How I spent my Maternity Leave….

So the last few months have gone by in blur. A happy sleepy blur.

I started my “Maternity Leave” in January after a little bout of preterm labour which put me on some modified bedrest. Violet arrived over a month over early so I was prepared to have Maeve pretty much every day after 35 weeks. However, Maeve is a very relaxed, chill baby and she didn’t decide to arrive until she was only 2 weeks and 1 day early. I took the “extra” three weeks to throw a 2nd birthday party for Violet. Over the past year her favourite things in the world were ice cream and balloons so we took that as a party theme and had an ice cream social. My Mom’s spectacular husband made his world famous fresh organic ice cream for the party and we had a delicious ice cream sundae bar. I am still dreaming about it!

Our extended family had some exciting news in January as well! Three weeks before Maeve was born my brother in law and his wife had adorable twin boys. I shot a little mini session for them even though I literally could not get up by the end. Aren’t they sweet?

10 days before Maeve was born I finally got around to shooting Violet’s 2nd year Portraits. My good friend Blake has a fanastic studio which we used to get my little wild child’s pictures. Getting her to sit still for more then a minute quite the challenge 🙂  The girl is bursting with energy and personality but she honestly could not be any sweeter or funnier. I’m such a lucky mom.

I also took the opportunity to have Blake photograph a few quick maternity images for me. I loved being big and round, feeling Maevey kick and move, and eating at 2am with no one raising any eyebrows 🙂 Even after 3 months of queasiness ( aka all day morning sickness), the uncomfortable waddling, and the back pain, pregnancy is still the coolest thing I’ve ever done.

We are loving having Maeve as part of our family and from the minute she was born it was like she’d been our daughter forever.  When they put that little baby in my arms the very first thought that filled my mind was “It’s you, it’s always been you”.  I looked at her all naked and wide-eyed and my heart was filled with the strongest, purest love possible. When you have your first child you wonder how you can stretch you heart any more for your second child,  but from that moment I locked eyes with little Maeve my heart only got bigger. She was born strong and healthy, ate like a champ from day one and is already sleeping so well. We couldn’t be more blessed.

We spent the next month adjusting to having Maeve in our home and developing a new routine. We had wonderful newborn pictures taken by my super talented friend Andrea when Maeve was 10 days old. I know you don’t get those first days back so it’s wonderful to have them captured by someone who can see your family’s love and connections together.  Violet was little timid of her sister (especially at our newborn shoot) but is loving her more and more each day, When Mazey (Violet’s adorable nickname for Maeve  from the day she was born. It’s grown on us and now we all refer to her as Maze or Mazey most of time) is sleeping Violet wants her awake and when Mazey is crying Violet does everything she can to make her happy again. We are so proud.

Over the last three months we enjoyed walks in snow together, naps together, lots of books, playtime and just chilling as a new family. I mostly kept my camera down and my eyes on my beautiful daughters….

I am so lucky I got to take some time off from shooting and sitting at the computer to enjoy my daughters. Thanks everyone for your patience with emails and a empty neglected blog. I am back taking commissions now and I am slowly working up to shooting my full day weddings in June. If you are interested in a Lifestyle Family Session, please let me know as I am booking up for the summer and fall. I’m taking a very limited amount in order to make sure my clients and my daughters (and my husband!) all get enough attention.

Thanks all for your messages of love and well wishes. I really appreciate you being here and your support 🙂

Hugs,

Kelsy