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So, I have some s’plaining to do. As most of you probably know by now, Mike and I are expecting our first baby in August. Well…we had THOUGHT in August. I was completely convinced I had at least one more good week of sessions ahead of me before our baby makes his or her debut. Turns out, he or she could very well rock our world and be about 4 weeks early. Could come any day now. Or a week from now. But August 17th is probably not part of the game plan any more. For everyone who knows me at all, this is pretty serious. Like, breathing into a paper bag serious. I am the definition of a planner, and, as you can only imagine, I had JSP’s schedule booked intricately up through my 37th week. “That’s plenty of time to tie up all of my lose ends with a very pretty bow before baby comes!,” I had thought naively. But you know what they say about God laughing when you make plans? I guess our kid does, too.

When all of these lovely, surprise pre-labor symptoms started hitting Friday night/Saturday morning, I felt like Jack Bauer, racing against the ever-ticking clock screaming, “There’s no time!” Not only were we sterilizing bottles at 10 o’clock at night, but I had 8 more sessions on the books. Even though the physical demands of shooting, especially in this terrific heatwave, have been getting more and more taxing, I couldn’t even fathom not getting these in. I take it very seriously, the task of capturing your family memories. Kids change and grow so fast…two months is sometimes just too long to wait for photos. Lucky for me, I have a very talented second shooter at my disposal. Mike was able to rock two sessions for me last weekend. And if the baby comes before next weekend, I have a few amazing photographer friends willing to pinch-hit for us while we are consumed with the new parent “oh-my-God-oh-my-God-what-did-we-get-ourselves-into?!” battle cry. The vast majority of the rest I was able to reschedule for the fall when I am back from maternity leave, and for that I need to send a huge thank you out to my clients. They are truly the best in the world. (And, no, that shouldn’t be taken lightly like a bad John Stamos, Oikos comercial). All of the understanding, flexibility and well-wishes that have poured in over the past few days just means the world to me. If our kid is 1/10th as cool, cute and amazing as all of my little clients, then Mike and I will be in great shape.

So, short of some editing in the AC and hanging out with my BFF Dorey the dog, I’ve been benched (by Mike and my Doctor). I’m officially on maternity leave through the end of September. I’ll be back shooting October 1 through the end of the year, so if you haven’t made plans for your holiday card session yet, drop me an email and I will do my best to respond in a timely, hopefully not overly-exhausted, baby-brain manner. (Do note that October is already completely booked…dates are going fast).

I apologize already for the obnoxious amount of baby photos that will be appearing on this blog in the days/weeks/months to come. After all of these years, it will be such a thrill for me and Mike to take photos of our very own little one!