A follow up to the maternity session I recently posted, where I was asked to be their St. Paul birth photographer.  Of course I said yes, and was so honored that they wanted me to be a part of this life-changing day.  I had c-sections with both my babies.  The first one was an emergency c-section, and I was not awake for it and don’t remember anything.  The second was a planned c-section, but with both babies I was induced and I have never felt a contraction.  I never felt like I had the whole birth experience, so I was really excited to do this!  We went into it knowing that with my schedule (and my husbands schedule) and two kids of my own at home, it might not work out, but somehow the stars aligned and I was able to be there.

I got a text from Jenny’s doula at 12:30am on a Wednesday, saying that Jenny was going into labor and that her contractions were coming fairly quick.  My husband was working overnights at the time, so I wasn’t able to head to the birthing center until the morning (if hiring an actual birth photographer, they will have a plan and be able to make it in the middle of the night if needed – we went in to this knowing that I wouldn’t be able to).  I called the next morning and no baby yet, so I headed down to Health Foundations birth center as quick as I could.  When I arrived, she was at a 7, and I thought things would be going pretty quick at that point (being clueless to how this all worked).  Boy was I wrong!

Health Foundations was such an amazing place, and so very different than my own experience.  The staff was all amazing – so caring and comforting.  It was peaceful and quiet.  I didn’t even know places like this existed when I had my babies (which wasn’t all that long ago!).  Jenny worked so hard all day and all night to get that baby to drop, but this little one was stubborn and comfortable.  Hypnobaby, colored lights, essential oils, saline shots, acupuncture, chiropractor…she tried everything, and I was there to photograph it all until 1:30am (24+ hours after that first text), when she was exhausted.

She transferred to Regions hospital in St. Paul around 2am, where she was able to get an epidural and start Pitocin.  I came back early the next morning, and Jenny was doing great!  She was fully dilated and resting, smiling and laughing between pushes.  After a short amount of time, baby Adeline was born at 2:18pm on 03/14/19.  Yes, that was about 38 hours after that first text.  And yes, I’m really behind on sharing this, but it was such an amazing birth that I had to blog about it – better late than never, right?

I was so happy to share this experience with them, and I’ll be forever grateful that they asked me to be there for their big day.  I also photographed Adeline’s newborn session, and will share those soon!