Juli Labrecque Photography

I remember the text as if it was yesterday. I was shooting a wedding late last summer. I knelt down to my camera bag to grab my phone to see what time it was and I had received a text. It was my friend Danielle… and her text read

“Hey, I am in need of some family photos possibly in the early spring, as our family will be growing”.

I almost had to sit down to process the information. Growing as in your kids are getting older? as in their size, they are physically growing? or it’s growing in the number of persons on your family!?.. I was ecstatic for Danielle when she said they were indeed expecting a baby.. When I think of the most motherly friend I know.. it would be Danielle.. Her and I had worked together a few years ago and spent countless hours talking about birth & babies… and I knew she had wanted just one more.. and Here it was finally happening.

Once I finally got to sit down and talk to Danielle about this up coming baby, I learned that things were not so simple as just growing a baby.. Danielle & Danny had decided after a year of trying to get pregnant that they were not going to have any more babies and Danielle enrolled herself into Nursing school full time.. in doing so, she had an IUD put in (a form of birth control) and just so everyone knows.. you can still sometimes by chance, conceive a baby with an IUD..

It was a really risky pregnancy.. Doctors are not able to remove an IUD once the baby is there, otherwise there is risk of miscarry.. which means they have to leave it in, which is also a risk to miscarry or early labor. So we all waited, and prayed over this little being’s safety.

At 24 weeks Penelope made her debut. I remember that day in November when Danny posted this picture on Instagram of an itty bitty, little tiny baby girl. Perfect in proportion but much to small to be in this world… but here she was. She weighed just over 600 grams.. or 1.5 pounds..

Their stay in the NICU was full of some very big lows (days where they thought they would have to say good bye).. and of course the highest of highs.. (like the day they left). Such a roller coaster of emotions.. but there were SO many of us praying on the sidelines for her strength and determination to leave that hospital in her car seat.

So finally at 5 months, Penelope was 7 pounds and ready to go home..

Which is when I got to take photos.. She is such a beautiful baby girl! and I hope she never forgets that she is here for a reason..

I call Penelope’s entrance into the world a modern day miracle..