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). :)