Amber Wood Photography

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Welcome to my Blog!

i was born and raised in los angeles county and shoot in the surrounding areas, south los angeles and orange counties, primarily. I am, however, available for travel, please inquire for details.

~LOVE~
i never believed in love at first sight until i met my husband in vegas 9 years ago (apparently not all things stay in vegas! haha!!). fast forward nine years; we have a beautiful marriage with two beautiful boys, lucas and logan and a third boy on the way, hudson. nine years ago i had no idea this is where i would be today.. and i wouldn't have it any other way!

~LIFE~
i studied liberal arts right out of high school to become an elementary school teacher. i had an amazing teacher in high school and wanted to be that for someone else (a smaller version to the terror i was as a teen, haha!). i took a year off of school, lived in NYC, came back home and changed my major to social work. i now have a master's degree in social work and practice the profession by day as a children's social worker for la county... and i honestly love what i do!

~PHOTOGRAPHY~
photography has always been an interest, but it wasn't until i had my first child, luke, that i really fell in love with the art. i used my hard-earned researching skills (thank you master's thesis!) and determination to learn as much as possible before returning to work 8+ months later. i had my nose in books, online articles, message boards, you name it, for the good part of 40+ hours/wk and spent way too many hours googling "what is ____?" lol. i absolutely LOVE being behind the lens. i love the sound of the shutter; with each click moments can be preserved for years to come. and thanks to my horrible memory and lack of my own childhood photographs, i take plenty of personal/family photos to make up for it! i absolutely LOVE shooting relationships! i love preserving such precious, fleeting moments for my clients and loved ones!

i hope you'll see the life in my work and will allow me to preserve special moments in your life for you and your loved ones.

December 30, 2011

“Babe, my water just broke!”

Posted in Personal

***Warning – SUPER long novel, photos are below***

oh sweet music to my ears… and Trev’s! Luke was born almost 4 weeks early, so right around 36 weeks we were anticipating Logan’s arrival… and of course it would happen the exact.same.way Luke’s happened; my water would break at 7:30 am on a Saturday morning and I would deliver him within 7 hours of what seemed like an easy labor and delivery (only one push!!)… no? It doesn’t happen like that? It’s the only labor and delivery I had to compare to, of course I knew it wouldn’t be exactly the same but it’s all I knew… it’s only natural, right, that I would think it would resemble it in some way…

so, ok. On Tuesday morning (not a Saturday, lol), at 39wks, 1day pregnant, 12/20/11, my water broke at 6:30 am (so it wasn’t exactly 7:30 am but it was close, and we were happy that we wouldn’t need to drag Luke out of bed in the middle of the night to take him to grandma Sheli’s – who just so happens to live around the corner from the hospital I delivered at, SCORE!).

I was laying in bed, awake, when I felt the faucets (yes, it felt like gallons of water!) turn on inside me! I woke up Trev with, “Babe, my water just broke” and I swear I saw a smile on his face and him say, “yesss!” LOL, we were both excited that this was finally happening! I mean, three weeks past the date of original anticipation (as the doctor said I would likely have pre-term labor, again, this time around, and deliver early) is a looooonnnggg time when you’re as big as a house, can’t sleep more than an hour at a time and have to empty your bladder constantly!

So, my water broke. This is good. Trev ran to grab the towels and as soon as I could get up from the pool I was laying in, I took a shower while Trev threw the bedding in the washer. I took a nice, long, hot shower. It was weird, there was an absence of contractions, different from when my water broke with Luke, where I was getting contractions an hour prior to my water breaking. So, ok, no immediate rush to get to the hospital since I wasn’t having contractions.

Trev took a shower. We packed our bags and got ready. Luckily I had just washed my hair the day before, (lol, oh the important things!) so didn’t have to spend 30 minutes on that! Since I still wasn’t having contractions I sat on the bed (on two towels!) and put on my makeup… just because I was going to pop out a huge ol’ baby by the end of the day didn’t mean I didn’t have to do it in style (the nurses and doctor all commented on how nicely my makeup held up through the course of the day, lol, how proud I am!). Makeup ALWAYS makes me feel good, pretty – so Nichole, you asked how it was possible I was all made up at the hospital… well, it’s sort of like brushing your teeth in the morning… a necessity… for me, anyway

At 8:30 we woke up Luke, of course, the one morning he sleeps in! We pile into the car, bags and car seat in hand, and make our way to drop off Luke at grandma’s and then the hospital. We arrive at the hospital at 9 am and still no real contractions.

I was only 2cm dilated with no contractions when they did the initial check. I thought the nurse would tell me to pace the hallways, isn’t that what happens when you’re not moving along? Instead they hook me up to pitocin to get the contractions going. They monitor my contractions for awhile and two hours later, I’m at a 2.5cm. Wow, half a cm even though I’m now feeling the contractions and they’re coming on stronger.

I ask for my epidural, because I already told her that I have a very low tolerance for pain and I’m practically dying by this point. She tells me to suck it up, well, not really but she might as well have. She told me that the doctor “wants to see more regular, strong contractions before giving me the epidural.” Huh?! Stronger than this? Isn’t that right before death?!?!

By 1pm I’m still only a 3-3.5 cm but I already can’t stand the pain from the contractions. She offers me a quick fix of Stadol, oh, Stadol… I remember that one from when I had Luke… it was like heaven… for only half an hour! Once it wears off you’re screwed, no more bliss until the doctor signs off on the epidural. So, nothankyouverymuch, I’ll hold off on that tease until a half hour before I get my epidural!

But I’m crying in pain, telling Trev I can’t do it, telling him that I’m going to die. My body is shaking from the pain. It’s a 10 on a scale of 1-10 so you know I can’t even imagine what’s to come!

The nurse comes in to check my contractions and tells me that the monitor must not be accurate because it doesn’t look like the contractions are that strong but she can see me in tears, telling her how bad it is. She tells me she has to insert an internal monitor (ok, whatever that is, just get me my darn damn epidural!). So, she reclines the bed, mind you i have absolutely NO pain meds!, and proceeds to stick her arm inside of me… Oh, ok, I’m sure it wasn’t her whole arm but dang, it hurt SO bad! I proceeded to cry even more, telling her how bad it hurts and how I don’t understand why she needs to do this, all I need is my damn epidural because I’m going to have a baby regardless, “so just give me my epidural already, I don’t understand…” as the tears are spilling from my eyes!

She must feel pretty bad for me, or just think I’m plain pathetic because she takes mercy on me and says that she’ll go ahead and ask the doctor for the epidural and then try to insert the internal monitor after I’m drugged (thank you, Lord Jesus!). There is light at the end of the tunnel….

Or not! She comes back and says, “I have bad news, the anesthesiologist just went into the OR so won’t be able to come and give you the epidural… I put a call in to see if there’s someone else available.” Huh?! I’m all sorts of confused! I want to cry scream, I want to throw something at her and demand that she find somebody, anybody to give me the damn drug… jeez, how do people do this without drugs?!

Just as my head starts to spin around, exorcist style, an angel walks into the room, Dr. Garver/Anesthesiologist. I’m not kidding when I say that I asked him, “Where did you come from?” He looked at me, he didn’t understand, so I said, “I thought you were in the OR?” Stupid Amber, who CARES where he came from, he came from HEAVEN for all I needed to know, STOP talking and let the man get to WORK!

He starts talking a mile a minute, telling me of the cautions of having the epidural and at this point, quite honestly, he could’ve said there was a 50% survival rate and I still would’ve taken it!

He administers the drug and HEAVEN! PURE HEAVEN! that stupid, stupid machine, I could’ve had this a long time ago! At this point I’m still only dilated to 4cm, I still have a ways to go. But I don’t even care, I have the magic drug now, I can do anything, I can fly if I wanted!

I actually feel so good that I tell Trev that my in-laws can come in the room. Oh, I forgot to even mention how much I love/hated Trevor during every contraction. The hate part was mostly during the early stages, when I was cursing at that damn monitor, swearing that there was NO WAY my contractions weren’t worse than what the machine was reporting. With every contraction that felt like someone had their hands in me, twisting my insides, I’d glance back at the machine, knowing I would see the chart skyrocket! But, um, NO! not even close! Trev was laughing because I guess he thought it was funny… until I told him that I would slap him if he laughed one more time, lol. It was bad. I really don’t know why people would opt not to get the epidural.

So, I got the epidural at 1pm and it was smooth sailing after that. I didn’t feel a thing, NOT ONE THING, until it was time to push! The only downside to receiving the epidural was I had to be on oxygen or else Logan’s heart rate would go sky high.

The progression seemed to take forever. Now that I couldn’t feel any pain/contractions, I had no idea how quickly I was progressing, if at all. Around 5pm we took bets as to when I would deliver, everyone laughed when I guessed the earliest, 6:06 pm (at that point it was purely wishful thinking!). Then around 5:30 or so I started to actually feel the pressure from the contractions. I had Trev call the nurse and then before I knew it, I felt the urge to push. It was such a long day, almost 12 hours since my water broke when I was really expecting a quicker delivery since Luke’s birth took all of 6-7 hours, total!

The nurse came in, checked me and said it was time. Within a minute Dr. Kaplan (the same doctor that delivered Luke) arrived, all geared up in his protective gear, lol. I started freaking out, worried that I would be the woman that pushes for hours on end before the baby comes, I asked the doctor if I should wait it out a little longer, “you know, so I don’t have to spend so much time pushing?” Lol, silly Amber! I really should’ve become a doctor so I could have even the smallest clue! The doctor assured me that Logan would be out quickly, one push even. Wow, ok, one push I can do!

Sure enough, my next contraction was go time. I pushed once, which quite honestly I couldn’t even feel since I was on the miracle drug, and his head was out, then a push and a half later, I heard the most amazing squeal ever! The most life changing 30 seconds one could imagine! In the 9 long months of pregnancy, it’s seriously that first cry that takes my breath away. It’s when I can finally be at peace that this baby is ok!

Logan Michael Wood was born on 12/20/11 at 5:36 pm weighing a whopping 8lbs 11 oz and 20.5 in long

Again, I’m not the type to say pregnancy is the most beautiful thing… but at this time in my life, I can appreciate the miracle of it all. So while pregnancy may not be the most beautiful thing… the life within and the miracle of birth is truly the work of God… (and why He couldn’t just allow the stork to bring them… lol).

I’m so sorry this turned out to be a novel. Can you even believe I left out some stuff?! Lol. And now on to the photos, I’ll let them speak for themselves! I’m truly grateful that my dear husband has taken enough interest that he can take a decent photo, I absolutely LOVE all of these!