NOTE: This is a HIPPA compliant post. All parties involved authorized the re-telling of this story.
No one wants to be the “new girl” at work, least not moi! I hate being new at things, bad at things, stumbling through unexplored territory. There have been a few wonderful co-workers who have made the process much smoother for me, one of them being this adorable mama. She taught me how to do my first few tricky procedures, reassured me the first time I cried at work, and kept the spicy cheer-leading coming whenever it was needed those first few months.
I met her when she barely had a bump, and into her seventh month of pregnancy she asked me to do belly photos. We had nothing short of a blast doing the pictures, and at that shoot she said that she wanted me to photograph their baby once he was born, due in about 5 weeks. Something to look forward to well down the line!
One mere week later…this whole “antepartum and postpartum” photo shoot planning got even *more* interesting when he decided to come early and I was her labor nurse! Like a dream sequence, I felt like a total phoney in that room. Why on earth would one of our best nurses have the new kid be her nurse at one of her most intimate and positive-stress moments in life?
I asked her later, what the heck were you thinking? She said, “everyone needs to learn, Emily, and I think you’re going to be a good nurse. You are a good nurse. I wanted you to be there.” What a gift to ME, my goodness! And, to top off this too-good-to-be-true experience, she was nothing short of the picture-perfect, force of nature amazing birthing mama.
Then, I got to do the newborn photos of this ‘lil pumpkin (er, apple tree as you’ll see later). To date, this might be one of my most special births as a nurse and certainly one of my most unique photo session package deals! I even managed to shoot a few birth photos in between monitoring the baby and replacing IV fluid. Though, I didn’t have all the fancy gear at work so we had to make do with a point-and-shoot.
Thanks for letting me be there, J, A, & E.
