She’s finally here!
Born November 18th, 2008.
I’ll have to post more later….this new Mommy is lacking sleep, but I just wanted to share a quick pic of our darling little girl. Thank you all for your well wishes and support these past couple of weeks!
Tomorrow is the big day! You’d think knowing this would put me at ease, but I’ve been pretty nervous all day long. I didn’t really worry about a spontaneously going into labor, but knowing it’s tomorrow afternoon has me worrying about all the what ifs and unknowns of going into labor and having a scheduled induction.
But then I picture meeting Ellie for the first time and nothing else seems to matter so much. We’re both really excited and anxious to meet our baby girl. I honestly can’t wrap my head around the fact that we’ll be parents tomorrow! All day long we’ve been looking at each other and asking with a nervous smile, “Are you ready?” It still feel so surreal.
I’m not sure how I’m going to sleep tonight, but I know it’ll be the last full night of sweet slumber we’ll be getting in a really long time so we have to make it count! Have a good night everyone and wish us luck on a healthy baby girl and an easy complication free delivery! 
Full story to come!
In the mean time I figured I’d give you all an update. I’m. Still. Pregnant.
Taken yesterday at 40 weeks and 4 days. Jeff drove me to my Dr’s appointment since he already started his paternity leave earlier this week. I started having strong, painful, fairly regular contractions around 8pm two nights ago but after 4 hours they stopped all together. What a tease! We were so disappointed.
This somewhat made up for our disappointment though. Have you guys tried the Mochilato Way shaved ice at Mochilato in Irvine? To. Die. For. Fluffy shaved ice flavored with matcha green tea, condensed milk, fresh fruit, sweet red bean, soft mochi, and inside that heaping mountain of goodness there’s a scoop of vanilla ice cream and strawberry italian ice. And if you can believe it, this is the single size!
This morning I started having the same type of contractions at 2am but two hours later they fizzled out again. Again, disappointing, but also kind of a relief because they were so intense. I was already in bed so by the time I started contracting I had to get up and out of bed to walk them off every 5 -10 minutes or so. And being as pregnant as I am? Getting in and out of bed is no small feat. So when they fizzled out at around 4:30am I was happy to finally be able to lay down and sleep. I’m exhausted today. I honestly don’t know how women labor for 20+ hours! If Ellie doesn’t come on her own this weekend, I’m scheduled to be induced on Monday.
I’ve been keeping busy designing albums, fulfilling print orders, editing and tying up loose ends in between all the walking I’ve been doing. I think we’ve hit up every single mall in a 100 mile radius from our house and have walked the entire length of it. Email correspondence will be a bit slow as I start my maternity leave - thanks in advance for your patience and understanding.
I’m 31 years old today! It’s also my due date, but it looks like Ellie didn’t get that memo and is still as comfy as can be inside me. I tell her that her nursery is way more kick ass than my cramped uterus, but I don’t think she believes me.
This morning Jeff woke me from sleep by singing me happy birthday which brought a smile to my face. And then we went to brunch at Plum’s Cafe where I finally got to try their Famous Dutch Baby Pancake! It takes at least 30 minutes to bake and I’m always too hungry or in too much of a hurry to order this dish, but today we had all the time in the world and I have to say it was well worth the wait!
Me and my Mom. She flew into town a week ago and has been cooking and cleaning up a storm for us!
And then we headed to Laguna Beach to walk a bit. It’s been on everyone’s agenda to get this baby out of me asap and everyone seems to think I need to walk more to get her out. So everyday I walk and walk and walk. At the mall, running errands, around the neighborhood, at the beach…. this pregnant girl is tired! And still very pregnant! All the walking (actually, it’s more like waddling) has accomplished is swollen feet, sciatic nerve pain, and exhausting a pregnant girl. So I’m not sure this walking this is working very well. Maybe it’s a trick.
Have I posted a pregnant picture of myself yet? Jeff took this one of me this afternoon… I like it because I don’t look nearly as huge as I do in real life. Good job, hun! You’re the best!
And for my Dad…
He called and sang Happy Birthday to me over the phone as he does every year, but I know we both wish he could have been in town with us! Miss you Dad! And now we’re off to meet my in laws for dinner at Benihana’s. Yum! At this rate Ellie’s going to be a whopping 10 lber!
Thank you all for your sweet birthday (and due date) wishes!
First off, I have to thank my talented photographer friends Crissy and Jonilyn, both of whom helped me out tremendously by covering my last two weddings for me when I was way too pregnant to do so. Thank you both so much! I can’t wait to see the awesomeness that you two captured for Jenner + Kyle and Christine + Rob!
I assisted Jonilyn the morning of Christine and Rob’s wedding for a few hours helping to capturing getting ready pictures, detail shots, and first look moments while Jacob and Jordana tag teamed the guys’ getting ready pictures. It was great to finally meet you two! And after almost a year, I finally got to see Amanda of In the Now Weddings again who helped coordinate Christine + Rob’s fabulous day!
Christine’s gorgeous dress that fit her like a glove!
Loved the English tradition of a six pence in the shoe!
And just in case anybody forgot…No stressing out the Bride on her big day! You can see Nichole Deanne working her hair and makeup magic on Christine! She does such fabulous work! I almost didn’t recognize her with her newly auburn hair since I hadn’t seen her in person since my own wedding last year!
I loved all of Christine’s accessories!
Robbie sent Christine a photo of their wedding bands resting on top of a porcelain frog (it’s an inside joke!) and underneath the photo it said, “Can’t wait!” How cute is that?
The necessities - ring + lipgloss!
Oh, and a little bubbly never hurt anyone.
Can you believe these flowers were all DIY? I love the mini dahlias!
The girls are always hustling and bustling the morning of a wedding.
One to keep and one to throw.
Christine’s bridesmaids helping her into her dress.
And the final touches…
And we’re bridal and oh so gorgeous looking!
And then it was time for Christine to knock Rob’s socks off at their first look!
Rob, the tricky one tried to get Christine to turn the wrong way…
They laughed and then she teared up… it was sweet.
And a romantic kiss!
I have to say that I had a pretty easy pregnancy my first and second trimester. I didn’t really suffer from morning sickness and I was still carrying fairly small and therefore able to work without many problems. But my 3rd trimester is proving to be a bit more of a pain. Literally. Shooting weddings on my feet all day would flare up my sciatica and would leave me in pain for days at a time. Sitting, standing, walking, laying down…it all hurt and no amount of stretching or resting or massaging helped in the least.
Then one morning I woke up with aching hands and feet. Not that I’d ever had arthritis or knew what it felt like, but I swore I had it. I woke Jeff up to tell him about my geriatric-ness, but he just looked at me like I was crazy and went back to bed. My joints ached and burned and felt like I’d taken a hammer to them the night before and it’s just gotten worse since then. Fluffing my pillow or pulling the comforter up with my hands hurts enough to wake me from sleep. And that’s when I do sleep because insomnia is now my best friend and has been most of my last trimester. Sleep? Who needs sleep?
Even now that I’m not on my feet as much, the weight of my belly has my sciatica back (with a vengeance!) for the final stretch of my pregnancy and running even short errands leaves me waddling in pain. And the exhaustion I’m feeling now with 10 days till my due date rivals the exhaustion I felt during my first trimester.
But sooner than we know it we’ll have our baby in our arms and all this will be forgotten and left in the past and life as we know it will never be the same. We can’t wait!
Currently 2 - 3cm dilated!
10.24 Steve V
10.26 Milton
10.27 Ingrid
10.28 Brandon
10.29 Tommy
10.30 Petrice, Weezer Monkey, Thanh, Leslie
10.31 Lori, Brandon G, JM, Jasmine Marie, Carina B
11.1 Andy, Sher, Karla, Carmela, Sonya
11.2 Anne K, Whitney, Wontoni, Lily, Charles, Joanne K, Grace, Mary, Navy L
11.3 Kris, Kenny, M, Michelle, Jae, P, Janie, Jeannine
11.4 Wayne, Crystal, Emi, Brown Eyed Girl, Caroline T
11.5 Jenny, Amanda A, Kristel, Nanette, Victoria, Gina
11.6 Tricia, Greg, Suk, Cari, Angie, David H
11.7 Marie, Tracy, Carol N, Suzanne, Jennifer P
11.8 Tony, Raymei, Kerrie
11.9 Ramneet, S.T, Maya, Amber H, Joan S, Lisa
11.10 Jeff, Tina, Caroline, Joyce, Magi
11.11 Cxiajie, Jennifer Q, Kelly
11.12 Rick, Peggy
11.13 Ming
11.14 Miguel, Sue, Yuka
11.15 Soo, Sarah
Happy Halloween Everyone!
You guys rock! I love that so many of you guys are playing along! It’s a lot of fun and means so much to us to be able to share this exciting time with so many people. Since there are multiple people guessing the same dates we’ll have a tie breaker (time of birth) for the people who guessed the correct day. Fair enough?
The prize for my lovely blog readers will be a $25 itunes gift card! Jeff’s coworkers have cold hard cash on the line and my sister in law will be sending our baby shower winner a surprise gift!
So this is where we’re at. November 2nd seems to be the most popular guess so far!
10.24 Steve V
10.26 Milton
10.27 Ingrid
10.28 Brandon
10.29 Tommy
10.30 Petrice, Weezer Monkey, Thanh, Leslie
10.31 Lori, Brandon G, JM, Jasmine Marie, Carina B
11.1 Andy, Sher, Karla, Carmela, Sonya
11.2 Anne K, Whitney, Wontoni, Lily, Charles, Joanne K, Grace, Mary, Navy L
11.3 Kris, Kenny, M, Michelle, Jae, P, Janie
11.4 Wayne, Crystal, Emi, Brown Eyed Girl, Caroline T
11.5 Jenny, Amanda A, Kristel, Nanette, Victoria, Gina
11.6 Tricia, Greg, Suk, Cari, Angie, David H
11.7 Marie, Tracy, Carol N, Suzanne
11.8 Tony, Raymei, Kerrie
11.9 Ramneet, S.T, Maya, Amber H, Joan S, Lisa
11.10 Jeff, Tina, Caroline, Joyce, Magi
11.11 Cxiajie, Jennifer Q, Kelly
11.12 Rick, Peggy
11.13 Ming
11.14 Miguel, Sue, Yuka
11.15 Soo, Sarah
A long overdue post! I’ve been so busy tying up loose ends that my blog posts have been suffering a bit. Sorry everyone! And just fyi, I’m still here and still very pregnant! Very, very, very pregnant.
Beth and Brent are the cutest and sweetest couple ever. They both look like they stepped right out of an Abercrombie + Fitch catalog! We had so much fun cruising the streets of downtown Orange to find cool little neighborhoods to shoot in and chatting up a storm all along the way.
We started off in a cozy little cafe with the most amazing windows!
Brent doesn’t have to try very hard to get Beth to laugh out loud! I love this next image! It’s funny because Brent was totally incognito about it too. One minute they’d be serious and then he’d do something to get her to laugh…and I never saw what it was. Slick. I like that it was always just a little private something between the two of them.
I loved the reflections in the glass behind them. So perfect!
And check out their hot outfit change! Hot, Hot, Hot!
The light in this alley way was so gorgeous!
I’ve always wanted to shoot on an exterior stairwell, but whenever I find one and ask clients to make their way up, some official looking dude will poo poo on our parade and tell us we’re not allowed on the landings. Weird, right? Well, not this time!
And one last shot….
Beth and Brent, I had so much fun with you guys and can’t wait until your wedding next May at Pasadena’s beautiful City Hall! It’s going to be beautiful!
We have a poll running with family and friends as to when they think Ellie will make her grand entrance into this world. If you want to play along, leave me a comment with your name, email address, and best guess and I will add you guys to the game! There will be a prize for our baby shower guests, one for Jeff’s coworkers, and one for my lovely blog readers!Here’s some info which may help you make your educated guess!
10.24 Steve V
10.26 Milton
10.28 Brandon
10.29 Tommy
10.31 Lori
11.1 Andy
11.3 Kris, Kenny
11.4 Wayne, Crystal, Emi
11.5 Jenny
11.6 Tricia, Greg, Suk
11.7 Marie, Tracy
11.8 Tony, Raymei, Kerrie
11.9 Ramneet, S.T, Maya
11.10 Jeff, Tina, Caroline, Joyce
11.12 Rick, Peggy
11.13 Ming
11.14 Miguel, Sue
11.15 Soo