I was fortunate enough to be hired from a photographer based out of New Hampshire to shoot her second child's birth. She had to convince me. I almost said no. I'd never been on a plane before, let alone by myself. After I had said yes, I was like, "okay, it's whatever, I'll drive." As August began to quickly hurl itself at me, I was in denial. About two weeks before I needed to leave, I changed my mind and I bought the tickets. Flying is weird, I'm not necessarily a fan, but it's a hell of a lot better than driving 23 hours.
So here I am, being flown the furthest away from home I've ever been alone. To see people I had never met in real life before. I was like, "man, I hope these guys aren't weird." To my surprise, they weren't. They were amazing people. They felt like I had known them for forever.
The experience itself was absolutely insane. I got up the morning of the c-section not knowing if I'd be allowed in the OR. I traveled 1500 miles not knowing if I'd be able to go in the OR. We hoped. We crossed our toes and fingers. The anesthesiologist came in to discuss our plan with him. I said to him, "shove me in a corner, I don't care." Immediately after that, his expression changed and he said, "oh, well okay. We can do that!"
Fast forward an hour, I'm sitting in scrubs in the waiting room. The time seems to be going so, so slowly. The nurse opens the door and says I can go in. I walk in the OR and here they are, doing SURGERY. It was insane. So there I was, standing in my corner, getting my settings in order. Shaking. It should be noted that I CANNOT handle blood/guts and this was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen. The doctor performing the surgery looked up and said to me, "come on over!" So I'm standing like 5 feet from my friend's internal organs! INSANE. They pull the baby out. I'm just taking picture after picture after picture, I ended up with about 30 "catch" shots! They proclaim, "IT'S A GIRL!" The first girl for this family in generations. The look on Dad's face was perfect, had no idea what to say. Everyone thought this baby was a boy. They even had a boy name solidly decided, but not a girl name. May I also add that they let Mom and baby do skin to skin in the OR? The nurses on staff at the time said that they wouldn't let her since I would be in there. Pretty cool.
They take little Lilah over to the warmer to get her stats and can I say how freaking gorgeous this baby is? She was absolutely flawless, straight outta the womb, but she certainly had a fabulous set of lungs on her.
A new person. In the world. And I saw it happen.
Did I revisit any memories for you? It might not be as uncomfortable as you think. Take a look. You might change your mind.
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