Voted “Least Likely to Want Any Sort of Attention Drawn to Myself”, Melissa still let me tag along through out her and Paul’s pregnancy, including being at the ultrasound to find out if Truly was a girl or a boy with some other name. If it were a boy, I voted for Frank. Or Fritz.

Ask anyone and they will tell you that Melissa is pretty selfless. She knows I’m done-past the point of being able to give birth now (oh genetics) but invited me to see what this creating life thing was all about from her point of view. And I can’t thank her enough for being such an amazing friend and not feeling self-conscious when the ultrasound tech was pushing her skirt and underwear down into Shores of Jersey territory with me in a prime vantage point.

The night she went in, Stephanie was there for the poking and prodding portion and I came in to help with the jokey jokes as making a woman who is dilating laugh is fun as hell. I also gave a minute-by-minute weather forecast, balancing on hospital chairs to find the sliver of parking lot view from her room. The snow was falling down fast and wet.

Paul came after the boys were put to bed and before I left, Melissa and I went over my Pentax P3 with him. I loaded it with 3200 speed film in hopes that through the chaos of birth, the brand new father (of four) would be able to snap a few shots of the first few moments of their baby girl’s life on the outside. He did and they are beautiful. I only included one–Truly being weighed. The others are for Melissa and Paul to share. 

P.S. Melissa’s sister Sheralee is an amazing photographer (because these woman belong to the Talent Family) and took the first full family photos over here.