Laura & James welcome their baby boy, toby, to the world

I have photographed so many babies, but non SO AWAKE as the lovely Toby.  I am certain he will be a lively little boy as he grows up.  Toby was so inquisitive and during the settling moments it gave me a good chance to catch up with Laura and James, who I met in university. 

Speaking to Laura, I knew I wanted to share their story.  I hear so many birth stories from parents in the studio, from having baby really quickly on the living room floor to it feeling like forever.  I also hear about conception. I hear that they thought it would happen sooner or that they have an IVF baby, they used a donor, they have a rainbow baby;  you name it, I have worked with them.  It is something I think people should feel open to talk about if they want to.

However it all feels I want people to know, everyone is different and so Laura and James have kindly allowed me to share their story:

We got married on the 11th of April, 2015 after being together for 4 years.  We knew that we wanted to start a family pretty quickly after but we were very happy as a couple so we didn't put too much pressure on ourselves to begin with.  We had the attitude of, if it happened then it happened and it would be great, but if it didn't we were still happy together. 

After a year we decided we would really start to try to conceive with ovulation tests, and counting the days ect. It was another year later and we decided to go to our GP. After three appointments we were referred to the fertility specialists at the hospital. I was half excited and half nervous about what was to come. It felt like a step closer to having a baby and they were taking us seriously as a young couple! 
We had months of tests, and finally received the diagnosis of "Unexplained Infertility".  There was no explanation for us to not be able to conceive.

We continued our fertility journey, and I started tablets to help boost ovulation for 6 months, ending in October 2018. With still no luck we decided to apply for IVF funding. When we started the referral to IVF I felt really deflated, and took some counselling  sessions to help me through this.

Our appointment to find out if we had been approved for funding was on the 1st of February 2019 and due to the timing of my cycle I did a routine pregnancy test just so I could be 100% sure that I was not pregnant. Off I went to make a cup of tea and breakfast, I hadn't even woken James up as I was so sure it would be another negative. 

I couldn't believe it , After 3 years we finally had a positive! I woke James up sobbing (he thought one of the pets had died) We still went to our appointment and they booked us in for a 6 week scan to confirm the pregnancy. This is when we booked with Cara! We were so excited and wanted to make sure she could capture special photos of our precious bundle! 

I was under consultant led care as there were some issues in my blood work and we had some extra growth scans as baby was on the higher end of the growth chart, But he was perfect! We found out that Toby was a boy with an extra scan. We did hope that he would be arriving slightly early due to his measurements, however he decided he was very comfortable and our due date passed without even a twinge! 

Cara was great and rearranged our session for us as James and I decided to induce on the 18th of October.  36 HOURS OF CONTRACTIONS LATER, Our relaxed little boy still didn't want to move.  His heart rate dropped and the team decided we should have an emergency C section. Toby finally arrived at 21:08, on the 20th of October, 2019. 

After such a traumatic birth, we discussed with Cara that we didn't feel ready for our trip to the studio so she very kindly rearranged again for us so that we felt more comfortable with the session. 

Cara was great with Toby, who decided to stay awake for almost all 4hrs of the session. For a normally chilled out baby, on the day he just wouldn't settle. But Cara still captured beautiful images of our little dude.  The photos have really captured his funny character and grumpy expressions.