It's a rainy Sunday morning and this family is spending it cozy indoors with no agenda except for making and eating a dutch pancake with pears and bacon for breakfast, some play and some reading and some cuddles in bed.
This is the good stuff, isn't it? These are the morning we think back to in moments when we desire comfort and simplicity, the sorts of days we want to go back to and re-create over and over again. <3
On Friday afternoon I met Brigette and Michael at their home, just minutes before their son Max was due to arrive home from school. They were waiting for him with cinnamon rolls and milk, espresso for themselves. They debriefed one another on their day -- in German -- while they ate. Next there was piano practice, reading, scouring the internet for lego pieces Max is desirous of, and kicking the ball around. This, they explained, is a typical Friday afternoon, an entry-way into the weekend that lies ahead. They explained how such rhythms of connection and pause over food are deeply ingrained in them from their home-country culture, leaving me feeling inspired to build this more seriously value into my own family life as well.
A short story is short, and yet it can still encompass quite a lot of the flavor of family. :)
The first time I met this family, their eldest daughter Emma was a tiny baby. And because they are part of my Make Me Your Photographer group, I get to see them periodically and watch them grow. Last time I saw them was when their littlest daughter Lily was a newborn, so it was such fun to see them again, and what a difference a year can make in a child's personality and development.
We started our two-hour session together by waking up Lily from her nap, then lunch and play-doh before heading out to the backyard to play on the playset, followed by a walk around the neighborhood before looping back home to play in the living room a while. I appreciate so much how present and intentional Jason and Andrea are with their girls and, in fact, with their entire life. These are good, good people whom I'm grateful to know.
When Monica and Rex reached out to set up their two-hour photojournalism session, they told me the impetus for seeking photographic documentation was their son, Arthur, who just recently turned 1. "We just passed the infamous year marker as parents," she shared, "It's been a bit of a year...Just celebrating that we're all here, together, and being grateful for the time that we have."
She explained that "Our house may be tiny and definitely has some cosmetic projects we've been dragging our feet on, but it's home".
I can't tell you how much I love that sentiment. If we wait until we are in our dream homes and our dream homes look exactly the way we want them to look, we'll wait forever. Life is here, now, is it not?
I thoroughly enjoyed my evening with these three, doing all the simply things that make up a life well-lived, from a picnic dinner on the living room floor, to diaper changes, and feedings, a walk to the park, watching squirrels out the window, and playing on the floor.
Good night, Arthur. Sweet dreams!
I'm offering a DSLR workshop for moms right now, too! It's designed to get you out of automatic mode on that "nice camera" you bought and which is sitting around gathering dust. It's aim is to equip and inspire you to become a loving family documentarian who makes really nice pictures of her people. Read more here, and then register!
After many days of prodromal labor -- which is a special kind of torture -- Shauna and Dustin called me in on Sunday evening, late at night. A special at-home webster technique chiropractic treatment had finally gotten the labor to stick and start up in earnest. This was the night.
I arrived to find Shauna just about to sink into the recently filled birth pool, the walls around her covered with birth affirmations, and Dustin, midwife Shannon, and sister moving quietly around her, tending to every need and detail. Their daughter Tatum was upstairs watching Disney movies with grandma, but occasionally came downstairs to check in on her mama. It was quiet throughout the house and Shauna was already deep into labor land, that special altered state of being that a mother laboring unmedicated invariably enters into at a certain point.
Shauna's last labor was relatively quick, particularly the pushing stage. Knowing that, her midwife took her seriously when after what was a very short time, Shauna indicated in a smooth tone that she was pretty sure the baby was very close to being born. A mirror held under her in the pool showed that she was right, and the midwife and I watched with happy interest as more and more of their baby's head appeared, while Dustin held Shauna tight as she gently cooperated with what her body was doing. Shannon reached down and received the slipper blue-pink baby as she slipped quietly out, lifting her through the water and immediately through Shauna's legs and up to her chest. Gender was a surprise, and they were pleased to find upon peeking, that they had a second daughter.
The holy hours immediately following Lochlan's birth were spent with uninterrupted skin-to-skin time, placenta delivery, cord clamping/cutting, first latch-on, and bringing Tatum down to meet her new sister (this moment always slays me!). After Shuana was all tucked into their bed, the whole family, who bed shares, got happily situated with her while Shannon did the newborn exam, and then Dustin -- a chiropractor -- adjusted his new daughter. So much tenderness surrounded them, so much affection. As Shauna later wrote as a caption beneath the last photo in this post, "I don't know how life can get any better than this moment in time."
This is birth. This is love.
Just an update: my own EDD is not even two months away now. I'll be taking a break from photographing births until early March, and the inquiries are already pouring in for birth photography in March, April, May and even June. Please don't hesitate too long to reach out and make things official if this is something you want to make happen for your birth! <3
I met Lacy at a birthday party for a mutual friend, when her belly was rounded with the occupation of the little person who you now see in these photos, the darling Cordelia Love. She mentioned she'd possibly like to have me come take photographs of them after her birth, and I was so pleased when she followed through on that several months later!
At the time of these photos, Brandon and Lacy have spent about 1 month with their daughter, and they've found such sweetness in that space with her. She's well-fed, fussed over to just the right extent, beneficiary of the company of her golden retriever sibling, getting fresh air, and abiding in one of the prettiest nurseries I've seen.
Life is good for this little lass. And here you can see what I mean. :)
