Yes Day 27 of the year and another precious baby came to see me. I do love my job and I embrace every single challenge with my heart. This little fellow was (theoretically) meant to be perfect. Born at 38 weeks, weighing just below 8 lb, feeding really well ,  came to see me at day 7 of his life. Studio was ready with poses planned, transitions and safety measures. He was a typical feisty boy who liked to show us that even being little he could express his own way of feeling comfortable. He challenged every single attempt to settling in for the first hour and half with very light sleep and strong rooting reflex. It took him almost 2 and half hours to feel comfortable. The majority of those images were taken in between a few seconds when  he felt a bit more comfortable. All newborn photographer knows that  the ” baby slept for the whole session”  is something indeed rare.  Prince charming  session was a typical newborn photo session  with many challenges but with persistence, a lot of patience, understanding and most of it… a deep passion for what I do, I could take those pictures and many more that is a summary of how much I love  my job. I am grateful for feisty babies as much as  I am for peaceful babies. Both teach me constantly how to perfect my craft , how to make it session work and perfect. Thank you Baby D for making my day so worthy!

Ana

Even though it is  not about my family, this picture I had taken yesterday became part of something very special that happened inside me. It  is  the birth story I had done for this beautiful family, but to witness the raw emotions in each contraction, to see the love on the support of the  holding hands, the tears and joy of  giving birth… it is something that is difficult to put into words… something that now leaves in my heart forever.

Yesterday was one of those days that happened very rarely in anybody’s lives, I was honored to presence and photograph the home birth of a baby. I was invited for a birth story a couple of times with another family but missed due to the distance and timing. Yesterday, I had arrived in time! What had inspired me to do this for years was the beautiful work of the photographer, Linsey Stone  (http://www.dfwbirthphotographer.com/home/) . Linsey is a very talented photographer who has a passion for photographing births. I did not know how I would react, what to expect even though I gave birth three times in my life, the only thing I was sure about   was  :  I wanted to do my very best for this beautiful family. I arrived at 5:30 AM  just after I had received a text, the first midwife arrived just after me which gave me time to set up the camera and check on the available light ( not much considering the time of the day and year… but my camera with high ISO behaved brilliantly!). I had also chatted with the parents and did a foot  massage with lavender oils on the beautiful mum to be. I love lavender and first thing I had done ( just as in my newborn comes to studio, is to light  the lavender aromatherapy). This beautiful couple have   two other  kids who were sleeping at the time. The student midwife came also. She did all the set up. Contractions were coming fast and in between I saw only smiles from the mum, the dad and the midwives. Every time the contractions came in, she would hold  her husband hands for strength or put her hands together to concentrate on her breathing. She kept smiling every now and then which is hard to believe considering there she was   not taking   painkillers, all she was worried about was to see her baby’s face and how her other  kids would react. She kept walking, moving and resting in the bed.  By close to 10:00 Am her older children woken up, the pain had intensify as the baby was not in the right position, I had decided to go upstairs  and stay with the kids while the wonderful midwives had a chance to turn the baby into the correct t position for birth . That gave me time to feed, play and connect with the gorgeous 3 year old daughter and one and half year old ever so cute brother. The beautiful mum, kept moving and about 12:00 I was called, as the baby was about to be born.  She pushed really hard holding onto her husband’s hands and looking for hope to be over soon .  The midwife assisted  her by  keeping the mum concentrated  and  focused…no screaming! I had shared those few minutes,  photographing and making sure the kids would not come down to the bedroom. “Baby is here !” , one of the midwives shouted! So I ran downstairs… and there he was,  beautiful on the top of his  mum’s chest , ever so chubby as he came 11 days overdue! I took some more pictures, no camera shakes!. Then the midwives did all the check ups, then kids came to meet their baby brother. To witness, photograph and presence all this in a space of 8 hours, was by any doubt something that will live forever in my memory. I am a lucky photographer to be by this beautiful family,  to see the miracle of a baby being born, is something that will forever live in my heart. I have to thank you a few people here: Linsey Stone to inspire me doing this with such a passion, the wonderful parents for trusting me documenting this moment in their lives, the wonderful of midwifery team and those two kids who were still young but man… how lucky they are to have such strong and beautiful parents to embrace family , the way they do! Here are a few photos of this special day. Thank you all!

Reblogged from Celebrating Life’s Special Moments:

Updated on Iphoneography Tree series