I am SO excited to share this birth story with you all today! My first time working with the M family was when I captured Kirsten’s maternity photos while she was pregnant with her first baby, a little girl. I then got to capture the birth of Kirsten and Justin’s first born, C, as well as her newborn photos, and it was such a pleasure getting to know this family throughout the process. Needless to say, I was thrilled when Kirsten reached out to see if I was available to document the arrival of baby #2!
Of course, I wanted more than anything to be there to document another milestone for this family, but I knew it would be hard because the M family had recently moved to San Antonio. Kirsten and I talked a lot about the logistics involved in having me come to photograph a birth in San Antonio but, after careful consideration, we decided that as long as I started driving as soon as Kirsten went into labor, our plan could actually work!
On the day of Baby E’s birth, I made sure I was there as soon as possible. Kirsten and Justin figured that Kirsten would be around 6cm dilated once she was checked, but she surprised us all when she was only at 3cm. That was when we realized it might be a long day. Justin was the one who called it when he said the birth would be at around 3:30pm. Sure enough, 3:30pm was when she was fully dilated and ready to deliver. Today I’m honored to share their birth story with you, not only in the images that follow but also in a fusion video at the end of this post that I know you will enjoy!
This moment! It’s a quiet moment, often overlooked, but always one of my favorites. It’s the anticipation of a baby’s arrival and it’s full of so much emotion – excitement, nervousness, joy, you name it. Having two children of my own, I remember this moment well and I love capturing it for my expecting mamas.
I also love to capture all the details that parents are sure to either not notice or soon forget that are such a big part of every birth story.
Like I said, it was a long day. Baby E made us wait to long that we had plenty of time to chat, relax, and update everyone on the process.
I love that I even had a chance to grab this adorable photo of mom and dad just a short while before Baby E’s birth. Some day he will get to see just how excited his parents were to welcome him into this world.
Here he is, finally! And here are those images that I absolutely love to capture during births:
I always try to have parents guess the weight of the baby before the official weight is announced. Mom guessed 7lbs. and dad guessed 8lbs. but something told me he was bigger than that. Sure enough, when they converted the weight and announced a weight of 9.4lbs., they were shocked! We were all in awe of how big he was, as they totally were’t expecting that.
Kirsten and Justin had brought in baseballs to get Baby E’s footprints put on them but who would’ve known how tricky it would be! Luckily, Kirsten had the nicest nurse and she did a great job of getting the footprints onto baby’s first baseballs.
Baby’s grandparents and sister, C, were waiting downstairs to meet their newest family member. I couldn’t wait to capture Claire’s reaction to seeing her little brother!
Love this image – the first official one of this new family of four!
After spending some time photographing Baby E with all the family members who were there to welcome him, I got this gem of a photo of the entire welcoming committee. Look at those faces!! I just love all the joy in this one image. And a little bit of shock, too, because, well, C is still getting used to the idea of a new little brother. But how adorable is she?! I was so excited to be reunited with her and give her a big hug. It’s crazy because once she saw her brother and got down on the ground, she came right to me, put her hands up and gave me a huge hug. She let me hold her for quite a while and my heart almost melted.
Before my time with this family came to an end, Kirsten suggested that we get an image of me with her two babies. I’m so glad she thought of it! It was a beautiful experience going through maternity, birth, and newborn images with this family for their very first baby, but to go through the experience again with them as they welcomed their second child into this world is just amazing. I have gotten to form such a unique bond with them and I’m so incredibly thankful for that. I know I won’t get to see the M family very often now that they live in San Antonio but they will always hold such a special place in my heart. This next image of me with both C and E speaks mountains for how I feel about capturing the birth of a newborn. Birth photography is so much more than taking pictures of a mother in labor and I’m so lucky to be able to capture little miracles like these that grow in their mommy’s body, brought into this world by the grace of God. To think that it’s me who gets the honor of being there to capture every little second of it is just overwhelming to me…. I love my job!
Fusion Video
A walk through memory lane
Would you like to see other images I’ve been able to capture of the Marshall family? Check them out here, here, and here.
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Located in Katy, Texas, Kelly of Lifetime of Clicks Photography is a Houston newborn and birth photographer. Kelly creates modern classic images of maternity, your newborns, and the families that love them. Serving Houston, Katy, Sugar Land and surrounding communities.
