The miracle of life

I am almost 30 years old and until last week, I had never seen anything be born. Not a cat or a dog or a human has ever been brought into this world in my presence. My best friend asked me to be there when she gave birth to her 3rd child and to take pictures of every little and big moment. I was humbled and honored. I got some amazing shots, obviously I can't show many of them, so here are just a few that are just too precious!

On Thursday, April 26th, they put her on petocin at 9:00 in the morning to get her labor started. They broke her water at 12:25 pm. She kicked us out of the room when the contractions got really bad and she decided to get an epidural. But there was no time for that!

While in the waiting room, we got a call to hurry qucik-the baby was coming NOW! We ran to the delivery room and not a moment too soon. At 2:07 pm, the baby we had been waiting to meet, came into this world. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen! I knew what happened but I had no idea how beautiful, raw and emotional it was. I was laughing, crying and taking as many pictures as I could!

Lynlee Tatum weighed in at 7 pounds, .06 ounces. Her mom thought she must only weigh 4 pounds because she felt so tiny!She was 19 inches long. I swear her feet were huge, but when I saw them yesterday, they appear to have shrunk!

Big Sister Jayde was there to see it all. Although she was a little grossed out by seeing her mom in a way she had never seen her before, she was so happy and over the moon to have a little sister of her own! You can see the tears of joy that she was crying the first time she held her sister.

Big brother Chandler came after Lynlee was born. He had his eyes closed so tight so that he didn't see her until everyone was ready!

And when he opened his eyes and saw his baby sister for the first time, he was so excited! That's our baby!

I can never thank Kyla enough for letting me be there to witness this amazing miracle. Even though at one point, when she was in severe pain, she told me that having babies was overrated. Seeing this take place only makes me want to experience this myself even more. To feel the baby inside of you for 9 months and then give birth to it and have it placed on your chest. I can think of nothing more wonderful than that!Welcome to the world Lynlee! You are going to be so loved and so spoiled by this Auntie of yours. I love you so much already and am so happy that I got to see you make your entrance into this big, crazy world!