BABY NEWS!

Since telling everyone that we are expecting our first little bundle of joy this coming June, a ton of curious photographers have come out of the wood works with questions. So, I hope this helps you all making some decisions to move forward with this huge step and change in your life.

How did you plan your busy schedule around baby making?

Honestly, you will always come up with an excuse. My husband has always wanted kids. If he could, he would probably have 5 by now. I was sceptical and I was busy.

But I have so and so weddings.

But this is coming up.

But But But!

It was getting to a point that the most important thing to me was getting put on hold.

My life.

Yes my career is my life as well, but at the end of the day, my family and my husband are what mean the most, and this is how it should be.

 So we decided to sit down and make it work. There were still tons to take into consideration when planning, because let’s face it, we book 2 years in advance and these days are important. I, in no way, wanted to ruin someone’s day by having them book me and then not be able to make it due to baby. So it took some serious planning and some pure luck to make it all falls nicely into place.

Here is what we started with.

In the spring of 2012 I had already booked 7 weddings for 2013, 2 being Destination Weddings. I knew that if we were going to make a plan, it needed to be now or I was just going to continue to book the usual 20-25 weddings a year. And that just would not work. We basically did the baby making based around the Destination Weddings we had booked. And then decided how many I was comfortable shooting after baby arrived. Being a brand new Mom, I really had (have) no idea what I am in for but I took some advice of my own and finally said…IT’S FAMILY TIME. 10 weddings for 2013 was all I was willing to take.

For us, this worked well. We had our Destination Weddings in November (2012), January, and March. I knew that I refused to shoot a Destination Wedding, or travel for that matter, when I was passed 7 months pregnant. You can still travel up to 34-37 weeks as long as the doctor gives you the all clear to go. But I will say, shooting at 7 months pregnant in the scorching heat and blazing sun was not fun. You get swollen, you are extra hot, and let’s face it; I could no longer see my toes in the sand. Oh and don’t even get me started about the plane ride. Thank goodness I still have a husband after how whiny I was on that ride.

Anyway, you get the point. So I knew that if we tried in the fall of 2012 this would line up well for all 3 of those weddings.

Aside from the schedule of Destination Weddings, there were a few other things I took into consideration.

When would I be pregnant?

I did not want to be pregnant for an entire wedding season. I did not want to find out I was pregnant in June, be hot all summer, deliver in February and still be stuck inside for a few months before it got nice out again. Looking back and thinking of shooting weddings while I was in the 1^st trimester would have been terrible. I was extremely tired and had no energy at all. If you have ever had Mono, this is exactly how I felt. Yes, this is minor and great pregnancy symptoms, but anyone that shoots weddings knows how much energy you need to make it through the day. Now, I did shoot a few in the beginning, and they went fine. Keep in mind it was still a secret and it’s no fun hiding things from your clients.  Getting pregnant in the summer also means you will be extremely hot for those Alberta summer weddings. It just wasn’t something I wanted. Might sound like such a small thing, but it really did decide a lot for me.

Personally, I also always wanted a summer baby. I love that I was pregnant during the winter so I could wear sweaters and scarves and bundle up. I didn’t have to worry about bikini season or little tank tops. Although adorable on pregnant ladies, I just wasn’t having it. Having a summer baby means we can be outside going for walks every day and getting rid of this pregnancy weight. I cannot imagine having a baby before or during winter and being stuck inside. It just wasn’t my preference.

As for the weddings coming up after baby, well I guess we will see how that goes. My last wedding is May 4 (due June 12) and my first one again is July 13^th. So as long as everything goes to plan everything should be fine. Since my husband is my second shooter it throws a bit of a wrench in the mix but Gramma has nicely offered to babysit while we shoot for the remaining weddings of the summer. But as I nicely planned, there aren’t too many so it should all work out.

I had a plan, and it worked. We got pregnant the day we set the plan so we were extremely lucky. And yes, we did look up particular dates (get the what to expect when expecting fertility app, worked like a charm, except when picking the sex of baby, completely wrong there) on when to try. I highly recommend that only because I am a major planner. Now there were times throughout the summer that we “tried” but we always checked dates and lined things up, again to make sure we weren’t spoiling anyone’s big day.

I hope that helps a bit. I am always here if you have any questions at all. It is a scary time but I couldn’t be happier with how it all worked out. And YES, I did unfortunately have to cancel one wedding. Thankfully, I had only booked it 2 weeks before I found out we were pregnant so I didn’t feel too terrible.

~N~

Oh and of course, no personal post is any good without a picture! This is me a week ago. Now image bending over that massive belly!