so today [er, yesterday] i was at a birth...

monday, december 17 2012

my sister's a doula, and i sometimes get picked for birth photography by lucky people who want such a wonderful thing at their blessed event of a new bebe.

see? sweet bebe. :)

and bebe feet. :)
that's all you get because i can't give you any more for public viewing.

and i had two full cups of douwe egberts coffee at the hospital with cream and sugar to get through it. also...maybe 2 chocolate puddings in the fridge there. ahem. sustenance was needed! ;)

...our before and after faces. lol. at 8:30ish with caramel and butterscotch americanos in hand, and afterwards with memories and hours under our belt.
we were at the hospital from 8:30am-4pm.
then, on the way home, we found the greatest coffee shop ever....and it's only been open since june.....and i didn't take my camera out of the car and into this place with me because i had no idea what awaited us besides much-needed coffee and carbs.......and it's in a town 20 minutes from us that we hardly ever get over to, unless its little theater has a movie we want to see -- then we go there, because it's only $6 freaking dollars a ticket.

anyways.
it's 11:23pm right now, and i'm crashing, and i knew i shouldn't have put that teabag named "sleepytime" in my cup if i wanted to stay up easily till justin gets home from work so we can skype a little bit. hopefully.
skype is great. especially when you miss seeing the favoritest faces in the world.
mhmmm...

so around 1:30pm, our lady in labor at the hospital got an epidural...and anna and i went out in the hall to wait for the sterile procedure to be done. tubes stuck into spines isn't exactly what i wanted to see anyways.
so anna texted.
and i did lunges in my yoga pants and cozy flat winter boots [they look russian and they're black; they're not uggs, just an fyi to certain people, lol!] and stretches and pushups with a twist against the hand rails in the labor & delivery room hallway. haha.
it was grand. and those lunges? gosh they feel good. just don't let your knee go over your toe. you know what they say about that....lol.

tuesday, december 18
today's snow. can you see it?
oh yeah. that's the lightbulbs. sorry. lol.
it flurried....then kinda went away. :P i hope it's a white christmas. :)
the end.

this: my wednesday.

this was my friday.
and a favorite song.

♥

8:30am skype date.

my skype date is super freaking amazing and talented. ohboy. you can't even imagine. :)

then, because i had cute socks on [thanks, love;)] . . . and because a brother was nearby, i took a few pictures before we headed out to visit grandpa in the hospital before he had surgery.
does ben look like a creeper? maybe he didn't get enough sleep. lol

me and the brother.

fall is starting to be really noticeable all of a sudden.

sigh. pretty orange leaves. my my.

:)

because my skills were requested for birth photography of a lady anna is a doula for anytime soon . . .

this picture ^^ makes me laugh. of course, i'm not the one pregnant and impatient and growing a little human and so ready to be done and see the precious sweetie. heh.

speaking of patience...and hippie-ness....hahaha. here. the due date debacle. i figure it's best to prepare one's mindset even before babies are seriously on the horizon. [laughing]
interesting, no?

anyhow! it's too late for any of you who liked my c.s. lewis painting...it sold the other night. :) :) :)
i'll make another sometime. don't worry.
it'll be grand.
i plan on doing some j.r.r. tolkien quotes very soon so that excited people can buy some awesome art inspired by the hobbit coming out in december. :)

artistic endeavors: wildflowers.

may 7-9 2011

that lovely irish breakfast tea.

the inspirational photo i found by googling wildflowers.
heh:)

 

 

this is the stage of the so-called floating flower heads. courtesy of anna.
she said they needed stems. so i agreed and did that the next day:)

 

chances are . . . this is probably peach-ginger tea:)

 

i arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. 

this makes it hard to plan the day.
[E. B. White] 

p.s. any day now . . . [sarah & justin's daughter] eliyah is going to have a baby brother. any.day.now. mom's on the phone with her, talking about different therapeutic-grade essential oils that can help labor progress naturally . . . we're super-duper excited, and somehow this is the first time i've written about it. i think. i might be wrong. but i don't think so.
anyhow, i can't wait to see what they name the little guy:)

birth [photography] and story: henry.

i do believe i'm going to go mostly with black and white.

but some of the daytime photos need to be posted in color. :)
so.
onto the story.
we got a call at around 4:30pm.
we were on the road by 5.
got there around 6:10pm.
the sweet girl with the camera is julie's eldest, hannah. :)
and there's mom, giving julie some essential oils {therapeutic grade: young living dist. #1237953} to rub on her belly.
41.5 weeks? mhmmm.

michelle, julie's friend and doula, tickling little gus.
gus was such a cute mama's boy.

the pool.
:) isn't it awesome?
[yeah, it's just a pool from toys r us. it worked beautifully.]

gotta love a boy who shares his books! ;)

daddy [mike] and the twin girls: lila and gracie. and gus again. cutie. :)
watching finding nemo. yeppers. love that movie.

this is what happens when you're pregnant and in labor: you get massages.
all day.
looking back on these photos, i'm almost jealous:)
but maybe someday that kind of day will come for me. :)

the amazing woman part of the birth crew. :) michelle: doula. rosie: midwife.
it was so cool to see them do their stuff; beautiful things i've only read about and seen videos on for the past 10 years.
okay, not all of 10 years. i mean, it's been 10 years since i've seen a birth in person. that was lyddie, my youngest sibling. just in the past few years have i seen some inspiring/informative birth films.

this last one: orange juice and castor oil, anyone? :)
she drank it like a trooper. golly.

what time is it?
ohhh....time for pizza. :)

♥

i love the sunlight here.

♥

sweetness.

a massage of clary sage . . .

meanwhile, the sun was working on setting . . .

michelle was such a cute lady. and so nice, too. this is another yummy castor oil/orange juice potion in the making.

me and i-honestly-can't-remember-which-twin. :) please forgive me.

8:30pm.
decaf vanilla-almond coffee. *grin*

around 9, the childrens were put to bed . . . julie tried to rest . . .
{and found out she was around 2-3 centimeters. pretty discouraging, considering there were 3 days in a row before this that she experienced on-and-off labor, including all day this day: thursday may 26.}
and me, emma, and hannah took a few shots in the mirror.

mmmmm.
10:30pm.
caramel brownie ice cream time.
oil of frankincense massage for julie . . . starting to do stair laps.
more intense contractions. starting to vocalize now.
gosh, this was amazing to see.

bottom picture: rosie, getting tired of my camera always on and clicking. el oh el. ;)

this was my first super-big moment of revelation of how amazing doula's are.
my heart may have swelled with pride a little at the thought of my sister, anna, being there like this for women.
♥

reflection.

mmmmm. that's some great tea!

somewhere between 12am-1am we filled up the pool and she got in.
i guess the hot water around and supporting her made a lot of the contractions just sweep away.
pretty awesome.

transition.
yeah, it tends to be a pretty intense time.
as i shot one after the other, i was praying for her under my breath, totally amazed (in every definition of the word) at what exactly was happening.
a new little human . . . being brought into this world.
stunning!

and at 3:07am, friday, may 27 2011, henry came.

♥

the beautiful family, sans sleeping gus. :)

while mama julie got out of the pool after delivering the placenta in quick timing, michelle held baby henry.

mhmmm. total love.

skin-to-skin bonding is the most beautiful thing.

by this time, it was 4:14am.

and the sun was rising.
ohmyword. beautiful.

around 10am, after a few hours of sleep.
gosh, that floor was comfy. at that hour, a pillow and blanket is all you need.

and for the shot i really cherish:
;)

♥
*breathe deep*

i tell you: sweetness!!
and being a bit overdue-ish according to dates calculated, he was born with some ultra-cute chub.

and we celebrated with some delicious homemade cinnamon coffee cake [made by hannah] for breakfast with cinnamon coffee... oh so good.
to henry's family: thank you so much again for letting me be a part of that beautiful day!
julie, you're so amazing. and so blessed. but i know you know that. ;)
♥
the end.

ending:
this is what crazy baby people do.
stay up till nearly 1 . . . and wake up at 7. aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!
*chants* : i will not be a zombie when i watch the kiddos [sam and reese] tomorrow. i will drink coffee. and pray i stay alert. amen. :)