Monday, October 19, 2009

Amazing Crazy Weekend

Well, a crazy weekend just flew by for me. It started on Friday (before driving my husband to the Whisky Festival in SF) when I was prepping for a wedding to take place on Saturday. I received a call from my very pregnant friend Ruthie whom I've been planning on photographing her childbirth and she said "now I'm not in labor or anything, but just to let you know I'm dilated four centimeters... oh, and I'm gonna go eat fondue tonight in San Rafael." I told her that I had to drive to the city that night, and I had a wedding all day on Saturday (I'll post about that next) so please hold off on having that baby until Sunday, OK (ha, ha).

Well, Saturday rolls by, I'm crazy running around shooting this wedding, which was amazing, in stopping in the middle to breast feed Milo and pump, and then run back to the wedding, but I still hadn't received any call from Ruthie. Whew! Sunday morning comes around, I have a 3 p.m. shoot scheduled at the California Institute of Message (CIM), but other than that, it's a mellow day. Ring. It's Ruthie. She says "no rush, but just to let you know I am feeling contractions and I'll be going in to see the midwife in an hour, I'll call you after that." Quarter to noon rolls around and that phone rings again, this time it's a go, she's definitely in labor and I don't have much time. My getting out of the house "fast" these days is, oh, about a half an hour. Feed Milo, pack his diaper bag ('cause the boy is going with me), grab as many toys as possible, a pillow, some water and food, and then make a call to CIM telling them what's going on and I probably wouldn't make the shoot.

So I finally make it to the birth center in Santa Rosa around 12:45, I hand Milo off to Morgynne,Ruthie's fourteen year old daughter and walk into the birthing room. There's Ruthie, in the bath, surrounded by the staff and her man Matt, and she's SMILING. She's basically all the way dilatedat this time and she's freakin' SMILING. Ruthie, you rock. It was absolutely amazing to be a part of her delivery, watching her strength, sense of humor, and her complete commitment to delivering this baby on her own. Not much time goes by after I arrived, and a pelvic exam by the midwife confirms and she says, "I won't be surprised if you start pushing on this next contraction." And boom, Ruthie pushes what seemed like a few times, with a few grunts (keep in mind, a whole lot of dedication) and before I knew it, little Indigo Nova was born. A beautiful girl, born a water birth. It was absolutely magical!

I looked at the clock and chuckled. I was going to make it to my 3 o'clock shoot at CIM back in Sonoma. Unbelievable!

Well, here are some of the pics from Ruthie's amazing, timely, awesomely wonderful birth of her sweet daughter Indigo. Thank you Ruthie and Matt for asking me to photograph the delivery. It was truly an honor and you make a beautiful family.


















4 comments:

monkeymom said...

Just wanted to say THANK YOU, Rebecca for capturing such wonderful memories for Ruthie & Family. You did such a great job with her preggy pics and these birth pics are lovely, love them! Bless You!

Valerie Lucus-McEwen, CEM CBCP said...

Rebecca - Indigo Nova's grandmother (Matt's mom) thinks these are beautiful. :-)

Patty said...

These are exceptionally beautiful photographs, Rebecca. And I am so proud of Ruthie's beautiful calm delivery. (other Grandma, Patty)

beth said...

Beautiful pictures! Even though we are miles away in Indiana, your pictures bring us together. What a blessing it is to be able to share with Ruthie and family this joyous occasion. (My husband Matt is Ruthie's cousin and Morgynne's God father).