Lindsay was expecting twin girls, and she won a newborn package at the Babies and Bumps event. We enjoyed discussing the details as we looked ahead to her babies’ due date in January. We even talked a bit about potentially planning some maternity photos before the girls arrived.
But Lindsay was faced with some unexpected complications.
At 21 weeks, Lindsay was dilated 1cm and the doctor was very worried about the pregnancy. They did an emergency cerclage and thought they accidentally broke her water (luckily not!) but that only bought them 2 more weeks. In God’s sovereignty, those 2 weeks were critical for the girls’ survival.
After these circumstances and a whirlwind of events, the girls were born at just 23+1 weeks in September.
Isla weighed 1 lb., 4.5 oz. and Selah was 1 lb., 5.5 oz.
Both girls were just 11.42 inches long.
The girls were living miracles.
Conor and Lindsay were in for quite a marathon in the days and weeks ahead.
Here is Lindsay’s explanation behind the choices of the girls’ names.
“Conor and I had always agreed on Isla's name (island, protected by God), but we were on the fence about Selah (musical pause). Kind of a last minute decision, but now more than ever, I'm thankful for God's constant little reminder of our girls throughout Psalms.”
Lindsay kept in touch with me and kept me informed of the girls’ progress. We waited for permission for me to come to the NICU at Community North Hospital on the northeast side of Indianapolis to capture some photos of them.
As the Christmas season was approaching, I received word that I could come and take photos of the girls. Lindsay and I chatted about some ideas and preferences she had, and I came ready to capture some sweet heirloom photos!
Lindsay had these sweet little Santa hats and the most adorable cream stockings. She requested that the girls be posed in them and I was down for it!
We were able to stretch some posing fabric over one of the girl’s cribs, and after quite a bit of maneuvering wires and tubes, we were able to get them all snuggled up side by side for the sweetest photos! I was sure to capture photos of each of the girls individually as well.
Having photos of their own as an individual is important when capturing twins. So much of what they do is together, and while that is special, when they look back at photos of different milestones of their lives, they need to see that they are a special, unique individual!
While the girls were posed in the stockings, we switched out their Santa hats for these sweet hats that were crocheted just for them.
We finished our little NICU session with the girls posed with these beautiful
floral wraps and tie backs.
We were limited with what we were able to do, because babies in the NICU cannot be over stimulated. But the girls were little rockstars and did such a great job for all of these photos!
After 147 days in the NICU, Isla and Selah were strong enough to go home!
Mommy and Daddy took time to get settled and learn a new routine of having the girls home and navigating lots of trips for doctor appointments and check ups.
In the spring, the girls came to my studio for a spring session!
More details about this spring session coming soon in Part 2 of this sweet story of
Selah and Isla!
{Any personal photos are used with permission from
Isla and Selah’s mommy. }