One month later

I can’t believe it’s already been a month since we welcomed Frances in to this world. Life has been, well, hectic. It’s pretty much a blur of dirty diapers, half eaten bottles, half open eyes, and the obvious kisses and snuggles that come with any baby. Although, it is a little different when it’s your baby – you’re kissing your eyes, or your husband’s nose. All the parts of this new baby that come from someone else, passed down from someone before them.

I have a feeling the rest of my life is going to look like this, wondering where the time went, how a month – a year, ten years – went by. How I ended up with this perfect little person.

When I originally decided that I wanted photographs of our birth, I contacted Tammy Bradshaw of Tammy Bradshaw Photography to document our little one’s arrival. I imagined all of these beautiful photographs of our baby’s first moments in this world, the last few moments of our lives together without a baby, and the anticipation and shock when we found out the gender! Unfortunately, once I was scheduled for the c-section I knew that that wasn’t a possibility anymore as only one person can attend a c-section birth. And while I adore Tammy, I figured Brandon would want to be there considering this was his baby too…

Plus a c-section birth wasn’t exactly what I had pictured. I mean I have to believe that it’s not what anyone pictures when they think about having their baby. I glossed over that entire section in our birthing class, and I’m sure many of the other mothers-to-be in that class did too. So while I was trying to adjust my thinking about actually having the c-section, I completely disregarded the notion of having photographs of Baby Allmond’s birth. That is, until Brandon and I discussed the idea of him taking a few photographs. After all, I did have him photographing me the last few months of my pregnancy. And he did have a pretty good eye. All I had to do was set the camera up so that he’d be able to get properly exposed photographs.

It’s the best first decision we made as new parents. I am so grateful to have these photographs of the first moments of Frances’ life. And while I don’t have a photograph of us when they exclaimed”It’s a girl!”, it’s a moment I won’t soon forget.  How it felt, or how our eyes locked, or the smile we shared. The first of many smiles over Frances Claire.