Sawyer’s Birth

I can’t believe it’s taken me a week to post these photos, but I didn’t want to write this post in just five minutes or whatever random bits of time that I’ve had lately. Here’s the story about taking pictures at Sawyer’s birth. It’s long, so feel free to skip past the intro and get to the photos down below.

My friend Stacy emailed a few weeks ago, asking if I would be interested in photographing the birth of her soon-to-arrive baby boy. I thought about it for a few minutes and responded that I would LOVE to take the pictures! This was wayyyyy out of my normal element to be at someone else’s birth… But this was such a unique opportunity – I’ve known this couple for a long time (they lived here when we first moved to this area eight years ago) AND she goes to the same obstetrician, who is absolutely wonderful. I’ve delivered both of my babies at this same hospital, so I knew what the layout was like and what the general experience would be.

Anyway, last Thursday (April 22), I picked up Eli from preschool and my friend had Stacy and Matt’s first son there with her because Stacy had been admitted to the hospital – her blood pressure was too high and she was going to be induced. I was antsy all afternoon. Every time my phone beeped for a facebook email or text, I would jump up and see if it was a text from Matt with an update on Stacy’s progress. I had two friends on call in case I needed to drop my kids off and run to the hospital before Ben got home from work that evening.

But Stacy’s labor was progressing slowly, and by 10 p.m., she was 4 cm dilated. I talked to Matt and let him know I was fine with coming in the middle of the night, so we decided that he would text me when it was almost time for the birth.

I had the hardest time going to sleep that evening. I think I finally closed my eyes at 11:30 p.m., and at 12:30 a.m., I got the text!! It said, “We’re a go! They are calling Dr. Miller right now. I estimate we have 30 min to 1 hr.”

Whoo hoo! I hopped out of bed, threw on some clothes, grabbed the camera bag and was out the door and walking into Stacy’s delivery room ten minutes later (we live really close to the hospital).

Now backing up – earlier in the evening, I started panicking about taking pictures in the low light in a hospital room. My camera’s not the greatest at ISO 1600, but my friend Petra (an awesome photographer) has the Canon 5D Mark II. On a whim, I called her, asked for a HUGE favor and borrowed her camera and her awesome lens. It’s my dream lens (the 24-70 f2.8) that I am slowly saving for (that and a new DSLR). I had practiced with her camera a tiny bit at the Easter egg hunt a few weeks ago and at the botanic gardens the week before. Canons are a little different from Nikons, but I knew it would be fine. Petra had also quickly taught me the techniques with manual shooting on her camera, so I decided to go for it. Petra, if you’re reading this… you were so awesome for letting me borrow this.

So – I arrived in Stacy’s room to find that she had an epidural, but was feeling pressure and was ready to start pushing. But Dr. Miller wasn’t there yet. We waited around for a little bit and the residents/nurses prepped the room for the delivery. I just tried to stay out of the way.

When Dr. Miller walked in, he did a double take when he saw me in the room with a big camera around my neck. It was pretty funny. At one point he called Stacy my name, which was also funny. He’s a great doctor. But it was the middle of the night, so I think it’s fair that he mixed up our names for a second.

When Stacy started pushing, I realized that Matt was serious when he said he didn’t handle blood very well. I was standing behind him and said I would catch him if he fainted. :) Though after a little while, he had to sit down and drink some juice, so I was there to hold one of Stacy’s legs! She was awesome, totally calm and focused on the delivery and not worrying about Matt on the verge of fainting next to her. I was impressed with how smoothly the delivery went since both of mine seemed stressful with baby’s heart rate numbers dropping when I would push. Not fun.

Around 1:05 a.m., baby Sawyer was born! Matt was back to holding Stacy’s leg, this time with a cold washcloth around his neck (Earlier I was a little anxious about what I would do if the baby was born while I was holding her leg – would I just drop it and start snapping pictures?? I’m glad it worked out :) There were a lot of people in the room, including a team standing near me, ready to check the baby since Stacy had been on magnesium for the blood pressure (the little side room was right behind me). Here’s the wide shot as the baby was born around 1:05 a.m.

And here’s the shot from my vantage point when the baby came out. I’m not exactly sure what the cord is near the baby’s neck, but I am guessing maybe it was the heart monitor on his head? Being short put me in a slight disadvantage because it was hard to really get in there and get a picture but also not be in the way.

Here’s my favorite doc, Dr. Miller.

As soon as Sawyer was born, they whisked him into the side room to suction his nose and mouth and check him out. I wasn’t able to take pictures during procedures, but as soon as they were done with the initial tests, I got some shots of him getting cleaned off. Here’s Matt’s hand on the right side of the picture.

I’m pretty sure that Matt cut the umbilical cord right after the birth, but the nurse asked if I wanted to help trim the cord when they were cleaning him up, and I did! It was neat to see what they do right after a baby is born, since when you’re the one delivering your baby, you don’t exactly have a good view, stuck in the hospital bed getting stitched up.

Look at that cute dark hair!

Getting the footprints:

All bundled up:

Stacy holding baby Sawyer for the first time (they decided on the name as they were leaving the hospital a few days later).

Sawyer’s tiny hand next to his mom’s hand.

He was such a cute, mellow little guy. I know the mellow was partly from having magnesium in his system. I’m sad because I haven’t seen him since the night he was born – my boys have been sick all week long and I didn’t want to come near this new baby with any of their germs.

I’m not sure who Matt was texting on his iPhone at 1:30 a.m., probably family?

Here are a few other random thoughts about the experience -

1. It was really, really special to be there when a new baby was born (and such a different experience not being the one delivering the baby).

2. It’s tough to take good photos of a birth in the middle of the night at the hospital. The room was pretty dark except for a bright light at the end of the hospital bed to help them see the baby’s progress during delivery. I felt like I was constantly changing the manual settings and trying to get the right exposure, depending on where I was standing and which lighting was showing up in the picture. I used all natural light available in the room – meaning no camera flash – and ISO was set at 1600.

3. It’s great to have a zoom lens to photograph a birth. The prime lens that I usually shoot with would have been tricky.

4. Thank you Stacy and Matt for inviting me to share this with you!

I made a video with the majority of pictures from the birth if you’re interested in seeing more. Of course after I put this together, I realized there is one picture out of order, so you may notice that. And I think youtube’s video quality on this isn’t great for some reason – the pictures are much sharper than they appear.

Enough disclaimers! Here it is:

(You can also click here to see the set of photos on flickr)