When Isla’s mom first contacted me about photographing her birth I was honest with her in that I had a scheduling conflict. I usual reserve 3 weeks before and 1 week after the mom’s due date for births and unfortunately a week and 1/2 before her due date…I was going to be in Chicago for a wedding. I told mom that I could find a backup photographer or we could chance it. As the weeks grew nearer to her due date though mom got the news from her doctor that Isla was likely going to come earlier rather than later.
We had just photographered her maternity session and mom told me she was already 3 cm dilated and fully effaced…good news. However, it was only a week until we left for Chicago , so I was REALLY hoping that this baby would soon make her appearance. Around 12:30am on Sept 22nd, as I lay in bed watching my DVR’ed “The Daily Show” I received a phone call , they were at the hospital. Hooray! Both of mom’s prior births went very quickly, so I jumped out of bed and started getting my belongings together. Around 1am I get the text that she was getting fluids and hopefully an epidural. I jump in my car.
After arriving to the hospital though, things seemed to move pretty slowly. Both mom and dad kept commenting on how this birth seemed so much different as things were progressing rather slowly. Dad spent hours on his phone looking up baby names, mom on her ipad reading work-related stuff and me crocheting a hat (which Isla ended up wearing in her newborn session!) Around 2:30am, it looked as if this baby wasn’t coming any time soon. I wanted both mom and dad to get some sleep (and hoped I might be able to get some too) so I headed home and told them to call me as soon as she was dilated to around 5-6 or if the birth started speeding up. 6am, I get a text that her water broke and less than an hour later they started the pitocin to speed up her labor. Once I got to the hospital it did seem to progress very quickly. Through it all though, mom and dad were calm as could be. Their other two children had been staying with a neighbor and friends from St. Louis were coming into town to take care of the kids. Through her contractions mom was such a trooper. Within 10 minutes of Isla making her appearance and in-between contractions, mom was on the phone coordinating care for her older two. Talk about multitasking!
When Isla arrived she was absolutely gorgeous. My favorite part of the day though was when her older siblings came to the hospital to meet her. It was so cute to see her older brother and sister holding and loving on her. There is nothing more adorable than the love that siblings have for their new little baby sister.
You can view Isla’s birth video here.
