My precious baby girl is TWO months old today!! TWO!! I’m sure I’ll be saying this every month, but I simply cannot believe it!! I was telling Dave the other day that I cannot even believe I was pregnant, it feels like a dream. Nearly one year ago we were heading into Boston for my IUI, hoping and dreaming of growing our family. And even though that treatment failed, nearly a year later here we are holding our tiny miracle. It’s too sweet. (I haven’t share too much about our journey through infertility — but if you’d like me to share more I will.)
We’ve quickly discovered the old adage that no two babies are alike to be completely true!! While in some ways she is similar to her brother, Isla is a very different baby than he was. She doesn’t seem to sleep the same, she doesn’t eat the same and her personality is very different. Since we are nearly five years removed from the infant stage of parenting, it’s been a learning curve to say the least!! Equally as amazing though, is how much her big brother loves her. To watch them interact, to see him loving her, to know that they will carry a special bond together for the rest of their lives is something I will cherish forever!!
Month two has been full of exciting milestones!! Here are highlights her second month :
How can we possibly already be at one month old!! It hardly seems possible. Honestly it hardly seems possible that our house is filled with the joy of a newborn again. It’s surreal, amazingly, wonderfully, surreal!! When Jonathan was a newborn I documented his first year of life through a series of monthly blog posts. And while I might have been the only one who cared enough to read them, it was a joy for me to remember that fast first year and document all the change he underwent. I knew that I wanted to do the same thing for our baby girl and here I am today, ready to share the first post!!
This time has gone by so fast – so, so fast. I remember the night before my scheduled c-section Dave and I sat together and through tears I cried that I wished it was a week from today. I was terribly afraid of what lay ahead and now here we are five weeks later. Having a scheduled c-section this go around felt much different than my experience with our son Jonathan (who was an emergency c-section after nearly two days of labor.) Walking into the OR room first thing in the morning was a strange experience. I found that surgery this go around was a bit more traumatic then I was expecting, recovery has been much slower than last time and the entire experience was much different. BUT our darling daughter has been the gleaming light through it all and has made whatever experience we had so entirely worth it!!
Ms. Isla Rose — many people have asked us how we chose her name. The short answer is we liked it 🙂 After our 10th anniversary trip to Scotland in 2016 we fell in love and so on a whim we decided to look into Scottish names. I stumbled upon Isla one day and it just kind of clicked. Dave liked the name Rose and together it seemed to be the perfect fit for our baby girl!!
Some highlights this first month of life for Ms. Isla Rose :
We’re SO excited to share that Baby Parker is a GIRL!!! Dave and I found out a week and half ago during our anatomy scan (the big ultrasound they do during the middle of pregnancy to check the baby’s organs and growth). We decided we had wanted to find out privately together to have time […]
I can’t believe I’ve been able to keep this secret this long — it’s seemed like an eternity to reach this point – the second trimester of pregnancy!! It’s also surreal to actually be sharing this with you. I never thought we’d be given another chance to have a child.
We’ve been trying to grow for our family for over two years. What we thought might take just a few months turned into a journey we could never have imagined. Months of trying, a positive test, a subsequent miscarriage. Heartbreak. Over a year of trying again. A diagnosis of infertility. Heartbreak. Testing, pokes, prods, tears. Heartbreak. Injections, medicine, a failed IUI. Heartbreak. Giving up. Heartbreak again. And then unexpectedly, against all odds, our miracle : a positive pregnancy test.
It’s been a painful journey to reach this point. When we finally saw those two pink lines we were reserved. With each ultrasound, each check up we became more and more hopeful, reassured that this was really happening. Someday I may share more about our journey with secondary infertility, but for now here we are. 16 weeks pregnant and delighted to be awaiting the arrival of our new addition later this year!!
This dear family holds a very special place in my heart — they were one of my very first clients and have championed by business over the years. I’ve had the joy of photographing their love story, from anniversary session to maternity session and it’s been a delight to watch as their family has grown.
On an unseasonably cold and blustery fall afternoon I met up with this family of five at Laudholm Farm in Wells, Maine. As the sun set behind the clouds we played tag, bribed the kids with cookies and managed to get everyone to sit down for a few frames together 😉 Enjoy a few of my favorite images from their family session!
(PS : You may recognize Sarah from her popular running blog, Run Far Girl and as a contributing blogger for Women’s Running!!)
I cannot believe that our 10th anniversary trip to London & Scotland has come and gone. It feels like we had been planning this trip forever and with most vacations it was over in the blink of an eye. It was an incredible trip and lovely way to celebrate a decade of marriage together!! For our 10th anniversary we knew that we wanted to travel but weren’t quite sure where. We finally settled on the UK and decided to split up our trip into three parts, London, Scotland and London.
Because I have SO much to share about our trip and because I’m not quite ready for our adventure to be over, instead of sharing it all in one long blog post I’ve decided to break our trip down into several parts. First I’ll be sharing the amazing destinations we visited in a multi-post series. Next my hope is to share the delicious places we ate (because let’s be real, we planned this trip around FOOD ;)) along with a review of the places we stayed and some of the amazing experiences we enjoyed while on vacation!! Are you ready?!
Our first stop was London. This was my third trip to this bustling city and it was still full of the charm and character that made me fall in love with London years ago. It was the perfect destination for our trip, filled with things to do but also relaxing enough to simply sit and enjoy a cup of coffee together. It was a great mix!!
For the first three days our trip we stayed in Kensington and filled each day with site seeing and eating. We absolutely adored the Kensington neighborhood, filled with coffee shops, diners and locals – it felt far removed from the hustle and bustle of central London and the craziness that is the European summer tourist season.
This was our part of the trip to see the sights and we did a LOT of walking, shopping and “touristing”. Highlights included Liberty of London (A MUST for the building alone), Nopi, Victoria and Albert Museum, BBBakery Tour, Notting Hill and more — I promise to break this all down in an upcoming post!!
This past weekend we celebrated Jonathan’s third birthday with a BBQ at our home. It was an especially beautiful spring day (are rare treat this year with our cold and rainy weather!) with lots of food and outdoor fun. Dave has a large extended family, many who make the journey to our house and ever […]
The DZP Home Office RevealIt’s party time!! I’m SO excited to reveal the DZP Home Office Makeover with blog readers this morning!! So maybe it’s a party of one (plus a fiesty doggy) in the office but just know I’m dancing a little “I no longer have to paint this room!” dance!! I’m pretending you’re […]