As a photographer, I see a lot of birth photography in my Facebook feed and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes. It’s raw, emotional, real, and captures a completely life altering moment. I was so excited to have Megan Byl of Megan Strating Photography attend our birth. She was so professional- easy to talk to in the quiet moments, and disappeared into the background when things started picking up. These images are just a few of my favorites, there are so many more personal moments that she captured that we will keep for ourselves. I am SO thankful that I have these, and I have to say, we really noticed that we were able to focus on each other and on Phoenix when we didn’t have to think about of capturing any of it on camera ourselves.
My water broke at 6:30 in the morning in the middle of a huge snowstorm, the biggest Niagara has experienced yet this year. Of course my husband was out snowplowing over an hour away and I was home with 4 kids and no way to get to the hospital any time soon. To say I was a little panicked was an understatement, considering the last 2 children arrived within a few hours after labor began, and I had never had my water break on it’s own. Thankfully, Greg was able to come home quite quickly, my mother in law walked over to be with the kids and we safely drove to the hospital in a big old plow truck- no safer ride out there! Phoenix decided to make us wait the entire day- but that extra time made all the difference in labor as I had time to dilate and the contractions were much easier to deal with than they had been in the last two (faster) births. The midwives were fantastic in helping me get through the contractions, I have never had such a great experience with a birth. Thank you Jen and Taryn! Finally, Phoenix Nile Donker was born at 7:08 pm (Monday, February 2nd, 2015). He was 11 days early. We were so excited to meet him and were completely surprised to see that he had red hair! All of our children have looked so different at birth and he was no exception. We are all head over heels in love with him and are settling in nicely. His big brother is so proud of him and his sisters love on him constantly. We are so thankful to our heavenly Father for watching over us, providing us with safe travels on the dangerous roads and making all things well with labor and delivery. I’ve been sharing a few images on Facebook but you’ll find a lot more over on Instagram if you care to follow me there.
Tamsen, you are such an incredible mom. This birth story is beautiful and full of such amazing emotions, so clear to see how much love surrounds you and now your sweet little man too. *hugs*
thank you for sharing such a beautiful time with us. In love with these pictures.
Every time I see the picture where they lay Phoenix on your chest…Mrs Lodder’s face makes me cry every time.