Photographer!

Well, call me crazy, but I decided to let 1 more person into the delivery room when Connor is born, our photographer!  ;)  No, she will not be getting any graphic shots so that we may share the miracle of life with our children.  We fully intend to allow public school to break that news to them.  :P  We will have Courtney, of Zao Photography, in the delivery room with us to capture all the sweet moments when he first arrives.  I know many of you are thinking this is a little crazy, so let me explain.  ;)

First off, yes, I have always been of the thought that if you didn't make the baby, and you're not a medical professional helping to deliver the baby, you have no business in my delivery room.  ;)  I still feel that way.  :P  I don't need any cheerleaders in there with me but my amazing husband, who I hardly let speak anyways.  :)  I certainly don't want anyone but the medical professionals seeing the graphic birth of my child, even my hubby doesn't need those graphic images in his mind, lol.  But I do want our photographer in the room.

You see, I've been trying to enjoy life's moments more lately.  I'm trying to live instead of capturing everything on film (or my camera).  So for Avery's birthday and for Christmas I relied on others to take pictures and get them to me.  I'm still collecting Christmas pictures, but Avery's birthday turned out great without Michael or me behind the camera.  ;)  That didn't keep me from worrying about whether or not we were getting good shots and all the ones I wanted.  So, when I saw Courtney post a recent birth session on facebook, I took a look.

Like I said, the pictures aren't graphic or anything.  In fact, I have most of the same pictures from when Avery was born.  But Michael and I had to take all of those pictures.  So I don't have any pictures of all 3 of us together when she arrived.  (If you have some, I would LOVE digital copies!!!)  So we have decided to eliminate the stress of getting all the right shots, and allow ourselves to enjoy the first moments of our son's life with someone else behind the camera to capture those moments.  :)

I'm excited about this because we'll get some pictures of Michael and I together before Connor arrives that aren't just selfies.  ;)  We'll get some pictures of him holding my hand as we get ready to push.  And she'll be able to capture the looks on our faces when we see our handsome son for the first time.  :)  Those aren't pictures we have from Avery's birth.  I'm looking forward to seeing Connor's birth from that perspective.  Then, she'll capture those moments when we're holding and bonding with him right away.  And more importantly, she'll capture Avery's first reaction to meeting her little brother.  :)  (She'll be in the waiting room with family for the birth, but she'll get to be Connor's first official visitor.)  She'll also capture our first family photos of four.  :)  Then, finally, she'll get the candid shots when our friends and family get to come in and meet our little guy for the first time.  It's going to be great!!

So call me crazy, but I'm going to have someone else in the delivery room with me.  I'm excited that I won't have to worry about getting all the pictures.  I fully trust Courtney to take care of that.  She's taken maternity, newborn, family, and 1 year old photos for us and I haven't been disappointed yet!  :D  If you'd like to see the photo shoot I've been talking about, the one that inspired us, it's on her blog.  Check it out!  :)  I'm sure I'll talk about it more before he gets here, but having made this decision only makes me more excited for Connor's arrival!  :D

http://www.zaophotographyblog.com/archives/2014/01/01/elliana-gracebirth/