I knew something was missing...

The pressure foot lever to be exact! My old machine was missing it, which meant stretched out fabric, unbelievably difficult appliques, etc. My new Kenmore has it! I had to do a trial run on Maya's t-shirt (yeah, instead of taking a much needed nap) and the applique turned out PERFECT! Even without any stabilizer, it's smooth, no puckering, no stretching, just want to pinch myself thinking it's all a dream... Can't wait to throw it in the wash for some nice fraying around the edges :)

Back from Chicago

What a week it was! I haven't had that much fun in a long while :) I was visiting my wonderful friend Stephenie and took my girls with me as well. Maya had fun playing with Stephenie's girl who's 1.5 years older and Anya, well she was just being her usual self, cute and all smiles during the day and not sleeping at night. At least now I have someone outside of my immediate family to prove that I'm telling the truth about all her quirks ;)

I get overwhelmed every time I think about going through the photos taken during my trip so I haven't even uploaded them on my computer yet. Maybe after I get some rest, ha! Stephenie already has a few posted on her blog, so I'll shamelessly copy them with her permission :)

Cute stinker

That's right, she's such a stinker, she has to be cute to make up for all the sleepless nights, squirming, and violent nursing (no really, how else would you call it when she's thrashing her body around, scratching, pinching, pushing me away, while still nursing).

Watch out when she's awake and content! You want to be grumpy, upset, show her that last night was NOT good and there was no reason for her to keep waking up like she did. (here's me, talking to myself) No, I will not smile at you, grrr... See my face? I'm tired and you're the reason. Oh please, don't smile at me... Don't suck those 3 fingers in such a cute way that makes all that drool look so delicious. Aaahhh! Can't take it any more! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) Come here, little slobster, are you feeling ticklish this morning? *giggles*

Phew...

I think this is the last little preview I'm going to add to this blog :) I will be adding a little over 50 photos to the gallery I've set up and probably adding more over the next couple of weeks as I dig through the rest of the photos. So these 50-something shots were on my 'quick' list that I absolutely wanted to edit before my adrenaline rush was over :)

The Gallery!

Before I go to bed...

I just have to post a couple of my favorites from tonight :)


Looking at this photo, I wish I had one of Chris with Anya after she was born and swaddled just like Rebecca's little boy :)


And a 'behind the scenes' shot, Anya nursing in a sling while I'm taking photos.

A few more...

Mark is trying to set up a gallery on our other blog where I can post all the birth photos I want without overloading the blog itself :) Until then, a few more photos to enjoy!

First batch

I'm afraid they will be lots of birth photos in the next few posts, I just can't pick out only a few. Rebecca is so amazingly beautiful and photogenic, I honestly couldn't find a single shot where she didn't look like a homebirth poster girl :)

amazing. AMAZING! AMAZING!!!

I'm not going to write yet another post about Anya not sleeping and how tired we all are in this house, that's just nothing... Nothing compared to the wonderful homebirth I got to attend tonight! My friend Rebecca, who lives just around the corner did me a great honor by inviting me to the birth of her second baby and letting me take some photos, something that I've been dreaming about doing for a while now.

I got a call in the morning from Rebecca telling me that she was having more regular contractions, but nothing that was serious enough to call the midwife. Later in the afternoon we were planning to drive an hour away to attend family birthday party. Fortunately, we were running late and as Mark was putting kids in the car, he noticed our midwife(Chris, who also was our midwife for Anya's birth) driving by and towards Rebecca's house. So of course I asked Mark to take me over there and see if I should stay. I stayed, and good thing I did :) Rebecca's little boy was born just an hour and a half after Mark drove off with the kids. I got to keep Anya with me, and although she was fussy at the beginning, she settled down quickly after I started nursing her in the sling. Then she got to watch the whole birth while I was shooting. Everyone joked that she would probably be a midwife when she grows up :)

Well, I was planning to just write a short spoiler and save the rest for another post when I have some birth photos ready... I guess I'm just too excited and can't stop thinking about the whole experience :) I'll try to get some photos ready for a preview, until then I'll post a couple of my favorite maternity photos that I took of Rebecca last week.