One of the most precious moments in life is to experience a family bringing a baby into the world, & we had the privilege to share the Birth Day of Reuben Monroe with Josh & Amber Ulmer. Josh & Amber had asked us to document #babyreuben’s Birth Day Story, alongside awesome birth photographer, Amelia Hambrook, & we want to share our behind the scenes experience with you.
Obviously, we don’t have any children yet, but we feel like we’ve experienced (secondhand) what it’s like to have a baby. We’ve been with Josh & Amber throughout this entire journey of getting baby Reuben here! Last spring we remember sitting on Josh & Amber’s back porch when they told us “We want to have baby #2.”… then (it seems like the next week) Josh called us one morning & said “Hey guys, baby #2 is on its way!”
This was truly one of the best experiences of my life… like right up there with marrying Eugene!
Amber did a fantastic job & Josh was right by her side the whole time! From breathing through the contractions to bringing little Reuben into the world, he was there holding her hand while staring into her eyes & reading her face to see what she needed. Since I was in middle school, I’ve been watching TLC’s “A Baby Story” & any other birth documentary in fascination & curiosity. I was sure I knew everything that was involved in giving birth… the technical terms, the procedures, the screaming… but I’d completely forgotten about the most important part -Love! Throughout Amber’s pregnancy, she & Josh showed me how much someone can be loved before they’re even here. It’s funny how you can spend so much time planning for a baby, then carrying a baby, then going through contractions for the baby, then within a short time a little person can suddenly arrive & change the entire feeling of a room!
I’m sure there are many of you who have personally experienced your own child being born or even someone you know, but this was totally new to me! I’ve always known that I would one day have children, but this has definitely moved me over the threshold of wanting children!
The biggest thing I wanted to be sure of while we were shooting this Birth Day Story is that we didn’t interrupt anything. We never wanted to make any situation awkward by being close (with a camera) to what was going on. We didn’t want Josh & Amber to feel like they had to act a certain way when we were around. You’ll see above that we ended up being able to get super close to Josh & Amber. Since they’re amazing photogs, they probably noticed us doing it. When we first started shooting we kept our distance and gradually would get closer, once we saw they were super comfortable with our cameras.
Once it was time for Amber to get down to business and have her baby, I couldn’t move next to her head fast enough:) I didn’t’ wanna see anything that would scar me for life:) It was amazing how quick everything happened next. It was like first there wasn’t a baby and I blinked and there was another lil Ulmer crying like crazy:)
I think one of the coolest things about this experience was seeing how supportive Josh was to Amber during the whole thing. He really upped the bar for when Heather and I have a kid!
Shooting this huge moment in Josh and Amber’s life was for real one of the coolest things I think we’ve had a chance to shoot! I’ll be honest…because of them, I really want to have a kid now. 
