Twiggy Photography

My favourite two. One is Penny, one is June! Can you tell who is who?

Big…

…and small.

There are days when I feel guilty as I am keeping a close eye on the clock counting down, down, down. Bedtime for number one finally comes and then counting again…only a couple more hours until number two is asleep (for a few hours that is). And then it’s my turn, sigh, zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

And then there are days when I try desperately not to blink because I know time is passing much faster than I want it to. Some days I just want it to stop. I want Penny to stay the way she is forever. Her crazy curly hair that is in need of a good brush, her never ending energy, and her heart-melting two and a half year old, “I love you mommy.” Then there is June. My baby. Stay my sweet baby. Forever. I want her tiny body, her sweet little sighs and her lovely little lips to never end. Each moment is a gift that fades as quickly as it comes.

Let the days where you are afraid to blink get you through the ones where you can barely keep your eyes open.

My sweet baby. Already six weeks old.

I think my favourite thing to photograph is peoples birth stories as I feel it is one, if not THE most important event in your life. As the mom your experience is so intense that you are left unable to remember every detail. Because of that it was SO important for me to have this birth photographed. I asked one of my best friends Ashley, a wedding photographer with her own company SNAP, to be there with us to photograph. I put a slideshow of the images together and I look at it every single day. I always encourage people to share their stories. Some like to keep them private and others love to share, such a personal choice. I wanted to show mine because I think EVERYONE needs to have their birth photographed!!! Having these images are completely priceless. They are the first moments of my little loves life and having them to look back on means the world to me! Thank you Ashley for being there to capture this for me. Now I will never forget it!

After ten months of excitement, moments of anxiety, tears of joy and of uncertainty and fear of the unknown as our family prepared to no longer be three but four…we welcomed our June.

I went into this a little unprepared. I always wanted two kids about two years apart but when I found out I was pregnant again I’ll admit my immediate excitement turned into panic. All my memories of being pregnant and being in labour flooded back and I thought, what have we done. Haha. I took a deep breath and embraced that plus sign knowing that it meant I was going to be blessed far beyond anything I could possibly imagine. Fast forward about four months to the day I went for my ultrasound and found out I was having ANOTHER girl. I would have been just as overjoyed if it had been a boy, but my heart secretly had a grin so big all the giddy butterflies inside of it flew out and filled the air around me. Sigh.

Another six months brings us to just over a week ago. Because of my history of GIANT babies my wonderful midwife scared me into taking not one but TWO doses of castor oil. It didn’t have it’s expected effect but my water did break at about 4:30 in the afternoon and we went to the hospital around 7pm to get a dose of antibiotics. At that point I was having contractions but I would have hardly even considered them that. I was expecting to go back home as I was sure I wasn’t in real labour yet but I was about 5cm and at about 8pm I started to get stronger contractions and they got stronger and STRONGER and I begged an pleaded for an epidural. I was told to go to the bathroom and when I got back my midwife would check me and then call the anesthetist. I could barely make it across the hall and by the time I got back to the edge of my bed that cannon ball ready to explode out your you know what feeling hit me and I had no idea I could yell so loud. It was short and awful but my little angel was born just before 10pm. That’s less than two hours!!! I was in labour with Penny for around 23 hours and would never have believed it if someone told me I would deliver a baby that fast! The hospital was super busy that night, three of us delivered within 45 minutes of each other. Before June was born I heard the lady in the room next to me yelling and I looked up at my midwife terrified and said, I neeeeeeeeed drugs! Oh the things I can laugh about afterwards.

Because it was so busy we decided to just come home and a few hours after having baby I was home and cozy in my own bed. This last week and a bit has been a whirlwind of visitors and incredible generosity. People have been dropping off meals and love. There have been days where I cry all day wondering how I am going to possibly take care of two children. I am learning the hardest skill I have EVER had to learn…breastfeeding. It is amazing how much time and energy these tiny little people take and yet we would do absolutely anything for them.

I finally got around to taking a few photos of my little love. She is perfect, as are all babies. She just being here makes the world brighter and I already love her like crazy.

We named her June Margaret Winter. She is my warmth in the cold weather, a namesake for someone incredible and a reminder of the time of year she changed our lives forever.