The Maternity Session

Here we are, three weeks into parenthood and we finally got around to ordering pictures from our maternity session.  Something told us that if we didn't do it now, it would never get done!  It's absolutely amazing how your day disappears when all you're doing is diapering, feeding, burping and repeating the process.  With being home, I have lost all sense of time (the other night I woke up in a panic because I had absolutely NO clue what day it was) so once we finally realized we never dealt with our maternity proofs, we decided to get on it!

 

One of our friends and Justin's clients is a local photographer.  In fact, he did our engagement pictures...

 

And then our wedding pictures...

 

So, when Rod found out we were pregnant, he offered to do a maternity session for us!  We happily accepted his offer--not only does he do great work, but it was neat that he, of all people, would be documenting the addition to our family.

 

Fortunately, Rod is a man of patience!  At 8 months, Rod stopped by and confirmed that yes, my belly still looked like a beer belly and would NOT be cute to photograph!  With that, we decided to wait several more weeks.  Occasionally, Rod would stop by our house, take a peak at my belly and each time, we decided we would just continue the wait.  Then, when the doctor predicted at our 37-week appointment that the baby would be here in just a few days, we called Rod and said, "it's now or never!"  Fortunately, Rod had just retired from his full-time job as a photographer for The Mercury, so he was able to drop everything and get his equipment ready!

 

That weekend, we met up at the historic Union Pacific Depot for our maternity session.  Not only have I always loved the building, it's also where we had our wedding reception.  I'm telling ya--Rod had it figured out when it came to sentimental value!

 

But in all honestly, Rod opted for the facility as he was hoping it would have some great natural light--and that it did!  For the session, the interior lighting was off and we worked with the sun beaming in through the windows.  My belly still wasn't ginormously cute (in fact, as you will see, it still looked like quite the beer gut when I would sit down) but we managed to take quite a few pictures in just an hour's time, and here are some of my favorites!

  

Pretty sure this is my favorite one!  Would it be weird to add it to our wall of family photos?!





I had to add this picture because it cracks me up!  Justin's bubble butt it rounder than my belly!  Lord only knows that when Akinya grows up, her little booty will be all or nothing!

Once we get through the holidays, we're meeting up with Rod for our first official "family" picture.  And yes, we ARE waiting until after the holidays!  Reason being--Akinya definitely needs to have a diaper on for pictures!  Last weekend, another friend and client of mine had offered to take newborn pictures.  Sarah is extremely talented, so I couldn't turn down her offer!  Well, Akinya managed to share her bodily fluids with us, projectile-style, several times during the photo shoot with Sarah...once we were done, Justin decided we were DONE.  We were scheduled to have Akinya's shoot with Rod the following afternoon, and yeah we get that babies have no bladder control, but we just weren't in the mood to volunteer ourselves for another round of messes!  At least we had a great maternity session, a great newborn session and we'll have the opportunity to document the baby's growth and changes in just a few months.  And as pictures become available, trust that I'll be posting them on here!!!

Bringing Home Baby

Our baby is home!

Just last week, I was starting my week 40 post.  Baby still wasn't here and the doctor was setting an induction date for either today, or yesterday.  It seemed this little girl was not going to come on her own terms!  In fact, when I woke up the morning of my due date, there still was no baby.  My phone was buzzing as friends checked in to see if anything had happened and all I could say was, "think we're getting induced!"

I had been working all week and when I woke up that Halloween morning, my pajamas felt sooooooooo good.  And on a lame note, it felt kinda nice to have a "slow" morning in bed with the dog.  I decided to work from home that day and boy, am I glad I did!

Just before noon, I decided to heat up some lunch.  When I opened our fridge, I realized how badly it needed cleaned out.  We had so many leftovers that had been in there way too long, so I decided I'd spend my lunch hour emptying out the Pyrex dishes.  I started pulling all the bowls, containers, etc and sorting them on the counter when all of a sudden, it hit me.

My lower back instantly started hurting.  And hurting like a son of a gun.  My pelvic area started cramping like nobody's business and I had sharp, shooting pains running through my hips and down my thighs.  Something was up.  This was NOT a normal physical response to cleaning out the fridge!

I called Justin to see where he was working and fortunately, they were working on our side of town.  I told him I wasn't sure what was going on, but I was experiencing pain like never before and I was thinking I may be in labor.  Because we were totally expecting to be induced, his response was, "Are you serious?!"  Again, not knowing if I was in labor or not, I told him just to stay near his phone and if I needed him, I'd call back.

I spent the next hour trying to putter around the house.  The pain was very consistent, but about every 5 minutes or so, it would flare up.  Within about 50 minutes, the pain and pressure was so bad that I couldn't stand up.  I still wasn't sure what was going on, so I called Justin and told him to come home.

By 1:35, we were at the hospital and the nurses were checking me.  Sure enough, there had been a change in dilation (from where I'd been at my last doctor appointment) so they decided to keep me for another check in an hour's time.  2:45pm rolled around, nurses came back in and sure enough, I was in labor!  Our "Halloween" baby was on her way!

Long story short, things didn't go quickly enough to have a Halloween baby--instead, we had an All Saint's Day baby!  After 14 hours of labor, trying every single possible option and eventually having to do a C-section, our baby girl was here!!!  And she was healthy!!!

At 2:41am on November 1st, we welcomed Miss Akinya Kate!  She weighed 8lb 3oz (more than we expected!) and measured 20" long...and she had a full head of hair!  And it was long--a good inch to inch and a half!

Her first name is pronounced uh-Kenya and yes, we kinda made it up!  We were going through a list one night and saw the name Kenya--the name Kenya in itself didn't do anything for me, but when Justin suggested adding "uh" to it, I loved it!  And after a little research, we discovered there's a Nigerian village named Akinya...kinda neat considering it takes a village to raise a child!  The middle name, Kate, is a family name for both of us.  Well, on my side of the family, it's Catherine but we decided that since we'll most likely end up shortening it to Kate, we'd just go ahead and do it now.  And with that, we FINALLY had a name!

The past couple of days have been a whirlwind!  We've had a nice, steady pace of visitors coming to meet baby Akinya and drop off meals...we've been trying to catch some sleep between feedings and I've been trying to spend some time up on my feet, without being too active.  That in itself is a HARD balance for me!  Justin took this week off from work and it's been great having the three of us home together to bond.  This little girl is pretty precious and has definitely stolen our hearts!

1 day old! 

Leaving the hospital--the nurses made she sure went home in a VERY appropriately adorned cap! 

And we're HOME!!!

Daddy and his little girl!  Didn't take long to wrap him around her little finger!