George Owen {St. Louis Birth Photography Story}

I’m not sure I can write this without tears streaming down my face. You see, all birth stories are incredible and emotional. But this one. THIS one is very special and sentimental to me.

My sister. My BABY sister….is a mom.

It wasn’t the easiest journey to get to this point in Amber and Scott’s love story. Like, so many others, they have experienced loss. But in their heart of hearts and in all those that ever knew them……we all knew and prayed that they’d be parents one day soon, because it was just meant to be that way.

Amber and I always kinda loosely talked about me coming out to Colorado to photograph her birth, but we didn’t ever really know HOW that would work….being 12 hours away from each other, and me working my job here and taking care of my own two little loves and oh, the obvious, that a baby’s arrival date is pretty unpredictable! So we just took a chance, bought a plane ticket for random days “around her due date” and crossed our fingers that I’d get to be there for the special moment.

Being an impatient sister, to me, it felt like she was pregnant FOREVER! I just wanted to meet this baby boy!! So when she went into her 40 week appointment, on Friday, September 23rd, we thought for SURE she’d be dilated to SOMETHING…my guess was 3 cm because she had been contracting every 10-15 minutes for 15 hours!! Surely, that was doing something. So you can imagine everyones surprise and disappointment when she came out of the doctor office and she wasn’t even a 1/2 cm dilated and no where near effaced! And so, they scheduled an induction for her, well into her 41 week. Which meant, I probably wouldn’t have been able to stay more than a few hours after the birth. Major bummer…..for ALL of us. Of course we joked that “oh you never know what can happen……you could go into labor TONIGHT.” But with not much hope, we went on with our Friday night, playing Euchre and making plans for the weekend to go hiking and shopping and “walk this baby out”.

I said from the day that I arrived in Colorado, when we were all giving guesses on when Baby George would make his arrival, that he would undoubtedly arrive ON his due date! This was the product of my type A personality Sister and pretty literal brother-in-law….why on EARTH would he arrive a day early or a day late. He was told he was due on the 24th and by gosh, THAT is when he’ll arrive. Why would anyone think anything different? 😉

And wouldn’t you know it……8 1/2 hours after her doctor’s appointment……on September 24th, George’s due date…… At midnight….on the DOT…..those contractions started. Amber labored with Scott at home for a few hours until she couldn’t take it anymore and contractions where 5 minutes apart for almost two hours so they headed into the hospital. They checked her when she arrived and all those contractions FINALLY did some work and she was 3 cm. A few hours later she was still 3cm so they kicked it in high gear with some pitocin. You’d never know this tough girl was in labor…..she had ESPN Gameday on the TV in her room and was cheering loud for Georgia to lose to Ole Miss! She had all the nurses on the floor laughing with her humor and they all agreed…..”she’s gonna be a good pusher…she seems like a badass”. That she is.

They didn’t check her for a few hours and me, being the impatient, bossy sister highly encouraged/nudged her to ask them to check her again because she was feeling a little bit of pressure and by gosh again……she was practically 10 cm. That amazing sister of mine, labored down for about two hours, pushed maybe 10 times and at 2:22pm on September 24th, out came the most perfect tiny human surrounded in love by his precious parents, (one set of) grandparents and one (out of 4) proud Aunt. A perfect 8 pounds 5 oz little angel.

Besides the birth of my own two children, this was the most wonderful and sweetest moment I’ve ever had the privilege to witness.

Amber and Scott…..I can’t thank you enough for allowing me into this intimate moment in your lives. In just the short week after George arrived, watching you two in this new role as parents is amazingly beautiful. Your support for one another and encouragement and love you extend when I kNOW you’re sleep deprived is contagious. I can’t wait to watch this little love grow up and grow into his own skin and personality. I don’t know if he’ll be “mr. serious” or perhaps he’ll keep us laughing at his quirky ways? Maybe he’ll be a musician and lull us with his voice? Maybe a star athlete to take a field? Or maybe he’ll be really really really good at Clash of Clans and give his daddy a run for his money? I don’t know how he’ll turn out exactly, but I DO know that he will be so so SO loved, by not only his amazing parents, but also his growing family!

Welcome to the world, George Owen. You. Are Loved.

Baby George’s newborn photos coming in another new blog post soon.

George Owen from Cari Hill on Vimeo.

See George’s Birth Story Video Here: