Benjamin is a very accommodating baby. His mother and I both hoped that I’d be able to photograph his birth, but between my schedule at the hospital, my school schedule, our camping trips, weekend at Comic Con, and plans to leave for Seattle just before his due date, it was looking a little dicey. He chose an absolutely perfect night to be born, confined his birth activities to hours in which I didn’t even need childcare, and then patiently waited over three weeks for me to process the birth pictures. Best baby ever? Yep.
A few bits of commentary on the photos to follow:
- I love this first shot of Clint watching the monitor. Bernadette had an amazing epidural, and so really everyone was just sitting around watching my personal favorite movie, the fetal heartrate monitoring strip.
- When Bernadette heard that she was completely dilated and it would be time to push soon, her response was to apply makeup so she would look good when she met her baby.
- Her baby also felt the need to look good, but peering around his amniotic sac he noticed that there was absolutely nothing for him to adorn himself with. So he took what he did have, his umbilical cord, and made himself a tie with it. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
- Did I mention that Bernadette had an amazing epidural? At one point as the baby was crowning, we were all talking about how much hair the baby had. Our friend Heather leaned around Bernadette’s leg to take a look and said “Wow–that’s a lot of hair.” A beat of silence, and then Bernadette started laughing so hard she couldn’t finish pushing for the rest of the contraction. It was hilarious.
- I still absolutely ridiculously love getting to watch older siblings meet their baby brother or sister. How often do you get to watch lifelong friends meet?
