen a support system quite like what Nolan provided his bride. And you guys, his expressions are PRICELESS!
Kelly and Nolan waited until delivery to find out what they were having. But their precious first born knew the whole time, he even named his unknown sibling “Penelope”. When he entered the room to see his sister for the first time, Kelly and Nolan were worried he wouldn’t accept this new name, specially considering she was, in fact, a girl. They said, this is your sister… her name is Evie. And precious Oliver didn’t skip a beat. He looked at his sister with adoring eyes and simply said, “Hello Evie”.
Not many times do I say this, and don’t get me wrong Kelly and Ms. Evie are rockstars… But this time, I think the boys stole the show.
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