My Birth Story in Pictures

Remember what it was like to anticipate the birth of your child? Maybe some of you are doing that right now. Maybe some of you are waiting for your first baby and you are a little scared? For me, I can think of nothing better than those last days before my children were born. They were days that were filled with such excitement and uncertainty. My mind always swirled with so many unanswered questions. When will I go into labor...morning, noon or night? Will my water break in public? Will my baby be o.k.? I wonder how much he weighs..I think a lot!! How long will my labor be? Will I have my little one tomorrow? Oh please, I am so ready!!!

Childbirth is the one thing in life that leaves such a vivid indelible memory in most women's life experiences. I have had four boys and I remember each birth so clearly. You can ask any woman who has given birth to a child or has adopted a child and they can tell you every little detail of their delivery experience or their experience meeting their new child for the first time.

When I had my fourth son I knew that this baby would more than likely be our last child. I had always wanted to have pregnancy pictures done and for some reason I never did it. I think, ultimately, I felt too embarrassed to have someone take pictures of my naked belly. With my last pregnancy, however, I knew it was something I would do. I didn't want to regret never having done it and I wanted to remember what I looked like with a pregnant belly. Luckily I had met a wonderful photographer, Brenda Bisharat, before I became pregnant with my fourth boy. Sometime in my last trimester I had the pregnancy pictures taken and I truly cherish them today. If you have ever thought of having pictures done while you are pregnant I would strongly encourage you to do it. The pictures are not only wonderful to have for yourself but your children will love looking at them when they are older.

After doing pregnancy pictures, I made the decision to also have my birth professionally photographed by the same photographer. This was a big decision because giving birth to a child is a very private experience and one in which I knew I would be completely exposed. What I discovered was, that by having Daniel's birth photographed professionally, I received such a precious irreplaceable and amazing gift! So, while many people like to share their birth story in words, I thought it would be fun to share mine in pictures and maybe you might decide that this treasure is one that you also have to have when you give birth to your child some day. I personally will never regret it!!! Thank you Brenda Bisharat for capturing my birth story so incredibly well and for putting together the wonderful video of my pictures below!!!





P.S. Just think how much cuter those hospital pictures would have been if I was in an Annie & Isabel designer hospital gown. Unfortunately this was before the idea to make our gowns became a reality :-(