Newborn Photos

I have such a respect for my photographer friends. I have a few of them and they are all so talented. I wish I could hire a photographer multiple times a year. I just love photos and moments in life captured forever. I really love practicing and growing in my own photography skills - even though I get so frustrated sometimes! This has been my primary creative outlet since leaving my job to stay home with my babies full time. I have a lot of fun with it and it saves us money :)

This was my second time ever photographing newborns.  It's nice because they don't move much, but they are also so gangly and awkward - at least my babies are. There is definitely some hard work, sweat (seriously, the room was so hot!) and patience involved in getting those cute shots you see from the pros.  There are so many other poses and shots I wanted to get, but, man, it was exhausting. I think we'll call this good for now (she was 10 days old here and it's already almost time for one month photos!) and I'll just bug my preggo friends to see if they'll let me practice on their babies. :) *special thanks to my mother-in-law, Diana, and good friend Sheena for assisting me and corralling Ronan!

Aislinn really is the sweetest baby ever.  She is sleepy, quiet, calm and really such a breeze. As breezy as newborns get at least. ;)  We just love her. She is our sweet little girl and an answer to our prayers.

These two photos just melt my heart. They were totally unplanned - Ro just came over to give Aislinn a snuggle.  My sweet babies. How did I ever get so lucky? God is so good. My prayer is that they will be good friends one day.

Big Brother

When visitors come or people check in, one of the first questions we get is "How is Ronan doing with Aislinn?"  That was our biggest question too and honestly, he is doing so well! He is so incredibly gentle with her and loves giving her random kisses through the day.  Aislinn is now on the list of "must-kiss" during bedtime snuggles and he is the first to try and check on her when she is crying (I say try because we keep her pretty protected. As well as he's doing, I still don't trust a 19 month old around a newborn!). We LOVE watching them together and I can't wait until she starts interacting with him.  


We have let Ronan hold Aislinn a couple of times and he just lights up. The first time was the best. He was all smiles and started clicking to her - you know, clicking with your mouth? That's what he does when music comes on, so maybe he had a song in his head or was trying to calm her?? Whatever it was, it was sweet :)

The first photo is blurry because I had the wrong lens on. Darn it! I still love it though.

We tried another holding session a couple of days later. She's much happier this time because she wasn't hungry!

hugs

and kisses

I've been wanting a photo of them in their Big Brother/Little Sister shirts, especially before Aislinn outgrows hers! We finally got around to it and of course you can't really tell that's what they were wearing. I may try again someday.

Don't worry, grandparents. Aislinn was safe and sound in daddy's arms. This was the full picture, which I think is also cute :)

Maybe his sweetness toward her has something to do with those matchbox cars she brought home from the hospital ;)

Waiting and Playing

My delivery and recovery was so textbook even one of our nurses called us "independent."  I hope that was a good thing. By the next morning after Aislinn's birth, we were missing home and Ronan and were ready to get on our way. That's not to say that our care at Sacred Heart was anything short of great-both of our experiences have been very positive and the staff have been wonderful! But still, we were ready to move on. We waited, thinking we had everything ready to go. Aislinn had passed all of her tests. But still, we couldn't be discharged. We found out that I was actually the hold up. There was a little confusion in who was supposed to discharge me so we were there a few extra hours.  While we were waiting, I had fun taking some photos of Aislinn while she slept peacefully.  The doctor came in to discharge me while I was kneeling down trying to get a good angle. Needless to say, I think he could tell I felt ok. :)  I'm glad I had the chance to snap a few shots when she was just one day old. I know I'll love being able to look back at them and remember how much our life changed during that hospital stay.

No doubt about it - she's a blondie!

  

  

baby feet are so sweet

She's Here!

This post is an effort to remember some of the highlights of Aislinn's birth. In case I never get around to writing it down. Which at this point seems likely. So, it's a lot of information and you can just skip to the photos if you like :)

I cannot believe that it has already been two weeks since Aislinn joined our family. Technically, two weeks tomorrow, but two weeks ago today that the fun times started.  I knew that I had been about 3cm dilated since week 36 (unlike my brain, my body apparently does not procrastinate!), but when I went to my doctor appt on June 4th, I was shocked, excited and more than slightly panicked to find out that I was at 5cm. What?!? Doesn't baby girl know that I'm not ready? I'm not sure that one can ever be completely ready for a new baby, but my to-do list was (and still is) very long. Oh well.

Instead of going shopping after lunch, I decided I better get home and pack my bags! There is really only so much you can pack ahead of time, so I spent most of the afternoon packing, making phone calls and wondering if she would be born that night or on my birthday. A great distraction from the thought that it was my last day in my 20's! I kind of forgot about that! :)  

Thankfully my parents and mother-in-law pulled into town that night in anticipation of Aislinn's arrival. I still had my doubts that she was on her way since Ronan was so late, I had been at 3cm for so long and didn't even notice, and the contractions I was having were not very strong. We went on a walk and started timing the contractions. When I mentioned to Patrick that they were about 4 minutes apart, he stopped in his tracks and insisted we turn back toward home. I still felt good and wanted to keep going, but I lost that battle. But once we got home, the contractions became a little more spaced out, still not too uncomfortable, and again I questioned if I was going to have this baby any time soon. It was such a different experience from Ronan's birth, so I really didn't know what to expect or when we should head to the hospital. So we decided to go to bed, figuring it was best to get rest and worry about the hospital when it was more obvious that we should go.

At 12:00am on the dot, my eyes flew open, I was suddenly wide awake and I knew I had just started "real" contractions. Ironic that they started at the same moment my birthday started. "Happy Birthday to me..." That was a fun part of the day: seeing the look on each nurse's face when they realized I was having a baby on my birthday and my 30th at that. Such a memorable day. Anyway, by 1:00 I had been having contractions every 3 minutes for an hour. With my nurse midwife's voice in my head, "don't mess around," I woke Patrick up and let him know it was time to go. At least I hoped I was right because I really didn't want to be sent home.

To make a short story even shorter, we were in triage at about 2:00am, went through the normal checks and balances, were told I may not be in active labor (yeah right), were sent on a walk through the corridors for about an hour. I should have cut that time in half when I started getting sick and having serious contractions. But I'm a rule-follower, plus I wanted to make sure I had really progressed because there was no way I was going to let them send me home at that point. Luckily I had progressed to about 7cm. Sweet. They officially admitted me and got us to a room around 4:30. Skip ahead a few hours: my water was broken and a few pushes later, our sweet Aislinn was born! The best part was that Patrick got to scrub in and help deliver her. I will never forget how amazing and emotional it was to have him catch her and then place her directly on my chest.

It was an unforgettable day. Never in a million years how I imagined spending my 30th birthday, but a very special day indeed. It was really fun to share the experience with my mom, knowing that we were both in labor during the same hours on the same day of the year, just 30 years apart. Oh, and the joke of the day was that I had told Patrick some time ago that I wished I could have 2 kids before I was 30.  It was a silly thing to say since it was pretty unlikely. BUT, Aislinn was born at 7:57am beating by "deadline" by just a few hours (I was born at 11:05am). :)

1:30 am - heading to the hospital

7:57 - one of the purest, sweetest moments of my life

Cutting the cord

proud daddy

a bittersweet moment. we will miss Sara who is moving to Portland. She has been such a wonderful part of helping us build our family. Who is going to deliver our next babies???

Aislinn Naomi Reed. 6 pounds 4 ounces, 19.5" long

Patrick got to sign the birth certificate!

love those toes

ringing the bell for the whole hospital to hear that our baby girl has arrived

first bath. love those stretched out toes

Another amazing part of the day was introducing Ronan to Aislinn. We missed him so much while we were in the hospital. We put him up on the bed with me and Aislinn and he was just in awe.  He was so sweet with her. For a few minutes at least. Then he was over it and ready to play with his cousin Keegan.

Meeting Grandpa

meeting Nana

meeting Aunt Crystal and cousin Keegan

I have to mention here that my mom, "Grandma" was on photographer duty all day (all week actually). Which I am so thankful for because that is how we got most of these photos that I will forever treasure. Unfortunately, I didn't realize there were none of her holding Aislinn until a few days later. :( Here is one of my favs of the two of them taken later in the week:

Our sleeping beauty, awaiting discharge from the hospital

 Aislinn had her first "outing" on her way home from the hospital.  I was feeling surprisingly well, and even if I had not been, it was worth a quick stop at Albertson's for a peace offering gift from baby Aislinn to big brother. He was pretty darn excited about his matchbox cars. :)

Our triumphant return home (daddy looks triumphant, doesn't he?)