After three long days of early labor, Mama arrived at the hospital at 7cm. What a relief! At that point, it’s nice to know there is an end in sight. And the end really came quite quickly – Baby was born only about 3 hours after arriving at the hospital.

9:47pm Mama and Dad laboring together. She was so strong and he was just a rock. Even though they were both exhausted, they calmly and smoothly worked through contractions together.

10:08pm I love the teamwork!!!

He’s so sweet and I love her smile!

10:40pm Labor is hard work. Especially when you are nearing or past 72 hours of it.

From the beginning, I had a feeling this was going to be a pretty good birth. Mama & Dad had a great perspective and outlook on the birthing process (even though this was their first), and then when we got to the hospital, the nurses were just great. But then in walked Charlene the midwife. I had never met Charlene, but I was pretty sure she was amazing. She walked in and observed. She didn’t take charge, she didn’t command, she didn’t call the shots. She stood back and watched. She asked Mama how she was doing, she offered encouragement or advice when needed, and she let Mama do her thing.

11:43pm The sigh of relief when it’s over and you have a baby in your arms!!

Gotta love it when dads cry 🙂

Mama is so beautiful!

Baby has so much hair!!! It’s so fantastic, I love when babies have lots of hair. Probably because my own babies are mostly bald when they are born…

Congratulations!!!

Out of the all the births I’ve photographed (50 total, 27 hospital births), this one was most like a homebirth. The way the nurses & midwife handled the birth and treated Mama, the overall feeling in the room, this birth was the most like a homebirth in a hospital that I’ve seen. After witnessing this birth, I feel that when women say ‘I would like a homebirth, but we’ll be having this one in the hospital’ what they want is a birth like this one. It was truly a amazing birth.