maternity leave and birth photography

in

hi all!

this blog post is basically photo-free, and serves just to update you potential clients on my availability in 2015, as we prepare to welcome a new baby into our family (EDD March 28). 

between now and March 10, i'm happily still doing family photojournalism and portrait sessions (anyone want an outdoor, playful winter wonderland session?! or a cozy, in-home storytelling session of sweet family ordinariness?!). what follows are details for March 10 - the end of the year.

for birth photography:

i will not be photographing any births with EDDs in April or May or early June. if your EDD falls during this span of time, contact me for referrals to other excellent birth photographers. 

i already have a late june, late july, and early august birth booked. i will be accepting one more july birth, but it will need to be a home birth, so that i have the option of brining my newborn along. he will be exclusively breastfed (God willing), so I plan to wear him on my back to births during the first few months, and/or lay him down to rest in a portable crib in an unused room in the house where the birth is taking place. i recognize that this may seem odd to some, and so we can talk through the what-ifs regarding that situation if you have any hesitations about it. 

august is our family's sabbatical/vacation month, and so i will not be taking any more births besides the early august one i have already booked. 

i am WIDE OPEN for births with EDDs on or after September 10, 2015 (haha, maybe because these babies are yet to be conceived!), and expect to be able to accept home and hospital births after that date. i will only take two per month.

please get in touch and arrange for your birth photography as soon as you can in your pregnancy journey, as i expect the limited number of available slots will fill quickly. 

for family photojournalism and portraits:

i will not be booking any sessions in the months of April or May. i expect that I may be able to offer limited numbers of sessions in June and onward (with the exception of most of August), but will be playing it by ear based on what sort of baby i end up with and how thoroughly he rocks our world. :) 

 

 

birth photography :: jameson patrick

in

beth is a bradley birth instructor. she is no stranger to the intricacies of the labor process. in fact, it was funny to hear her giving real time reports on her own emotional signposts and stages of labor -- until the end when she was too in the zone to continue that job, and her midwives and doula took over. :) 

this baby was due before Christmas, and as her first two babies were both early, she suspected this one would be too. but no, he waited until 5 days after christmas -- 11 days after her due date -- to make his appearance. 

it was their first home birth, and it happened in the coziness of a christmas tree-lit home in the dark of the night as the snow was swirling softly outside. beth's birth team was so lovely. her hubby, tommy, was the perfect blend of adoring strength and well-placed humor. her doula, laurie, who is also a midwife-in-training under beth's midwife, had a million helpful tricks -- from essential oils to robozo to guided meditation to massage -- and utilized them with such grace. and her midwives, sara and annie, sat by knitting quietly, expressing with their demeanors that they had full confidence in beths' ability to birth her baby, then stepping in with active support as the birth became eminent. 

one fantastic thing about home births is how you never can really predict where precisely that baby will get born! this is especially true if the mama tends to pace and move around a lot, like beth did. so, it was on a trip to the bathroom that the need to push became irresistible, and where beth then kneeled -- her midwife and doula on the floor on either side of her, her husband's hand on her back -- and pushed little baby j out in three deft pushes. 

jameson took to breastfeeding right away, was measured without ever leaving his mama's chest, and weighed the following morning because the scale couldn't be located! haha. he was every bit as big as the birth team was guessing he was -- 9 lbs, 12 oz, and beth's biggest baby by far. also, he's a bit of a ginger!

for me, it was a gift to witness this birth, especially as i'm gearing up to have my own home birth in about 3 months. seeing a woman move through labor and birth in the quiet of her own home, with no intervention, and an abundance of trusting support reminded me how we really are designed to do this work of having babies -- and that includes me -- and rekindled my excitement to do it again myself. 

without more rambling from me, here is the birth of jameson!

I'll write a separate post about this, too, but just a heads up on my maternity leave... it will begin March 15 or so, and extend until May 20 or so (i'm so precise, aren't i?). I'm accepting birth clients with due dates anytime starting in early June, BUT until the end of September, i will ONLY be accepting HOME BIRTH CLIENTS. I will need to keep open the option of having my newborn son with me at births, and this is not possible at hospitals. In a home birth setting, I can easily wear him in a back carry, or lay him down to sleep in a room of the house that isn't being occupied by birth activity. don't wait... I do already have births for June, July, and August, and will only be taking on 2 per month until 2016. (golly, it's going to be SO HARD to say no to births).

year in review :: 2014

in

this year has been incredible. starting it out, i was sure i wouldn't get as much work in 2014, as i dropped senior portraits, weddings, and engagements from the list of services i would provide. i took the plunge and decided to focus almost entirely on storytelling, family photojournalism, and birth photography. i added milk time sessions and workshops, because both are about moms and their little ones, connecting in real ways. i followed my heart and decided i'd rather spend any precious time away from my family doing things i actually love doing, rather than just whatever work i can get to make money. and, truly, it has been the best decision i could have made. the work God gave me to do this year has exceeded my expectations in every way.

here are some 2014 statistics...

this year has been more than i expected or imagined, and has been plenty of business (and fun!) for a woman who still considers her primary job that of stay-at-home-mommy. 

YOU, dear clients-turned-friends, have been so generous with me. 

so THANK YOU... for letting me witness your most intimate miracles, for allowing me to document the fleeting connection of feeding your babies, for sharing your tender new-parent moments with me, for meeting me in parks to play and smile, for welcoming me to come into your homes, for trusting that i'd be able to see and show you something beautiful about your ordinary... i am absurdly grateful.

YOU have, very sincerely, made my life fuller, richer, and happier.

now, in pictures, the year in review...



personal :: a christmas tree story

I wasn't going to post this because i'm not very proud of these images. see, i was carrying Gus around on my hip for much of it, or holding someone's hand, or unwanted mittens and boots, and it was a lot of one-handed shooting, which made me feel really limited. plus, Hazel was wearing an outfit of her own choosing, which was a cacophony of mismatched patterns, and i was feeling annoyed at her for ruining an otherwise perfectly photogenic moment. then when we got back to the house, i was annoyed by all the unsightly clutter around the room, littering the background. but then i got to thinking that this is the sorta stuff i want to be about, the kinda stuff i ask YOU to do, dear client: to let the real be what it is, and to call it beautiful, because it is. (of course, when i come photograph you, you aren't multitasking child care and photography, so we have to give me a little bit of break!)

so, in an imperfect, but still heart-warming and memorable way, i present to you, the photos of the day we went to Bosch Choose-and-Cut Tree Farm and selected our tree, then took it home and put our vintage and handmade ornaments on it. 

birth photography :: rosie jane

in

this is a birth story in which one of the biggest baby-lovers you can imagine -- the one who has spent years of her life perfecting the fine art of beautifully styling and photographing newborns, being peed and pooped on by them with good humor, and gently handling their tiny sleeping bodies -- finally gets to have her own baby. 

allie's pregnancy was not without hiccups, and her actually body started prepping for birth a few weeks before this day, so that by the time she was finally admitted to the hospital, at 37 weeks, she was already dilated to 6.5 or 7 cm (all this without any real pain worth mentioning)! we thought it would go super fast, but those last few centimeters were 10+ hours of hard work and waiting. 

the epidural she received at nearly 9 cm meant that the time she spent laboring down was a fun and relaxed one, and allie was making me and the nurse crack up with all her comments and self-abasing humor. such joyful anticipation, such relief at the pain having lifted. 

one of my favorite birth moments is the one where the mom and dad realize that they are about to start pushing, and therefore about to meet their son or daughter for the first time: there's this holy hush that settles over everyone in the room after the initial chattering excitement dies down. there are often tears and shaking, from emotion and hormones, there is the clutching of hands and the gathering of inner strength. it's at this point that birth is imminent. that moment was potent for allie and josh, and you'll be able to see it in some of these photos, i think. 

there were some concerns that baby girl would need some help upon being born, possibly with breathing or blood sugar, because she was early and also suspected to be well below average size. but as allie was pushing and the NICU team was standing by, she just kept saying confidently, "she'd going to be perfect. she's not going to need NICU," which was the expression of everyone's hopes and prayers. sure enough, as soon as rosie's head had emerged, she opened her mouth and began wailing loudly, already a very wholesome pink color, and clearly perfectly fine! the NICU team just turned around and left the room at the sound of her voice and the color of her skin. 

this little peanut weighed in at 5 lbs, 10 oz and was 18.5 inches long. she may be small, but it's already apparent that she is also mighty!

This birth is my second-to-last of 2014. I have one more booked in early March, and then I'll be on maternity leave until June at least. I can fit in one or two more in January or February if any of you want to make that happen still! There's still the winter special to take advantage of if you're so inclined (or you can just do the basic birth photography). And if you're due in July or August and planning a home birth, please get in touch sooner than later, as I'm already booking for those months, but will need to keep it to a minimum (for obvious, newborn-related reasons). :)

 

smile :: the ferris family

in ,

Anne and Andy have had me do a christmasy photo session for them twice before. It's always creative, with Anne having prepared simple props to bring along to christmas tree farms or nature centers. They've always been a combination of them enjoying an activity together AND stopping to smile at the camera while cuddled closely together. Always so fun, this meshing of photojournalism and portraits. 

This time around, we decide to do something similar indoors, at their own home. When I arrived, they already had one cookie sheet of from-scratch sugar cookies (with orange zest) baked, and were ready to frost them with peppermint frosting (after their daughter offered me one to devour right inside the front door). So we photographed the making of sugar cookies with green and red sprinkles, then they snacked on them beside their large and lovely tree. And, to round things out, we took a few solid portraits by that tree (including some cat-inclusive ones), and on their adorable couch. I love these shots of this creative, expressive, and warm family. 

This was so fun, that I'm consider offering holiday-season, in-home, mini-storytelling sessions centered around families doing christmasy things together (decorating a tree, baking cookies, cutting down a tree, sledding in the yard, sharing hot cocoa and cuddles, etc). That'd be fun, eh?