into the world

Over a month ago, a close friend asked me if I would be interested in shooting her birth. I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I knew that this would be not only a very special experience, but an amazing way to serve Sara and her family through capturing these first moments she in particular likely wouldn’t get to be quite as involved in as a Mom would normally like. You see, her pregnancy had been far from normal. She had been on bed rest since July. She had beaten so many odds already, battling contractions since the first trimester and taking all kinds of medications to keep the baby in as long as possible. Then, nearly three weeks before he was born, the contractions became so strong she was put on Hospital Bed rest. A week into that, her water broke at 29 weeks. She had an 80% or so chance of delivering in the first 72 hours of ruptured membranes. But he stayed in for 10 additional days. Each of those days on the inside equates to 2 or 3 less days he is in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I thought for sure I would get a call in the middle of the night or, worse, completely miss the whole thing because premies tend to be really fast labors.

But thankfully I didn’t, though came quite close. Her husband, Mark, called me about 10:30 am last Tuesday to inform me it looked like this was the real thing. I felt like it was a scene out of a movie, rushing to pick up my husband to watch our girls, then frantically driving across the bridge to the Hospital in Kirkland, just across Lake Washington from Seattle. Mark called me again as I was pulling into the hospital garage. I thought for sure he was going to tell me their little guy had been born. Rather, he in fact had just arrived after battling tons of traffic and it looked like things were slowing down. So I arrive in their room and we chit chat for about a half an hour, thinking we would be sitting around for a while before anything really happened. Boy were we wrong.

One contraction the nurse monitoring Sara tells her to let her know if she was feeling any pressure, as she had a precautionary light epidural in just in case. Plus Sara was supposed to deliver in the OR. The next contraction, Sara thinks there might be a little pressure and asks to be checked in 10 minutes. The following contraction her eyes get really wide, as baby boy is on the brink of being born. Then the calmness literally jumped out of it’s seat as the nurse gets on the phone, trying to find the Doctor and get the NICU team in place. Thinks get franticly excited, as Mark and Sara are very, very soon about to meet their son. The teams rapidly set up, telling Sara not to even breathe, as this little guy’s head was literally right in sight. Half a push and he slipped right out, completely and perfectly formed, only a wee little bitty thing.

Of course, being born nearly two months early, he was whisked right away to the awaiting NICU pediatricians, the rest of us getting only glimpses of him under elbows and between white lab coats. He cried right away and worked fervently to breathe. Thankfully, he stayed inside long enough to not have to be on the full respirator, only the C-PAP was used to aid him in getting oxygen.

Sara caught brief views of her little son from the bed, able to prop herself up enough to watch as they worked on him. He was so tiny amongst the three Pediatricians and overwhelming amounts of equipment surrounding him. 

Mark got a chance to get in closer, even holding his son’s tiny hand for a bit before he needed to be taken upstairs to the Intensive Care.

Sara recovered from birth amazingly quickly and within an hour was able to follow her family upstairs to finally meet and touch her son. Zephaniah Isaac was born less than an hour after I got there, 3lbs 13oz. He has been doing extremely well. By that evening he was down to room air then breathing completely on his own since Wednesday. He has been eating well through a tube and will get his IV out on Tuesday. His two older brothers have been in a bunch to see him and they are hopeful to bring him home for Christmas.

As for me, I can say it was an incredible, if not life changing experience. Before this, I had never been at an actual birth (all three of my girls were c-sections and pulled out from behind the magic blue curtain). I was so honored to be asked to be a part of this with Mark, Sara and Zephan, let alone be able to capture the whole thing through my camera for them to cherish and share.