The one about Dawson's many mini photo shoots

I wrote most of this post back in May but never finished uploading the pictures until tonight. Life is crazy having three kids, I tell ya. I am ignoring all the other things I could (and probably should) be doing. Blogging and going through old photos sounds much more fun. Besides, I deserve a break, right?

Btw, I love these pictures so much now. He was so tiny... I can still remember how he smelled when I see these. Mmmmmm. I love my babies.

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I have been taking pictures of newborns for several years now, and they are my FAVORITE to photograph. Ever since I got pregnant, I've been soooooo excited to take MY baby's pictures. I thought I'd really be able to go to town.

So, I set up the photography equipment in my living room when Dawson was less than a week old. However, crazy-hectic day after day went by and I literally didn't have ONE spare moment to do a photo shoot :( (We were feeding/pumping/taking back to the doctors...around the clock. Plus all the usual mom stuff) It was soo so so frustrating, to have my own beautiful baby but no time to capture his sweetness on camera- the way I have for so many other babies.

Three weeks went by & I still hadn't found a minute. I was so depressed about it. I felt desperate about the precious newborn-time that was flying on by, unrecorded. I decided to keep my camera nearby and start taking a photo here, a photo there, whenever/wherever we were . . .

I never did fit in a full photo shoot so the pics are not what I had in mind, but they are still beautiful and I'm grateful for what I got. And (yay!) I finally got my photography equipment out of our living room. . . after a month of tripping over chords, backdrops and trying to keep the other two other little monkeys from destroying it all.

In a way, it's kinda cool because each picture has a memory that will remind me of what was going on in those crazy weeks after Dr. F came.

For example:

The next two pictures were taken at 2 am. I will remember that Kev had just got back from work and I REEALLY wanted a pic with his hands in them. I waited and waited for him to come home that night, holding Dawson who was undressed ready for pictures, keeping him warm in his fuzzy blankie. Kev sat at the kitchen table, half asleep as I shot as quick as I could so we could get to bed. We were so beyond exhausted- I was near tears. Call me crazy, but these pictures are/were a big deal to me. They were worth it.

This was taken one morning when Kev was running late to work but I asked him to stand by for a minute while I put Dawson on a shelf. Kevin's nearby-protective hands are edited out of the photo. In the rush, I didn't have time to dust the shelf and it just felt wrong putting him on that dirty thing. As soon as Kev was out the door Drew and I gave him a bath.

The few with me in it were shot by my sister in law Tiffany when she came by to visit one day. I had a total breakdown while she was there, lots of Post Partom hormones that only new moms can understand. (How embarrassing!) Thanks so much, Tiffy! For taking the pics, and for being there when I lost it. It meant so much to me.


That same day Tiff tried to help me take pics of Dawson on this scale. However, he immediatly pooped all over her and then we got the giggles, so none of those pictures worked. This one was taken a couple weeks later... the last (and one of the only pics) shot with the black backdrop that was left out for nearly a month.

After the pic was shot, I pushed down on the scale until it read 7 lb 11 oz (his birth weight), and then edited that into the picture. Daws struggled gaining weight for the first 6 weeks or so, and this original picture read just over 6 lbs.



This next one of all 3 kids is actually 3 separate pics, edited into one. Don't look too closely! ;) I assure you there never was a moment that was as peaceful and easy-going as this pic makes them look :) Gotta love editing. It was a really late night and everyone was ornery...especially Drew. You'd never know it, look at those innocent eyes :P

This was on our kitchen floor and he is in a wooden kitchen bowl that used to be my mom's. The whole house was a DISASTER. Halle had a couple of friends over who were all ooing and awwing over him, who were so amazed that he was small enough to fit in that bowl. The rest were taken on my bed. My black blanket as a background. Standing on the bed, right over him, I held my camera in one hand and my table lamp in the other (for a filler light). I'm sure I was quite the picture myself. lol.

Anywho, this post I am sure is boring to everyone else, so I'm just writing this for me. I think I'll wanna remember what was going on behind the scenes. I didn't have time to write in my journal or anything... and this kinda makes up for it to me. Sorta sums up the craziness. Or starts to anyway.