365: WEEK 4

Guys, I am on a roll. Honestly, I can't believe I made it this far. Three more days and I will have my first of twelve months down. Some days are easier than others with this challenge but OVERALL, this has been a good experience. I am enjoying the creative process; I like having to think out of the box. Such as with my photo from the 24th. I had something else in mind for that day, but since my camera was in my diaper bag, I gave the grocery store image a shot. It isn't anything phenomenal, but it makes me think about what it took to get the picture - I kept milling around the produce section for about ten minutes until NO ONE was around to watch me take a picture. Obviously, I am in need of a bit more courage. My favorite image of the week: January 26th - Bedtime Story. Reading is part of our nightly routine, so this image is special to me.

365: WEEK 3

Okay. This week has been crazy. Most days, I have an idea of what I can photograph. But, with the arrival of baby B, I haven't given much thought to my daily photo - which means completely spontaneous photos. As a result, my images have been either hit or miss. Today? Miss. Last night? Total hit. My favorite image of the week: January 15th - Birth. I TOLD you that I started snapping my camera the moment baby B was born. THIS is why. This image captures a moment that I can treasure forever. BTW, look at that knot in the cord. Crazy.

BIRTH STORY

This is the inevitable - and expected - birth story. So if ANYTHING about birth frightens or offends you, move along. If not, grab a mug of hot cocoa, snuggle up in front of your screen, and enjoy.

Since I have done this a few times, I had expectations of how things would happen. Nope. My last three littles came a bit early, so I just assumed that baby B would be the same. Not even close. He was quite content in the womb. Even though I had been having false labor on and off for the week prior to my due date, I knew it wasn't the real deal just yet. At 40 weeks, I had a doctor's appointment. Had the doc help my body along a little bit by stripping my membranes. Nothing. An induction date was set. And I cried. I have never had to be induced. I have never wanted to be induced. I am the crazy person who actually loves going into labor. So the thought that that might be "taken away" from me made my heart heavy.
On January 15th, I woke up at 1:13 am to an intense contraction. I fell back asleep, but woke up at 1:18 am to another contraction. Not as intense, but strong enough. Again, I fell back asleep. At 1:23 am, another intense contraction hit and I knew without a doubt that I was in labor. I woke the mr. and we gave it another 10 minutes (and 2 more contractions) before calling my mom. In the short time it took for her to arrive, I was having contractions 3 minutes apart. I straightened my hair and threw on some make-up - because, you know, totally normal reaction during hard labor. We got everything laid out and organized for my mom before heading to the hospital. Arrived at 3 am. Triage felt as if it took fooooooreeeeeever. In actuality, it was only about 30 minutes before I was taken back to L&D. Contractions felt like death. I was given an IV and started on penicillin. At 4 am, I got an epidural and became a happy person again. Since two rounds of penicillin are required to be 4 hours apart, I slept. The nurse came in at about 7:20 am and started the second round of penicillin. My doc visited at 7:30 am and noted that labor had slowed. Said he was going to break my water to speed things up, but discovered that I was ready to deliver, then and there. Needless to say, we weren't expecting that. It only took a few minutes for the room to be prepped for delivery. And it only took 2 pushes (during one contraction) for baby B to arrive. The moment he was out, I grabbed my camera and started snapping away. Which might sound crazy, but is totally normal for me.

Benjamin Jess

January 15th at 7:44 am

7 lbs 11 oz, 19.75 in

365: WEEK 2

Sorry this is a little late. Giving birth will do that. This last week was mostly spent waiting. And waiting. And waiting and waiting and waiting. Lots of walks. Lots of playing next door. Lots of doing whatever it took to keep everyone happy. My favorite image of the week: January 8th - Afternoon Walk. I have no clue how I was able to get lucky enough to snap that quick glance over the shoulder, but the result is priceless.

365: WEEK 1

I have so far to go with this goal BUT one week down. I have to admit that I am impressed with myself. While it is tempting for me to plan out exactly what I want to photograph each day, I have been able to let go of that need for control and have allowed things to play out spontaneously. Result? Images that mean more to me. My favorite image from the week: January 4th - Legacy. I got lucky and captured that image in a very short period of time immediately following the mr.'s [107 yr old] grandfather's funeral. I love the emotion expressed on each of the pallbearers' faces.

NEW YEAR - NEW GOALS

So... Sometimes I look at my 30 before Thirty goals and weep. Not really. But I definitely put some difficult things on my list. Such as the goal that I began undertaking today: the 365 photo challenge. Guys, I think this one scares me more than any of the others. It just seems OVERWHELMING. But since I am the type of person that has to start projects such as this on January 1st (as opposed to some other random day of the year, like July 23rd...), here we go. I will be taking at least ONE photo every single day. Likely post them once a week. Who knows. It will be an adventure, right?

Here is to a New Year!

BTW, do you KNOW how hard it is to get a shot like this? Not to mention the resulting mess...

PUT A RING ON IT

Since quite a few of you have been asking about my Instagram picture/Facebook post about the ring incident, I'll explain. To start off with, I started this pregnancy at my absolute healthiest. I weighed just under 115 lbs and ran/worked out regularly. As a result, this pregnancy has been my best - which is saying a lot since ALL of my pregnancies have been easy peasy. Outside of my pregnancy with Joel (as an 8 mo pregnant ASU student walking across campus), I have never really had any issues with swelling. My feet, once. Otherwise nothing.
Sunday night, after working on a few [failed] sewing projects, I went to my room to get ready for bed. I washed my face and brushed my teeth. Tried taking off my wedding ring and nope. Stuck. Tried a dab of lotion. Nope. Tried cold water. Nope. Tried lotion AND cold water. Nope. Okay... A little bit panicked, but there were several more tricks to try. Tried icing my finger. Nope. Tried Windex. Nope. Tried elevating my hand. Nope. Tried the dental floss/string trick. Nope. Really panicked. Not only did none of these tricks work, they all succeeded in making my finger swell more and more in a reasonably short period of time. My finger began to turn from red to purple and I could no longer bend it. The pain was building, even when I was not touching the ring or my finger. I had the mr. hop online and Google "when to go to the hospital if a ring is stuck". We had reached that point. So away we went (after calling my angel of a mom at 3am to stay with the sleeping kids). I was admitted right away - perk of going in at 3am. The PA came into the room, took one look at my finger, and said there would have been NO WAY that ring was coming off outside of being cut off. It had become a tourniquet. Best part? Not one of my other fingers were swollen. He grabbed a ring-cutting saw and shield and went to work. My finger was so swollen that the shield did not extend past my ring as far as it should have, so the PA only had 1/4" of clearance for his saw. Every time he pushed the saw down into my ring, the ring pushed the shield into the top of my palm. Excruciating. I was hopeful for relief once the ring had been cut. Nothing. The PA tried prying it open with a screw driver, but it was not enough. Instead, he tried using hemostats to expand the gap. Once he had pulled the opening wide by a full inch, I was able force my finger out of the ring. Barely. And little relief. The whole thing just... well... sucked. I LOVE my ring. And now it is sitting broken in my jewelry box. The plus side? I still have my finger. Which is good, you know.Within about 6 hours, the swelling had mostly gone down. My finger still hurts a tiny bit, but no big deal.
So yeah. That's my story. We got to pay $200 to have a $3000 ring cut off. And it will be another $100 (at least) to have it repaired. Sigh. My flesh is priceless, my flesh is priceless, my flesh is priceless...