We don't know about you, but we look stressed out if we have a drive-thru order that's particularly complicated. So we're not really sure how a birth photographer was able to capture such serene and ridiculously photogenic shots of a mom and dad during the front-seat car delivery of their newborn.
Also? We really hope you guys went for the optional Dupont coating on the car upholstery.
Stephanie Knowles, a birth photographer from Jacksonville, Florida, had a pretty banner day on the job recently.
Tiny Parker Strunk was born on the same day as Amalia Millepied (Natalie Portman's little girl), but lucky for us, his story is not steeped in the same stiff brew of privacy, so we and the rest of the world totally get to enjoy his car birth photo shoot.
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Parker (an extreme sports devotee in the making) was not having any of that whole waiting-to-get-to-the-hospital thing. That's for boring chump babies. So he opted to try to get an unfettered view from the front seat (no doubt knowing his immediate future has him stuck in dullsville rear-facing car seats for a while).
“It all happened so fast,” Parker’s mom, Lauren Strunk, told Us Weekly. After she went into labor at home, Lauren texted their birth photographer, Stephanie — who very wisely decided to meet the family at home and trail them to the hospital just in case.
That "just in case" thinking scored the family some remarkable shots. As the couple zoomed up to the hospital, Lauren realized Parker was already on his way out — and trying to work the gear shift. Her husband, Noah, slammed the car into park, while photographer Stephanie bolted from her car just in time to catch Noah doing some serious catching of his own.
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“Parker was born so fast that his dad had to literally catch him after his shoulders emerged,” the first-time birth photographer said on Facebook. “What is so powerful to me is his mother, out of instinct, grabbed [Parker] by the arm after she delivered him. She doesn't even recall doing it.”
She probably also doesn't recall looking like a Botticelli painting. What gives?
Stephanie captured the birth, vernix and all, and also caught a beautiful shot of Parker lying contentedly on his mom's chest.
“The baby was so CALM laying next to the mother, so content,” Knowles also wrote. “In the wildness of all that happened this was such a quiet moment in the car, so peaceful." Yes! Seriously! What magical vitamins cause such magazine-ready birth superpowers? We looked like half-drowned rats smeared in blood immediately postpartum. We're a little jealous of this ridiculously attractive and profoundly grounded couple. We won't lie. Our kids get drowned rat pictures; Parker gets a Guggenheim photo exhibit. Not fair.
Noah Parker van Rhyn Strunk is now home, chilling with his older brother, Harrison, and pouting because he's not allowed to get his driver's permit for at least 15 years.