a beautiful baby girl and a wonderful baby model.

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This week was crazy for us! we had a contractor here redoing our fireplace and we also started getting some much needed work done on the bathroom.  Of course all of this renovation made it very difficult for me to have clients in the studio so this week I did something that I haven’t done in over two years, I went to a client’s home for a newborn session. And you know what, it was kind of fun. I think it’s easy to get stuck in a rut doing the same old thing so it’s nice to have a challenge every once in a while. So on Friday morning I loaded up all my stuff in the car and drove to my client’s home. Unfortunately I forgot one very essential item, the power cord to my strobe. So it was even more of a fun challenge as these were shot all with natural light. Luckily this family had a beautiful home filled with natural light so it was not an issue and I love the results! Here is beautiful Lucy and her family.

I love her soulful eyes in the above image.

What a sweet family!

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On Friday Simon and I headed up to Bellingham to visit Renee and her crew and to photograph this gorgeous little guy.  He was one tough customer though! And he made me really work for these photos. In the 3 hours that it took Renee and I to get him to sleep he pooped and peed on pretty much every blanket in the house.  We finally got him settled and I was able to shoot these.

Apollo is truly a little miracle. I was planning on photographing Apollo’s planned home birth (if I could make it to Bellingham in time) but the circumstances rapidly changed when Renee’s water spontaneously broke and Apollo’s umbilical cord prolapsed. If you don’t know a prolapsed umbilical cord is an extremely rare obstetric emergency where the baby’s umbilical cord descends alongside of or in front of the baby.  In this condition the weight of the baby compresses the umbilical cord cutting off blood flow and oxygen to the baby’s brain.  This likelihood of this happening is, as I said before, extremely rare, only 0.14 to 0.62 % of all births. It is more likely to happen in a situation where the bag of waters spontaneously ruptures like in Renee’s case. I was curious if there were statistics about it occurring more frequently in or out of the hospital since it is more likely to occur with the spontaneous rapture of membranes (water breaking) and this happens to pregnant women in a large verity of locations no matter what type of birth they are planning. (In fact with Simon my water broke at home before I went to the birth center to have him). I couldn’t find any hard statistics on the location, probably because it is such an extremely rare situation. When it happens it is literally a race against the clock – an unborn baby can only survive minuets without oxygen, or a decreased oxygen flow.  If you are pregnant your birth class instructor probably went over what to do if a cord prolapse occurs and you not with your OB or midwife.  I can still remember our birth class instructor Liz demonstrating “the position”. In short you should get on your hands and knees with your bum as high in the air as possible and your head as low as possible. This should hopefully move the weight of the descending baby off the umbilical cord. You can also have someone physically hold the weight of the baby off the cord with his or her hand. Call 911 immediately. Renee and her husband Chuck knew just what to do and did it and the doctors say that is why Apollo is alive today.  The frustrating part is that when the paramedics arrived at Renee’s home they didn’t know what a prolapsed cord was and Renee and Chuck wasted several minuets trying to explain to them the urgency of the situation. You would think that this would be something that would be covered in paramedic training but apparently not. When Renee arrived at the hospital the staff there completely understood the gravity of the situation and it only took them 5 minuets to perform a crash C-section. Both Renee and Apollo are fine and if you want to read his amazing birth story in it’s entirety you can do so on her blog.

In this country we have a lovely pastime of telling pregnant women horrific birth stories scaring the crap out of them before they even start into labor. That is not what I am trying to do here.  This condition is extremely rare and the odds that you would encounter it in your lifetime are slim. I am only sharing details about Apollo’s birth because I believe it’s important to know what to do in an emergency. Because Renee and Chuck knew what to do Apollo is alive today.

I would have loved to have the beautiful immediate postpartum birth photos of Renee holding Apollo as I envisioned them but given the circumstances I am perfectly happy to have these photos of him!

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the weather has been playing a joke on us here. We will get one sunny day and then 5 of rain. This little girl happened to come on a  nice day so I snuck her outside for a few shots

Such a sweet little sleeper and she even gave me some smiles.

that I had the privileged of photographing this week…

and the ecstatic parents

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I have decided that it’s time for a contest! This is the first contest I have ever done for a session like this so depeding on the interest I may be offering more. I wish I had thought of this sooner because starting October 1 I am going to be on unofficial maternity leave (until 01/03/2010). Unofficial because I will still be finishing up any sessions scheduled before that date but I will not be scheduling anyone with a due date after 10/1/2010 -  so needless to say this is going to be a short contest.

Here is the deal. If you are local and expecting a baby (or babies) between 5/16/2010 and 10/01/2010 please leave me a comment bellow with your name, due date and email address (so I can contact you), and if you like a little bit about yourself and (if you know it) the gender and name of your baby.

The giveaway ends on 6/4/10 @ 11:59pm – Winner will be chosen with random.org and announced on Saturday 6/5/2010. The winner will receive a free newborn session for their baby (To take place in my studio in Bothell WA) and 50 free custom birth announcements.  I prefer that sessions take place within the first 2 weeks of a baby’s life but there of course will be exceptions made for preterm babies or babies with other health issues (just keep in mind the dates of my own maternity leave). If you are an existing client who has already paid for and scheduled a newborn session feel free to enter as well. If you win I will add this as a credit to your ordering cart. If you are not entering the contest please don’t leave a comment at this time.

You can earn extra entries by doing one or more of the following.
Leave 1 comment for each extra entry.
Follow me on twitter  @emilyWbrown
Post about this giveaway on twitter
Post about this giveaway on facebook

If you have questions feel free to contact me, hopefully I haven’t left out anything important : )
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This is an oldie that I never got around to sharing. I just love the bond between mother and child.

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I love his little kissy face. This was a sleepy little guy and he let me get away with a lot!

a cooperative baby and a cooperative big brother – rarely do you get that combination!

I guess I’m on a black and white theme lately!

more coming soon!

-Emily
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Just editing and I came across some little baby parts taken with my new 60mm macro. I bought this lens just for this purpose. I love capturing all the tiny little details on newborns, after all they change so fast. Of course my real motive is that I want to be able to capture all of these little details on MY newborn in October and I really need some time to get to know the lens. So far I am very happy with it and I may even be brave enough to try shooting some macros of flowers.  For now I thought I would just share these two. More from this session coming soon : )

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This is little miss Olive, sister to the famous Ivy. Ivy is one of Simon’s favorite people. She is our neighbor and was born 2 weeks before him and since now that Ivy has a baby sister Simon thinks it would be pretty cool to have one too.

I think she’s a keeper!