ezra gray | birth

I'm very quickly learning babies just come when they wanna, and how they wanna... like i know people say that alllll the time but I think being attached to my phone 24/7 just waiting for a phone call makes it a whole new reality for me. So of course, little Ezra was no exception to this "when i wanna, how i wanna" rule. Shelby and Jon had their birth plan written out and were hoping to deliver naturally at a birthing center in Lancaster... however since Ezra was two weeks past his due date, they had to induce Shelby at Ephrata Hospital on Friday night. I think I woke up every 2 hours to check my phone, so paranoid i was going to miss something. Wellll, they waited all day Saturday and I decided to head into the hospital Saturday night around 11pm when things started progressing. *Side note* The midwives and doctors and basically everyone I came in contact with at Ephrata Hospital are INCREDIBLE people. So kind and caring and patient and I know Shelby and Jon would say the same. They also had a really comfy chair for me to sleep in so... A+. After a long night on Saturday and things not progressing as fast as the doctors had hoped, Shelby got a c-section on Sunday morning. Although Shelby and Jon started with very high hopes for their birth plan of delivering naturally, it would have been so easy to let their disappointment keep them from the joy of what was happening, the MIRACLE of meeting their first child. After the sadness and the tears passed, it was nothing but excitement and anticipation to meet little Ezra and I admire the way they so gracefully handled their disappointment.

I am so incredibly thankful i was able to be in the operating room when Ezra entered the world. It was a moment unlike anything I've ever experienced and something I am so grateful to have had the chance to capture. It brings tears to my eyes when I think of Shelby simply hearing her baby boy cry for the first time and it's something i'll never forget witnessing. congratulations to the sweet hostetler family <3