Baby Asher
I love that my clients want me to photograph their babies, not as little dolls propped up on a stack of towels or in a basket surrounded by rose petals, but in their arms where a newborn baby should be. Thank you Hartung’s!
Megan, Dylan and Baby Owen
If there were a strong case for me to continue shooting weddings, it would be to cross paths and form friendships with people like Megan and Dylan. I have been so fortunate over the last 12 years to make so many friends and meet some incredible people through that gig. But Megan and Dylan are the rare, once in a million kind of couple who came into my life at a time that must have been divined.
When Megan reached out and told me that they were expecting, I just smiled and nodded. Yes. If anybody should bring a baby into this world, it should be Megan and Dylan. What wonderful parents they are and are going to continue to be. Owen will always be surrounded by love and warmth and fun–not to mention good music and (when he’s 21) good beer. (Dylan has started brewing his own beer which is pretty freaking incredible).
I hope to spend many evenings this summer listening to live music and drinking good brews with Megan and Dylan while our babies rumble on a blanket. And we will just take it all in together–this journey called parenthood–the transitions, the growing pains, the peace and the abounding love that our little ones have brought to the table. While weddings were once where I was in my life, I am now enjoying documenting the next chapter in my client’s lives and am intoxicated with the sweet, simple moments that come with being a parent. I am so happy that I have found people like Megan and Dylan who get to travel down this road with me.
Megan and Dylan, I love you guys and am so blessed to be able to call you my friends and fellow parents. Owen–you are one lucky little dude. P.S. I want to eat your cheeks.
Arlo Oak’s Journey
Oh my heart….This little family means so so much to me. I don’t even know where to begin…
I’ve been working with Katie and Peter since before they were even engaged. I got to photograph their engagement portraits, their wedding, some beautiful nudes of Katie… etc. It has been so incredible and they have become some of my favorite people over the years. But nothing has been as spectacular and meaningful to me as getting to be a part of Arlo’s birth. I was so extremely honored and humbled to be present at this occasion. There are no words… I will say this– Katie is forever my hero and I think she is superhuman. She rocked an all natural 24 hour plus labor and did it all with a smile (in between contractions). I also have the utmost respect for Peter for being the most amazing birth coach, EVER. Wow. He literally held Katie up for 8 of the 10 hours they were at the birth center and was just a rock–physically and emotionally. And the way that Katie and Peter looked at each other during the entire process was nothing short of a display of pure love and respect. I mean, this birth was so much more than a birth. It was one of the highlights of my life and career and has changed the way I see partnership.
On a more personal note, this birth was healing for me because I, too was supposed to deliver my first baby at the Mountain Midwifery. I had all these grand ideas and visions of how my birth plan would go and it all ended with every intervention that I didn’t want and ultimately a cesarean birth at a nearby hospital. People say, “Well all that really matters is that your baby is here and healthy”, and yes. This is true. But it doesn’t erase all the heartbreak of an experience that you dreamed of that went awry. I can only compare it to rain on a wedding day. Yes–at the end of the day you’re married, and that is what it is all about. But it can be such a loss when all those little details and all the fantasies leading up to the big day were drowned (quite literally). And It is strange, because 75 percent of all the other mamas I know who had the same intentions as I did to deliver at the Mountain Midwifery, ended up with a story much like mine–even most of them ending in cesarean births. I was starting to think that perhaps it was the Mountain Midwifery to blame, or that in fact maybe women’s bodies weren’t cut out for an all-natural home or center birth (at least not with their first delivery). I was starting to see this trend of hospital transfer, pitocin, epidural, cesarean birth, etc as the norm. But on December 5th, I got to watch my dream birth with my dream midwife, in the room of my choice at the Mountain Midwifery all unfold vicariously through my dear friends, Katie and Peter and their precious, Arlo Oak. It was truly restorative in my faith of the female body as well as the Mountain midwifery. And it was all so, so beautiful.
Thank you, Katie and Peter. From the bottom of my heart. Welcome to parenthood…
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