Janelle + Josh // the birth of briggs michael miller at st john westshore hospital

Janelle + Josh // the birth of briggs michael miller at st john westshore hospital

After forty-eight long intense hours Janelle and Josh welcomed Briggs Michael Miller into this world.

Born at 11:55pm on 12/20/2014 Briggs weighs 8lb 2oz and is 20 inches long. 

The birth story, straight from Janelle:

"So, it's been a very eventful 2 days. Here's what we've been up to in case anyone wondered what the heck happened to us:

My water broke at 12:30am on Thursday. I started having consistent contractions right away and planned to labor at home as long as possible. However, I wasn't progressing to active labor so we headed to the hospital at 12:30am on Friday. I'll share all of the details eventually, but long story short - I planned to have a completely natural and uneventful labor and birth (ha), and ultimately ended up having Pitocin administered and gradually increased (to a quite high dose) and laboring (including pushing) for 48 hours unmedicated until we all decided a c-section was the best route because baby boy was just too big to come out. We then ended up having an issue in the operating room and I had to go completely under at a moment's notice, so neither Josh or I got to witness the birth of our son.

SO! It was a crazy few days and pretty much nothing went as I had hoped or planned, but I'm still SO grateful for this whole experience and am happy to report that we're now proud parents to the most precious, amazing little boy just in time for Christmas.

Drumroll please...Introducing Briggs Michael Miller - born on 12/20/14 at 11:55pm, weighing in at 8 lbs 2 oz and measuring 20 inches long. We're all happy and healthy and recovering (albeit exhausted) and we couldn't be more excited!! We're totally in love with this dude. (And I just have to sneak this in there Josh Miller is the most amazing husband on the planet. I could not have survived this experience without him and he was the most amazing partner to have by my side. And he's the cutest dad ever, no?)"

Rachel Stevenson // a lake catholic high school senior portrait session

Rachel Stevenson // a lake catholic high school senior portrait session

“Now fear is going to be a player in life, but you get to decide how much. You can spend your whole life imagining ghosts, worrying about the pathway to the future, but all it will ever be is what’s happening here, the decisions in that we make in this moment, which are based in either love or fear. So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect, so we never dare to ask the universe for it.

My father could have been a great comedian but he didn’t believe that that was possible for him, and so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. When I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job, and our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

- Jim Carrey