Sweet little Emersen had a bit of a hospital stay after he was born so Paula and Jeff decided to do a lifestyle newborn session a few weeks after he came home.  It was such a pleasure spending yesterday morning with this sweet family … and I totally fell in love with their pup Farley.  If Farley ever goes missing … don’t check my house … *cough.  Hehe.

I asked Paula to describe the first time she got to hold Emersen:
“Our experience when Emersen was born was very different from the typical birth. We knew prior to birth that he had a congenital heart defect (TGA – Transposition of the great arteries and VSD – a hole in his heart) that would require immediate intervention including IV medication, a septostomy (catheter procedure to keep a hole open in his heart to allow blood/oxygen flow) and open heart surgery, which he had at 6 days old. He was born at Mt Sinai in Toronto and after he was delivered he was taken away to Sick Kids and we didn’t get to hold Emersen until the day after he was born due to his early interventions. I was admitted to hospital after my C-section so Jeff was the first to hold him. He remembers feeling very scared but also relieved. Scared not knowing if he was going to survive his stay in hospital because he had to now rely on his own heart to survive (rather than my body providing for him) and relieved because he was finally here and doing well so far. I was able to hold him later that same day and remember also feeling very much the same way. Not knowing what the future held was so scary but I felt a love like no other. He was discharged 15 days after he was born and he will be cherished that much more because of how far he has come and continues to fight.”

“We planned our nursery very early on. We didn’t know the sex yet but were too excited to wait. Not long after finding out we were pregnant we had the crib, his rocker and room painted. We went with a neutral theme so it wouldn’t matter which sex the baby ended up being. I am so happy with our simplistic approach and wouldn’t change a thing.”