Honor's birth was beautiful, quick, and unexpected. I wasn't expecting my birthing time to begin that night, so she was a pleasantly fast and furious surprise. My midwife's apprentice made it only minutes before Honor arrived – and the supervising midwife didn't make it for the birth!

Birth candles and beads set up beside the tub .  I have my birth bead necklace from Galen's birth (that's the smaller necklace) and a new one for this birth.  I had a blessingway and everyone brought beads – and my online due date group did a bead exchange again. The result – a huge birth bead necklace!!  I love the candles and beads being close by, though 🙂

This was right after Honor was born – already so beautiful and pink!  But, not quite ready to look around at us.  I think all the lights on had something to do with it (with Galen it was dark because it was just Scott and I there and we'd turned off the lights for my labor – for Honor there was a lamp on which didn't give too much light but it must have been pretty bright to her!)

Here we are getting to know Honor 🙂  Still very pink but you can see that her cord is starting to get limper, an indication that she's received much of the blood she needs.  The water around me has a cloudy look from the amniotic fluid – lots of flecks of vernix from Honor!

Look at her tiny feet!  She's already very pink all over so she's breathing well and has made a nice transition from the womb to life on the outside.  She was a big girl at 8lbs, 12oz.

One last shot of Honor and I in the tub.  I know now that having a hat on doesn't really preserve heat for the baby (mama's body does that) and can interfere with hormones and pheromones after birth, but I didn't know that at that time so she got hatted!

Honor really wasn't too pleased with her newborn exam!  She's about to be weighed here.

My midwife's apprentice weighs Honor in the sling – she weighed in at 8lbs 12oz.  The following are some pictures of Honor in her first three days:

Emmanuel did a portrait of Honor 🙂

Click here to read Honor's birth story!

The main photo gallery (listing all of the galleries) can be found here.  Scroll around to see beautiful shots from natural births.  If the birth story has been shared on the site, you'll find a link to it within each gallery.

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Would you like to share pics of your baby's birth?  Click here to submit them and I'll create a gallery page for you and your baby 🙂