3 minutes felt like 3 hours.

I felt sweaty palms and the dancing of a thousand butterflies in my much thinner-than-now-stomach.

And it was at that moment I realized, ’S*** just got real!”

Those 2 pink lines appeared, and I was excited but at that moment realized “holy crap…how will I know what I’m doing?”

Will I be a good mom?

Seriously though….am I responsible enough to keep another tiny human alive and thriving?

8 months later, 24 hours of labor, pain past the frowny-face 10 of “unbearable”, and the terrifying yet unbelievable little being was in my weary arms.

What I thought would be cloud 9 was absolutely that, but it was also full of something I didn’t know about, a feeling of being broken into a thousand pieces.

I didn’t know the 9+ diaper changes, 9+ feedings and 3-hours-a-night of sleep were going to overshadow the moments I was SO looking forward too.  That the exhaustion and “new job” of being a mom would leave me feeling depleted and so far from feeling like myself.

I was too dead-tired to really take in the feeling of her furry baby sideburns on my cheek.  I was to hormonal to savor how her body melted into mine as we nursed and her lips would purse after feeding.

I felt like a terrible mother.  A mother that couldn’t even enjoy this amazing experience everybody was telling me about – being a new mom and what a extraordinary time this is.

I’m not one for regrets, but I regret not being able to take it all in…

At the same time, I know that I WASN”T a bad mom.

I know that at that point, I COULDN’T take it all in.

The shear exhaustion is part of the experience you look back on.

I want so badly to remember my daughter’s miniature features, the jet-black hair, the way her gray/blue eyes look at me, the boney legs that curled up inside of my hand.

And I know you’ll feel the same way looking back on your child’s newborn days.

Because right now you’re probably so weary from being up every hour last night and so depleted that you can’t remember what day it is much less when the last time you bathed was.  You’re so mentally and physically exhausted, that you’re not quite sure if what happened 15 minutes ago was a dream, or reality.  Maybe you’re constantly forgetting things.  You feel like a ‘ditz’ and you’ve never been the ‘ditzy’ one.

You want so badly to remember their tiny features and sweet newborn smells, but you also feel completely overwhelmed most of the day and wonder when you’ll ever sleep again or feel like yourself again.

I promise you will.

Introducing New Life, New Love; Mamahood sessions for new moms.

The result is something that will kick your memories back into gear years from now, so you can experience what I just talked about, the emotions and memories you forgot you had.

Because trust me – you will forget the most profound moments.  Moments you think will be forever etched in your memory, but will slowly begin to fade to a fuzzy after thought.

Like the moments right after a feeding when your baby purses her lips and arches her still scrawny back, her legs folded up like a pretzel.  Her legs still thin, but you can just faintly see them beginning to plump out into baby thighs so juicy you could eat them.

New Life, New Love Sessions create beautiful artwork of an sleep deprived new mom bonding with her tiny baby so she can look back on the early days with fond memories and stories to tell her little one.

The imagery is mixed with her hand-written words answering, ‘what do you want to remember most about their birth?” and “What hopes do you have for their future?”

2-3 Hour session of you and your baby bonding through every day activities like feedings, bathing, and snuggles.  Because ‘every-day’ moments are the ones that are the easiest to slip away into the black-hole of memories.  And these are the moments you will want to remember the most.

Heartwarming question and answer pages so you can remember what was most important to you and your child at this time in your life.

Not a new mom?  That’s ok, I’d LOVE for you to pass this on to a new mom you think would totally be perfect.

Who this session is for?

• New moms with babies under 6 months old, who are to exhausted and overwhelmed to leave the house.

• Moms that maybe have older kids and know they’ll forget and what to embrace the newest family member’s newborn days.

These sessions are so close to my mama heart.  They are so much more then just a photo session.

As a mother of a 4 year old, looking back on those newborn days I cry tears of regret over not enjoying it more.  I want so badly to have a do over.  I want to shake my pre-mama self and tell her what she’s about to go thru.  I want to tell her it’s going to be the hardest thing you have ever done.  But it’s also going to be the most AMAZING, awe inspiring things you’ve ever done.  And to not let all the really really hard moments over shadow the glorious bliss filled moments you’ve been waiting and praying for.

This project is my way of paying it forward and making sure new moms have photos and words to look back on and feel all the love, tenderness, and pure bliss that she felt for her baby.  Even in the midst of the overwhelm and crazy hard.

The New Life, New Love Sessions are so important to be me because moms should never feel alone.  And should always have tangible proof of one of the greatest and most transformative times of her life.

I want you to have the sweet, bliss filled moments captured and not the feelings of overwhelm and fatigue burned into your mind.

Sessions booked before January 30th will receive $250 in product credit.

Ready to learn the nitty gritty details?  Email me and I’ll send you all the details.

Don’t want a session?  Find out what the 7 Must Have Newborn Photos are without doing a session.