Marianne Elizabeth Photography

The Entire Experience

First off, let me apologize for being so far behind on blog posting.  Life has really been busy lately, which is great, but means far less blog posts.  I am not a writer, words come easily to me when talking to people, but sit me down in front of the computer to write a blog post and the words just stop.  I have ideas, but putting those ideas on paper in coherent sentences doesn’t always come easily.  So I procrastinate.  Needless to say over the past month, I have had the opportunity to capture such amazing photographs and meet some awesome families, and now I MUST devote some time to documenting these sessions, so I digress.

I met Ana through work.  She would stop by to say hi to a friend that works with me, and I noticed she was pregnant and GORGEOUS.  I knew I would love to have the opportunity to capture that “maternity glow” and we set up the session.  She was so open to any of my ideas and definitely game for whatever!!! I love clients like that.  Clients that have vision of their own, while still allowing me to direct the session and sometimes push the creative envelope – basically clients that trust my vision.  Ana was definitely this kind of client, she knew what she wanted, but trusted me to capture it and didn’t worry!! We met one weekend in January for the session and really hit it off.  Normally, I shoot the maternity session and then await the arrival of the baby for their newborn session, but something about Ana and her openness pushed me to see if she would be interested in having the birth documented.

Let me say this isn’t for all clients and it is a very intimate experience, so I feel you must be totally comfortable with a basic stranger hanging out with you during a time when you might not feel/look your best.  Photographing a birth is a long and exhausting experience.  You basically hang out at the hospital for about 12 hours, because you know if you were to leave, the baby would make their arrival at that very movement.  It is just like at a restaurant, as soon as you get up to use the restroom the food comes!!! Anyways, so I got a message at 3:00 Am that she was heading to the hospital, she was about 5cm dilated at this point.  I figured, wow, this baby will be here by noon and I can still head off to my 9-5 (which is never 9-5 ha).  I got the hospital at 6:30am and she was 7-8cm at this point.  She had a wonderful cheering section.  Her sister and brother-in-law were visiting from Spain to welcome the arrival of baby J, Dad was there, and me!  Ana felt pretty good, she was more worried about sprucing up here lip gloss and mascara then anything else.  The room remained pretty quiet for the next few hours.  I chatted with her and snapped a few shots, but nothing really changed for the next 8 hours.  We all slept on and off, and awaited any changes.  Let me say that up until the birth, you do think to yourself, what am I doing here?!  What if the baby doesn’t come today?!  What will it be like?  It is the most amazing experience you can ever be a part of.  It is so emotional and beautiful and captivating.  As the time got closer and we prepared for the pushing, the DR told me I couldn’t take any pictures until she determined that everything was okay with the baby.  Ana desperately wanted a picture of John cutting the umbilical cord, so we asked the DR. if this would be okay.  She gave a noncommittal response and we dropped the subject.

THEN

Ana started pushing.  Intense.  That is the only word I have to explain what the actual “birth” was like.  I was standing at her head, camera around my neck, but not allowed to photograph at this point.  Daddy was at her left side and her sister and brother-in-law were standing behind us.  Everyone was trying to see if baby was making her arrival.  Ana was pushing and asking John (I think because they primarily speak Spanish when talking to each other) what the baby looked like (granted she wasn’t born yet).  Well at this point, the nurse yells to be to help Ana push.  I really didn’t know what this meant, but I grabbed her and started coaching her to breathe, to push harder, to breathe again.  She pushed for 7 minutes and baby Johana was born, I remember looking over at her sister, with tears streaming down her face smiling, it was such an amazing experience.  Wow.

THEN

The DR. says time to cut the cord, here you go (to daddy) and says to me are you ready, get the picture… OH CRAP, camera was not set, I still was hovering around Ana head, mesmerized at this miracle, and NOT ready for the moment that I was there for… I got a few shots, but it all happened so fast, and then the DR said “did you get them, no more pictures right now” .. well, that is the moment I had been waiting for, and I wasn’t entirely ready, but luckily, I got a couple!!!

Baby Johana was born February 22, 2012 a little past 6:00 in the evening.  She weighed in at exactly 7lbs and is doing very well.  What an amazing experience!  Congratulations to both Ana and John – and sincerely thank you for letting me share in this amazing day!