I don’t know if this little one could get any cuter! All of that hair, she reminds me of my youngest daughter when she was a newborn. We braved some crazy wind to get some outside shots and them moved inside to finish up. The entire family is just so adorable, I can’t wait to do their pictures again in a few months!
I just love the fabric that they are using in the nursery!
Big brother!
The whole family.
I’m still playing “blog catch-up”! I loved this session. It was at one of my favorite locations and the fall colors were great on this day. When we pulled up I was a little distressed to see a cloudy sky (the sky was clear on my side of town); but the rain held off until we were getting in our cars. Perfect timing!
This is another of my holiday sessions and I loved it! This family is so cute and so easy to shoot! The kids were tons of fun and Mom and Dad make an ADORABLE couple! Thanks for letting me capture your family!
As promised, I’m working on blog posts of the great sessions I have had over the past few months. I loved working with this family! Mom and dad are so in love, and how adorable is little C?! I have “known” the mom for a while now – we met on an online photographer’s board; but we had never managed to get together in real life until this session. I am so glad that she got in touch with me to do her family holiday pictures and hope to see a lot more of her and her family!
I will be blogging all of the sessions from the last few months over the next few weeks. I didn’t want to ruin any Christmas gifts, so I didn’t post sessions for a while. But I wanted to post a quick picture tonight and wish everyone a magical New Year! I hope that 2010 was a great year for you and that 2011 is even better.
Saturday I finally got to do a session that H’s mom and I had been talking about for at least a year. You see, H’s mom is a graduate of Berry College and she has told me all about how beautiful the campus is. It sounded like the perfect place for pictures! And then we decided the fall would be a great time with the leaves changing. We lucked up that even though the fall leaves are out, the weather here in Georgia is still warm – like in the 70s! So it was a great day for pictures!! Oh, and how talented is her mom? She made the outfit!
Sunday I had the chance to shoot these girls again. This was my third year doing their holiday pictures and I always look forward to this session! The girls are adorable and their mom is amazing. As a bonus, their grandparents came along this year. Get pictures with your family. It is so important! I have a personal goal this year – I am going to make a point of getting pictures with my kids and all of their grand parents/great grand parents. I encourage all of you to try to do this too!
These are just 4 of the pictures that we got Sunday. I have barely started to go through them and I love so many so far!
Just over a week ago I had the opportunity to give my time to a wonderful organization – The Zoe Rose Foundation. This group provides support for families who have suffered pregnancy losses, lost an infant or been through the NICU with micro-preemies. The evening was spent with families being able to share their experiences and pain with others who know what they are going through. There were some wonderful readings that touched my heart and then the names of babies who are sorely missed were read and a candle was lit in their memory.
I am lucky enough to have never been through the loss of one of my children; but the hardest thing that I have ever been through was the death of my nephew. He died of SIDS when I was pregnant with my twins. While I don’t know the unimaginable pain as a parent of a loss like that, I do know it as an aunt. And it is something that is hard to truly imagine until you have been through it. It is a pain that is with you everyday, forever. There are times that the blessings in your life are in the forefront and the pain is just in the back of your mind; but it is still there. There are other days that the pain of your loss is overwhelming. And I know that the pain that I feel as an aunt is only a small fraction of what the parents feel. The chance for these families to meet, to share the stories of their little angels, is something that is so important. While these babies are not here on earth with us, they will always be in our hearts.
So now, you know the hardest thing I have been through. Possibly the second hardest thing I have been through was the birth of my twins (probably tied with when my daughter got really sick and was in the hospital). I had never let myself consider the possibility of having preemies. I convinced myself that as long as I thought positive thoughts that I would keep the babies in long enough. And it looked like I was right. My perinatologist commented one time that I was “made to carry multiples”. Things were going great. But then I went in for a weekly appointment (you start the weekly appointments earlier when you are pregnant with multiples). The week before I had been fine. That week my blood pressure was 180/110. I had developed pre-eclampsia. My doctor told me the babies would have to be born the next morning. He told me to go straight to the hospital from his office, that he would be there soon. I hadn’t even packed a bag. I was only 33 weeks and 5 days. I was having an ideal multiple pregnancy. My c-section was scheduled for 37.5 weeks (Baby A was breech). I was not supposed to have the babies yet! I hadn’t even picked a pediatrician. I was at the doctor by myself, I had to drive myself to the hospital. I was in tears. I was so worried about the babies, it was too early. But then I got to the hospital and the decision was made to put me on very strict bedrest and try to get me to 35 weeks since that would be better for the babies. I was sent home. The next morning my water broke. So… no waiting to 35 weeks. My twins were born just before 34 weeks. After my c-section I went to the recovery room. My babies went to the NICU. My husband (per my request) went with the babies. In the recovery room I was separated from the other women just by a curtain. They had their husbands and babies with them. I was all alone. I was so worried about my twins. I got out of recovery and into my room. The babies were still in the NICU. Due to my blood pressure issues I wasn’t allowed to sit up, I wasn’t allowed to go to the NICU to see them. My parents, my husband, even my best friend got to see the babies before I did. My husband held them hours before I did. He would take video of the babies and bring it back for me to see. That was the only contact I had with either of the babies until they were 7 hours old. At 7 hours they decided my daughter could come to my room and my son needed to be admitted to the NICU. At first they said probably for 6 weeks. He was almost 14 hours old when I finally got to see and hold him.
We were blessed though. When he was 7 days old the doctors said he still had weeks to go in the NICU. When he was 8 days old he had a big turn around and they called us to say he could come home – that day! Only 8 days in the NICU. We were some of the lucky parents. Those 8 days were SO hard.
Many families don’t get to take their babies home after a week or so. Some of these babies are in the NICU for months. Some parents don’t get to hold their baby even at 14 hours old. While my babies were preemies, they were relatively healthy and they were big for their gestational age (5 lbs 4 ozs and 4 lbs 10 ozs at birth, both a little under 5 lbs when they came home). My little glimpse into what so many families go through was enough for me to want to hug every parent who faces a NICU stay of any length, even more for families who have long term NICU stays.
And this is what the Zoe Rose Foundation does. They help families who are going through a NICU stay find support. They help families who have had a loss find a shoulder to lean on. They help to make sure all of these babies who are in Heaven are remembered here on earth. I am honored to have been given the opportunity to help capture that night, those moments. So, here are just a few of the pictures. If you were there and you want any of the images I will have them all to Keira in a few weeks (including pictures that aren’t on my blog).
Arts and crafts table for the brothers and sisters.
The volunteers, adults are so easy to shoot! Not a head swap in the bunch.
Early in the evening, before the candles were lit.
One of the brothers - support is for the entire family.
LIstening to a poem by one of the mothers.
The candle lighting.
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I had a lot of fun tonight getting pictures of some adorable 4.5 year old triplets! I need to get to bed; but wanted to post a quick picture. I’ll get a few more up in the next couple of days.
I love this family. They are 4 of my favorite people in the world! The girls are wonderful, sweet and full of spunk. The parents are still so in love that it is inspiring.
