Kirkland Newborn Photography

When we become mothers, we sometimes forget to breathe. We really just forget.

I will never forget the day my son was born. You would think the birth I had at home would be the one big lasting memory. It is not. It was a short while later that I asked my midwife “What do I do now?” Everything before that moment was my body talking to me and telling me what to do. At this moment, lying in bed with my sleeping husband and son, I was clueless with what I was supposed to do. I needed to know what I should do next. She said, “You will know.”

I laid there in my home next to my husband and son. I had a son. My husband was snoring happily after a long morning. My son was snoring with him. I held my breath listening to them. In and out. Then I felt it. For the very first time, I felt it. Like a feather brushing softly against my arm. Breathe. My son was breathing. He was next to me. His breath fell on me and my whole body realized there was a baby next to me that was mine. He was alive. He was my son.

I had been holding my breath up until this moment and realized I was getting light headed. Like a tidal wave, I rushed air into my lungs and took a big breath of air. That would not be the first time or the last time my son took my breath away. I did not sleep a wink the next 12 hours. I just watched the two people I love more than anything in the world sleep and breathe.

Perhaps it is easy to forget that the day a child is born, a mother is also born.

In truth, I did not “fall in love” with my son until day four. On this day, like leaves on a tree in autumn gently falling to the ground, everything in my life dropped softly away and nothing else mattered. Nothing.

I hope you enjoy this Newborn Session I recently did in Kirkland WA. This sweet family and I huddled next to a large window in their living room that gave us a soft, low light from the rainy day outside. The images came out lovely despite the lighting challenge the day gave us.