birth photographer- yea or nay {my opinion}

When I was pregnant with Mia, a friend offered to take birth photos for us and I was really excited about it... until I was in labor. I was hangry (understatement), exhausted and just plain not in the mood for pictures, so we ended up not getting birth photos. I never regretted not having them done (my friend came to the hospital and snapped photos the next day, and I cherish those pictures with my brand new Mia!) but after seeing so many beautiful birth photos, I was once again curious about having our own birth photos. Fast forward (or rewind since he's already here, ha!) to being pregnant with James... I was put in touch with Chrissy and after discussing my thoughts on pictures, we agreed to tentatively plan on having her do our birth photos, but to definitely be there to photograph the first time Mia met James/the first time we were together as a family of four in the hospital. I discovered that while curious about birth photos, I knew that photos of our family after James was born was what was truly most important to me!
As you can see, birth photos worked out this time around... and I love them! I'm so glad we have them and I will cherish them forever! BUT I do feel like this was a one time deal. My curiosity has been satisfied, we have beautiful photos of bringing our baby into this world... but I don't feel the need to do them again if we have another baby. You better believe that I WILL have a photographer (definitely Chrissy if we are still in Arizona!) there to document my kids meeting each other/all of us together for the first time when/if we do have another baby! I just don't even know how to describe the way my heart glows (cheesy? yes. true? yes!) when I see the love and curiosity my daughter has for her new baby brother... or the love that is obvious on my face and Eric's seeing our babies together for the first time, when we weren't sure how we would be able to love another baby after falling head over heels for our first born. These photos give me all the feels! These photos are what I've decided are most important- a necessity for me! So I am grateful that we had a birth photographer once, but I will always have a photographer capture those first precious moments with our whole family together for the first time!
For all of my Arizona people, I have to give the biggest shout out to Chrissy from Let Me See You Sparkle Photography! Not only is she one of the kindest, sweetest souls I have ever met, but she went above and beyond as a photographer and friend! She eased my nerves/fears/concerns with the birth photos and she gave me the modest picturess I was hoping for (in a situation where all is bared, ha ha! I can only imagine how difficult it was for her to produce the vision I was asking for) She is so personable and instantly put my family at ease so the pictures from the first meet are perfectly natural and portray what a happy time it was for our family! I also had Chrissy take James' newborn photos and she really knows her stuff! She was confident with little James, knew how to comfort him and position him to capture his newborn sweetness! I just can't praise Chrissy enough and look forward to working with her in the future! If you live in the valley (or surrounding areas, she posts when she is available for traveling around Arizona) I highly suggest looking into Let Me See You Sparkle Photography!