January 30th, 2015…my third son, Blake, was born!
Also on January 30th, 2015…a wedding was scheduled to be photographed. Here’s what happened:
As is with any wedding I photograph, the night before, I double and triple check all of my equipment. Lighting, modifiers, rain covers, stands, charged batteries, extra batteries, backup equipment, gas in the car, memory cards, etc. must all be in order. I also make sure all of my times are written down correctly. I know all the who, where, what, when, why, etc. Do I sound antsy? Usually at this point, I am. It makes it fun! Anyway, it was late and my wife had been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions on January 29th. We knew the new baby would be arriving soon.
Now around 1:30am, I go to bed and my wife says, “These contractions are getting kind of uncomfortable.”
It had been a rough pregnancy for her the last nine months so me being tired and also accustomed to her telling me of her discomfort, I wasn’t really alarmed. I said, “Can you compare it to anything?”
She responded, “Umm….like when I was in labor with Alex.” [our second son]
“Well then we gotta go to the hospital!” Needless to say I was a bit jolted.
This being the only of Kendra’s pregnancies that was not an induced labor, she was unfamiliar with this part of the experience, “Ok…fine…let me do my hair first.”
While she worked on her hair, I decided a nice shower would be a good idea as well. I hopped into the shower in hopes that it would refresh me enough for the next day. I knew I wasn’t getting any sleep so I needed the boost!
We woke Owen and Alex up, drove them to grandma’s house and off to St. Rose we went. They checked us in and we were finally in a room to ourselves. All I could think in my dreary, unrested self was, “Please let this baby get here before 10am. Please let this baby get here before 10am…” I had to be at my clients’ wedding at about 10:30. Kendra and I had months in advance agreed that if the baby were to be born on a day where I had a wedding, since they cannot be rescheduled like a senior portrait or a family portrait, I would still attend to my duties. Still, I would of course prefer to be at the birth of my son.
9:50am: two pushes and we officially became a family of five! I walked over to the heat lamp where they were making sure Blake was ok, I walked back to my wife to check on her, looked at Blake one more time and then picked up my camera bag and said, “I have to go now. I’ll be back when I can. Love you, babe.” I then thanked the doctor and a few close family members who were there with us and drove in the rain to my wedding!
What a day, what a day… 🙂
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