Newborn Pictures

Here are some of the newborn pictures we took of Caden.  He was right at 2 weeks old.  Looking back I can’t believe how tiny he was and at two weeks he had already grown almost 2 lbs!  Enjoy..

Adam and I love when he makes his “little mouth” face.

The money shot

Here’s a little behind-the-scenes shot of our setup. A giant soft-box lit the scene while we hung Caden from a blanket attached to a C-stand. As you can see above, I was on-spot. Most of the above shots were taken at 1/250 s, F/4, ISO 200 with the 24-70mm f/2.8 on a D3.

My cousin Sara and I are less than a year apart and we ended up having babies that are only 5 days apart.  So fun!  This is Caden and Sara’s little girl Abigail.

They insisted on trying to eat eachother.  It gave me flashbacks to when Sara and I were little girls

Caden’s Birth

I thought a good way to start our new blog is with pictures from Caden’s Birth! Here are some photos and commentary by Adam:

Caden Gray Nyholt was born July 23, 2009, at 7:51 PM. He weighed in at 5 pounds, 14 ounces and measured 19 inches long.

It’s after midnight on the following day, and I am exhausted! Not nearly as much as Kacie, but exhausted nonetheless. I am actually home right now because I’m going to be shooting a fantastic wedding tomorrow for my clients Amanda and Fred. It’s going to be a long day of shooting, so we decided I better come home and get some sleep. It really sucks to be leaving my new family, but I’ll be seeing them again soon!

Yesterday, the day of Caden’s Birth, was a rough one for us. Kacie suffers from a pregnancy condition called pre-eclampsia, which is why we delivered 3 weeks early. Because of her condition escalating as she came to the hospital, she was put on this really awful medicine that does a great job at preventing seizures, but made her feel like crap. She had labored for roughly 12 hours when our doctor determined that Caden was going to have a hard time “fitting” and she called for a C-section. Less than 30 minutes later Caden came into the world!

Below are some photos from the whole experience. As I mentioned in my vacation post a few weeks ago I try not to live my life “through the viewfinder” when it comes to family, and instead I try to be “present” and just experience life. That being said, I’d be dumb not to bring my camera, so I did I only took it out occasionally, however, and during his birth I took very few exposures. If they came out, great, if not then oh well. There were far more important things to experience.

—Warning: There are a couple relatively graphic photos from the delivery. They’re not too bad, but a little different from my usual blog material —

This is almost halfway into the day. Kacie is starting to feel bad after being started on the bad medicine. Our amazing doctor, Dr. Cowen, and our superstar nurse, Liz (who is my sister) are seen working to make sure everything is going smoothly.

It was so amazing to have Liz be a part of our delivery. She really is a fantastic nurse, and she spent all day with us making sure Kacie and Caden were safe.

Kacie was not able to eat anything all day. This popsicle was her “lunch”, and was the only thing other than ice she got to eat.

The pumps feeding Kacie’s I.V.

Moments after Dr. Cowen called the C-section, people were running around frantically trying to get ready to go. The OR was kind of backed up, but there was a gap that we could slide in right then if we got Kacie to the OR immediately. I had less than a minute to put on my paper scrubs, and figure out what I was going to bring into the OR. Lugging my whole camera bag in there was obviously not an option. I had to decide between my D3 and my D90 (which can do video). I decided on the D3 and the 50 1.4. After arriving in the OR I took a seat next to Kacie’s head, behind the curtain hiding us from a view of the operation. The Nurse Anesthetist told me she’d give me a heads up when the baby was about to come out, and that I’d have a split second to take a picture and see him before the baby doctors whisked him away to evaluate him. I stayed seated as long as I could to comfort Kacie, who was really feeling bad and was pretty out of it. Finally, the nurse says “Do you have a strong stomach?”. “Umm, I think so,”, I reply. “I hope you more than think so…. OK, NOW!” I pop up and take 2 clicks.

This next picture captures perfectly the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The feeling I felt when I first saw Caden come out of the womb and into the world was indescribable. I was completely fascinated, overwhelmed, overjoyed, and full of awe. I consider this to be one of the best pictures I have ever taken. Maybe just because it’s my kid. I dunno.

Moments after I took this picture, Caden was gone. Kacie got a brief glimpse of him but was unable to really see him well because of the drugs. I told her not to worry, he wouldn’t stay that ugly

After the baby docs gave the all clear, Liz goes to work. She weighed him in, re-swaddled, then gave him to us to hold for just a few minutes.

Kacie holding Caden for the first time.

Liz took this picture of me. Good job Liz!

Liz and I wheeled him past the waiting room where about 2000 family members anxiously awaited his arrival.

My mom.

Liz showing him off from the nursery

Another one of my favorite pictures ever. Mom and baby learning how to breast feed.

My mom holding Caden. I think he looks just like me!

Kacie’s dad, Jeff, and Holly

Kacie’ s mom.

I love this picture!

He may look like me, but he has Kacie’s incredibly long fingers and toes! Maybe he’ll be a guitar player or pianist with great balance! He LOVES to play with his hands, and he is very expressive with them.

Finally, this is a picture I took of Caden sleeping in Kacie’s arms shortly before I left tonight. I love you two!!!!!

Well, that’s all for now folks! Expect gobs and gobs of pictures over the weeks, months, and years to come

Please leave a comment if you think Caden is the man!