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Roman’s Birth and Labor

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For Roman’s birth we asked one of my best friend’s (who is also a photographer) Aubrey Trinnaman to come and document it. It might seems a little strange to have a photographer join you for the birth of a baby but I am so happy we have these. I look at these and I can remember so many details (including how bad it hurt!) I loved it because Paul could attend to my needs instead of worrying about documenting everything. We barely have any photos for Moses’ birth for that very reason. Would you ever invite a photographer to a birth?

All photos by Aubrey Trinnaman. A San Francisco based photographer and one of my favorite people in the world.

I’m partnering with Federated Media to host a little contest on Flickr where you could win a $500 gift certificate to Best Buy. All you have to do is upload a photo to Flickr that captures a family memory. Then make sure the photo is tagged public so we can see it and then add the tag: #CapturedPhotoContest_OhHappyDay You can find the official contest rules right here. The contest ends on December 24th, and you can enter up to five photos! I love the submissions so far, if you want to check them out you can see them right here.

  1. Molly @thewaffler

    December 12, 2011

    Lovely photos. Some helpful nurses played photographer during the birth of my son, but it does make sense to have someone there whose job is solely to snap pics. I also wish I had more photos of my kids during those first few days home. Everything gets so crazy (and you’re so tired) that great photo ops are often missed.

  2. Katie

    December 12, 2011

    My sister-in-law, who’s a photographer, came and took photos of my second’s birth. It was wonderful and I wish I had done the same thing for my first. Every time I look at the photos I get teary-eyed. It was such a wonderful day. Here’s a link: http://pigtailsandsnails.blogspot.com/2011/02/baby-gretas-arrival-labour-delivery.html

  3. chandra ~ oh lovely day

    December 12, 2011

    Thanks for sharing! I didn’t even want my husband to take photos or video of most of my labor or the birth with my first, but I might reconsider for my second too, especially if it isn’t 26 miserable hours of labor like the first one was! Love seeing your documentation though, and I’m sure Roman will too!

  4. Jenni

    December 12, 2011

    beautiful photos! Thank you for sharing!

  5. Flannery

    December 12, 2011

    Beautiful! I only have photos from when I was just born, I would have loved to see my mother in the hospital waiting on me! Just curious, did you know that Roman would have a cleft palate? I have no idea how detailed ultrasounds are these days. You have beautiful children and I’m so jealous they’re spending this time in France, it’s such an amazing opportunity. Thanks for inspiring so many wonderful parties I threw this year. (:

      • jordan
      • December 12, 2011

      We did know he would have a cleft lip. It was great because we could plan and research in advance.

  6. Tara

    December 12, 2011

    One of my good friends (also a photographer) captured the birth of our son from beginning to end, and I’m so glad she did… I shared some of my favorite images here, along with my birth story – http://thetinyhummingbird.blogspot.com/2011/11/remembering-day-ezra-was-born.html

  7. bevy

    December 12, 2011

    I love these photos. Yes, I would invite a photographer in the room with me. I’m usually the photographer of the family, but I was kinda busy the day I was in labor with my daughter three years ago!

  8. Leanne

    December 12, 2011

    I work as a psychologist on a Cleft Palate team at a children’s hospital, and we *always* encourage photos at the birth/soon after for families who are expecting a child with any kind of appearance difference, but particularly craniofacial conditions. It helps them focus on the beauty of the child and the new life, rather than any medical concerns that might otherwise take their attention. It also helps when others (like you) share their children’s photos! Thanks, they are beautiful!

  9. Judi

    December 12, 2011

    I love these photos, especially the “be tough” one! Also, do you have a bow in your hair during labor?

  10. Dianna

    December 12, 2011

    Beautiful! Althought I didn’t have a photographer at the birth of my first child, I will for my second. We got some pretty good shots from the day, but I would have liked more professional ones 🙂

  11. Whitney Hardie

    December 12, 2011

    I am a birth photographer and people always raise their eyebrows when I tell them what I do. But honestly, I feel like the photographs captured at the time of birth are so very meaningful and powerful. I love being able to document this amazingly transformative time for families.

    I am expecting another child any day now, and we do have arrangements made for photos to be taken.

  12. Carrie

    December 12, 2011

    Thanks to your sister, I did this for my 3rd’s child’s birth. I loved the pictures. And I loved having my husband fully present, rather than having him focus on taking pictures. Here are a few…
    http://lifewiththebrocks.blogspot.com/2010/10/birth.html

  13. Annie

    December 12, 2011

    I LOVE that you’re sharing these beautiful images!! I’ve photographed quite a few births this year and I think it might be my favorite experience as a photographer. It’s been fantastic as a mother, too. Thanks for blogging about your positive experience – it’s so good to get the word out about birth photography! I’ll definitely be bringing a photographer to my next birth if my husband and I have more children!! = )

  14. April Bladh

    December 13, 2011

    Greatest thing we did was having our son Eli’s birth photographed. My dear friend and Photographer was there for 6 hours. What a trooper. I still get emotional when i look at them.
    here is a link of a few of them.
    http://bladhphotography.blogspot.com/2011/02/had-baby.html

  15. Hannah @ Sparrow + Spark!

    December 13, 2011

    I really love the idea of these. Wonderful memories and moments captured forever.

  16. lynet witty

    December 13, 2011

    I TOTALLY would be ok with having a photographer at the birth. Linsey Stone DFW Birth Photographer from Texas http://www.dfwbirthphotographer.com/home/ is completely amazing and she’s even submitted a photograph to National Geographic for one of her controversial birthing pictures. The only photographer I’ve had at my home births is my mother, and although most of them are blurry because she’s not excellent, looking through those images brings back all those feelings I had when I first had both my boys 🙂

  17. Taylor Kalander

    December 13, 2011

    Yes! I absolutely want a photographer when I have babies. I think that’s such a great idea. My niece, Stella, was born LAST NIGHT (!!!!) and it was so fun photographing her, my sister and brother in law, in those super special moments right after the birth.

    Love your birth photos. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to meeting you at ALT Summit!

  18. This girl loves to talk

    December 14, 2011

    my sister in law is a photographer and goes along to births! shes only done a few but they are sooo special. I love to look at the photos she takes! here is her latest
    https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.10150373832723131.351694.356877703130&type=1

  19. Katie Hackworth

    December 14, 2011

    These are so beautiful! What a great idea. So much better than a video of the birth (which I would NOT want!). Thanks for sharing such an amazing day!!

  20. Amanda

    December 14, 2011

    The “Be Tough” Gatorade shot made me giggle!

  21. Allie

    December 14, 2011

    My sister is a photog and she was there for support but also took some of my favorite pics in the whole world of when my little girl was born. If people knew how special these pictures become, I think everyone would have someone there to take pictures.

  22. Erin Parker

    December 15, 2011

    I love that you did this and that the experience was a good one for y’all! I’m a photographer, and I know I will have a fellow photog at the birth of my children, even though my husband thinks this is completely weird. I like the idea of having it all documented, seeing it and being able to remember in clear detail.

  23. Cheryl

    December 15, 2011

    I heart your blog!
    I always smile and enjoy your beautiful, beautiful, happy, fun posts!
    congratulations!!!
    I really love the “Be Tough” Bottle!

    thank you for sharing an “Oh Happy Day”
    Welcome Roman
    xoxo

  24. mikky

    December 15, 2011

    Congratulations! Looks like y ou have a cutie pie on your hands. Talk about the ultimate xmas present. Hope you are enjoying every minute with your little one.
    Great pics btw, I especially love the shot with the be tough gatorade bottle. Cool idea.
    🙂
    mikky
    http://www.todaloos.com

  25. Ash & Matt | A SoCal Story

    December 15, 2011

    Those are beautiful birth photos! We live far away from family (my husband is in the military) and really wanted to be able to share our first baby’s birth with them somehow. We hired a birth photographer for our son’s birth in September and are so grateful we did! I loved that my husband got to be in the moment rather than behind a camera, and I can’t imagine not having the shots our photographer captured of our new little family.

    You can see our birth story here: http://ash-and-matt.blogspot.com/2011/10/jakes-birth.html

  26. Bridgett

    December 16, 2011

    With my first, we hadn’t planned on a photographer or video, since my husband is a photographer and we figured he’d take some photos of baby after baby was born, My husband’s best friend, who has become a good girlfriend of mine, asked if she could video tape the birth as part of her MFA thesis on the importance of families. We figured “why not?” We all just agreed that nobody wanted any below the waste shots. Long story short…she gave us a five minute video (ha! twelve hours of labor reduced to five minutes) that was beautiful! For our second baby, we decided to have a home birth and we definitely wanted the process to be photographed to document baby boy’s arrival as well as my daughter welcoming him into our family. Words cannot describe how wonderful the day was. One of my daughter’s favorite things to do is to look at the photos of her baby brother being born.

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