VLV Photography

Hallelujah, AMEN…February is coming to a close and tomorrow starts my birthday week!  Sigh…..32.  A little facto you may not know is I share my birthday with my brother who turns 46, as well as two classmates!  Come to think of it, I can’t remember which of us classmates {I think we were all born in the same hospital} was born first.  Crazy huh? 

I wish I could be one of those people that gets excited about their birthday, but I’m not.  But really, I don’t know many that do.  Maybe if I were going to be 21, then YEEEEAH!  Those days are looooong past.  Sure, I’m all the wiser {at least I think I am} but there really isn’t much I would do differently if I had those 11 years back.  I’ve lived with no regrets and I guess that’s something to be happy about as I approach getting oanother year older.  It has been one wild ride and I think I’ve packed more roller coasters, adventure, experiences, heartache, joy, smiles, laughter, and tears in my 32 years to write 3 books.  I’ve always thought about writing a book but I’m just too all-over-the-place with my thoughts that people would probably get to the second page and think I wrote it from the loony bin!  Plus, I’m terrible with run-on sentences and I really like exclamation points and smiley faces!!!

ANYWAY, what a fun month with all these newborns I had the joy of working with, as well as their moms and dads. Becoming a parent for the first time is such an emotional high and it’s just so difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it.  Even after just a week or so after I come in and photograph all their cuteness, it’s all still very new to the parents.  I understand that and sometimes can’t help but want to share tips/tricks/my story/etc..  There are so many things that can’t be “learned” by reading parenting magazines/books and your best resources are always those that have gone through it before you…that… and your instinct. 

I hope to be a resource for new mother’s who I have the privilege of working with and always welcome questions.  A couple tips that I was able to share with a couple moms this month was that if your baby is developing jaundice {which isn’t uncommon if you’re breastfeeding especially}, light is best absorbed in the buttocks.  So strip baby down and place him/her in the sunlight for just a little while-it’s still sunlight and their skin is very sensitive.  We had used a desk lamp for my son as well when he had jaundice and pretty badly too.  Another tip is if your baby spits up or seems to have a gastro-reflux issue going on, roll up a little receiving blanket or small towel and prop up one end of the bassinette so baby is lying at an angle, not very much, just enough to elevate the head a little-like they do with the bassinettes in the hospital.  That’s actually where I came up with that one and my daughter seemed to sleep better after nursing.  I’m surprised the nurses and staff don’t tell mother’s these simple tricks that can make such a big difference.  And once you’ve had one child, they assume you know it all and don’t even bother unless you ask a question.  Once I had my third though, I was pretty confident in saying “this isn’t my first BBQ!’” 

One of the newborn sessions I had this month was with baby Jedidiah.  You can view that post HERE.  I was so happy, words can’t express, when I walked into their home and their wedding images that I took were all over.  Seriously, it made my month!  That is such a compliment to me and I very much appreciate them as my clients and friends.  And now I get to see their family grow and that makes me even happier to be a part of that.  I do want to share though what they did with their images with simply 8×10′s, 5×7′s, and 4×6 prints framed.  With a little creativity you too can create a wall gallery of many small prints to create a large collection.  With their permission I asked to photograph it and share it on my blog.  I would LOVE to see how other clients are displaying their images as well!  One of these days I’m going to take some time to search online for some inspirational wall displays to share too, to hopefully inspire others to think how they can creatively display their images.  Isn’t this great though?  So simple and easy to do-love it!

Well, that’s all for this week’s installment folks!  Stay tuned for next week’s post when I’m officially another year wiser!  Until then…Live, Love, and Laugh with the one you’re with, even….even….man, I got nothin’.  I can’t think of anything to put at the end of that this week.  Well, just live, laugh, and love….Oh, got one….like this is going to be the best year ever!  Okay, it’s not that clever but in all honestly it’s very late and I’m all out of clever.