ANOTHER BIRTH STORY! You know I love a birth story. And this one is completely different from all of the others, so be excited.
Alyssa contacted me a while back wanting a birth story photographer. I was very nervous about someone from Nashville hiring me for birth story photos, given the nature of birth. The last birth story I shot (which you can see here) I had about eight minutes from being told it was starting to taking pictures of a baby being born on a bed. Naturally, a 2.5 hour drive had me nervous.
Alyssa ended up going past her due date and needing to schedule induction for May 4. I drove to Nashville and spent the morning hanging out in the hospital lobby and drinking coffee from the coffee cart, waiting for the family to be ready for me. Despite the coffee, I became overwhelmingly tired and fell asleep folded up in some ridiculous looking ball on a lobby chair. At some point I shot up from my nap, my neck SUPER stiff from sleeping in the previously mentioned ridiculous looking ball, and checked my phone. I had FOUR MISSED CALLS from Robert from almost half an hour previous, and I was terrified that I had missed the birth because I couldn't stay awake. I started to panic, grabbed my many bags, and asked the person at the lobby desk how to get to their room. It was in a completely different building from where I was (makes sense that I should have been waiting in the Women's Building... but I wasn't). I started running through the rain with my bags flying everywhere and my marked up map from the front desk crumpled in my hand. I seriously looked like a romcom movie trope. If I wasn't already married I bet I would have run crashing into a handsome man who picks up my map and we end up falling in love. I burst dramatically into Alyssa's hospital room all frazzled and drizzly. I had not missed it. Whew.
I only made it by a bit, though. She was having very regular contractions when I arrived and it wasn't long until we met little Andrew Martin.
I've shot many birth stories, but I've never actually shot a hospital birth, at least not a traditional one. I was present for the post delivery moments for two c-sections, but that process is different. This was a completely new thing for me. Yes, I acknowledge that it's weird that a hospital birth felt weird to me. I understand that's how most people do it. I'm used to what I'm used to, and it was really interesting to have a completely new experience to add to my understanding of child birth. I was fascinated.
At 1:29 in the afternoon Andrew was born. He was 9 lbs 5 oz and 22 inches long.
I LOVE the dad seeing his kid for the first time look. Never gets old.
Alyssa meeting her little man for the first time.
Robert gave Alyssa a sweet gift, for being a total boss and bearing his child.
Coming soon to the blog, family photos in the Strobel home on Alyssa's very first Mother's Day.
