Welcome Adaline Ivy! Addie is my sister and brother-in-laws first child. During their Winchester Lifestyle Newborn Session it was so surreal to be photographing my baby sister’s baby! Fun fact, this session didn’t take place in their home. It took place in my guest room. I love the light in that room and love the way these images turned out.

Accidental Home Birth

Now enough talk about the actual session. Let’s talk about a little about their birth experience because it’s a wild story. They like to joke about they they had an accidental home birth. Leah and Brannon took the 8 hour birthing class and felt fully prepared to have Addie at a birthing center. Through all of their education about birthing, their biggest take away was to be on the lookout for consistent 5 minute contractions and then head to the birthing center. Leah gave Brannon the task of timing the contractions since she was a bit occupied, being in labor and all. He timed the contractions. They got faster and faster but never very consistent. They were waiting on that consistency to head to the hospital.

Call for Backup

At 2am, they called Brannon’s sister Marielle who is their doula and she came over. The information wasn’t relayed to Marielle that Leah was in active labor because Leah didn’t know. Leah thought “well if this isn’t active labor what’s active labor going to feel like?” Marielle came over, checked her out and said you’re ready, let’s head to the birthing center. A few minutes later they were outside, Leah had another contraction and the baby was ready to come out. They weren’t going to make it to a birthing center that was 45 minutes away. They headed inside and had the baby a few minutes later. Right after Adaline was born her midwives came and the rest of the team came.

Crazy Story

What a crazy story! Leah and Brannon basically labored together alone until the very end. I’m so super proud of them. Having a child is scary enough filled with so many unknowns and they brought (well mostly Leah, haha) the most beautiful little girl into the world.

I wanted to photograph their lifestyle session because I know how incredibly special my own lifestyle newborn photos are to me. I hope they look back and cherish these images and memories forever. Here are a few of my favorite images of my sisters Winchester Lifestyle Newborn Session.