Maylee's Newborn Photo Session(s)

Newborn sessions are usually very long, often lasting between 2 to 4 hours. Most of the time is spent trying to get the baby into a deep sleep (by nursing, rocking, swaddling, etc.) so that the baby can be posed without startling and waking. It takes sooooo much patience, but I actually really love newborn sessions. With Maylee I kind of got to cheat because I just left all of my backdrops up for a week and took pictures whenever she was ready (and Clara was either napping or hanging out with dad or g-pop). It's kind of crazy to see how different she looks in just a few days time!

5 Days New

 Same pose... Different props

I'm still not sure about the newborn "halo" trend... but I certainly like it more than the humungous flower that's bigger than their head thing that was popular when Clara was born.

6 Days New

I have never seen a newborn smile so much in their sleep! It makes me wonder what she dreams about...

6 Days New

Both of the next two images have had some "photoshopping" done to them... No she can't hold her head up like that on her own! However she does like to lift her head to look at you when you're burping her. 

It's so sweet. :)

 8 Days New

I've had this idea for the longest time... I've always wanted to use the "Grown in Idaho" seal on something for a newborn shoot. I found this crate and made a stencil with my mom's Silhouette machine. I wanted it to be a little different than how it turned out here, but I just didn't have the time to antique it. Oh well... For the next shoot maybe I'll get around to it.

 

She was so comfortable in this super soft, plush blanket that she slept for a long time. 

I didn't want to take her out of the crate!

I love her little grin. :)

My new baby on my new guitar... I saw this pose floating around on Pinterest. Once again, this image has been "photoshopped" because I didn't want her rolling over and falling!

 

My most favorite poses from newborn sessions are the ones with mom and baby. I think this is as good as it's going to get with "mom & baby" for now... Hopefully I can convince Dennis to do a few with Maylee, but he's never too excited about getting pictures taken. Oh well. I'll take whatever I can get!

I've got one more session I'm almost finished editing. I wanted to get some of Maylee & Clara together... Holy cow that was difficult! I didn't think I got a single usable image, but after looking through them there are a few that aren't too bad. Some are even rather comical! More to come... (Are you surprised? Haha)

Coming Home

We were in the hospital for almost exactly 24 hours from the time we got checked in (an hour and ten minutes before she was born) until after lunch the next day. The hospital experience with May was quite different than Clara's. Maybe it's because I've already been the mom of a newborn but we were pretty much left alone to enjoy our sweet little girl. I remember feeling overwhelmed with Clara because nursing wasn't going so well, I was in a considerable amount of pain, and I didn't have the slightest idea what I should be doing. Not that I feel like I know what I'm doing now, but Maylee's hospital stay was quick and comfortable. :-)

She really didn't need much of anything; we have all of Clara's baby clothes and things still. I didn't go too crazy making things for her, but I felt like she needed a few things just for her... I crocheted her hat (that doesn't stay on) and sewed her a huge receiving blanket.

 

They are just so tiny in their car seats when they first come home!

My mom got me my favorite flowers...

...And a balloon for Clara.

When we got home Dennis went straight to tummy time with Maylee while listening to Rush Limbaugh... This is becoming a new-baby ritual of his. I think this was his and Clara's favorite when she was little.

She's been home for a week and a half now and we're slowly adjusting to being a family of four. The past four nights she has awoke every three hours to eat and then gone back to sleeping. I hope this has become a routine for her because it makes for one happy, (relatively) well-rested momma! Sometimes I can even get her to sleep during Clara's nap time, but that seems to be her wakeful time of day. Our branch has also been awesome and brought us yummy dinners every night this week. Our tummies and fridge and hearts are full!

Seriously... Where have the past 12 days gone?

Happy 2nd Birthday Clara!

Our little Clarita turns two today. I am in denial. I'm pretty sure she just turned one like yesterday... Back when she'd just mumble sounds, was unsteady on her feet, and had hair too short to put into piggy tails. Now she's full out running, jumping, climbing on the cabinets, talking in full sentences... I just can't believe it!

 

 

And I said I wasn't going to post these on this blog... But I can't resist putting up a few of my favorites:

 "Clara, how old are you?"

You bring so much happiness to our little family. Happy birthday my sweet Clara!

What's in a name?

I never realized what a responsibility it is to name a child. I have always been a very indecisive person, so picking a name from a virtually endless list is quite a difficult task for me. I think the process was fairly similar with Clara & Maylee... Dennis and I both made lists for a while (referencing baby name books, friends, internet name sites,  movie credits...) and then we would look at each others' lists and pick our favorites from there and narrow them down. There are so many things to take into consideration and these were just some of my qualifications:

-It needs to be unique, without being too yewneek... Know what I mean? (so I try to avoid the top 100 lists... or at least the top 50)
-It needs to sound good with our last name
-I like the idea of at least one of the names having some meaning (so a family name, or after someone admirable, or something we like, etc.)
-The spelling needs to make sense. I would like the majority of people to be able to spell it right the first time they try.
-Likewise if you are reading it I would like the majority of people to be able to pronounce it right the first time.
-It's not a must, but Dennis and I both like the idea of being able to pronounce it in Spanish & English. It works with Clara... Maylee not so much. Oh well. That would be more like "Meli" but that would just be weird in English.
-I also had a hard time because I like lots of names that sound very similar to mine (my all time fave name: Elena... Elena & Alea? A bit too sing-songey. Same with Amira... I love Arabic names. Dennis wasn't too fond of that one, but it got ruled out for this reason as well.)

Anyway, Clara's name came from a few places. Her first name isn't necessarily named after anyone in particular, but I've always liked the nutcracker ballet and Dennis knew a cute little girl on his mission with the same name. For her middle name we looked at both of our mothers' names (Teri Lyn & Mary Lynelle). How the heck do you combine Mary & Teri? She was nicknamed Mary-Teri for a while before she was born by grandpa John. haha. I guess that's better than my dad's nickname for all of our unborn children: Phyllis. (He wanted me to be a Phyllis...) But back to Clara... We decided to combine their middle names and use Lynelle since Aunt KP has the middle name of just Lyn and we didn't want to steal hers verbatim.

Maylee's name was a little harder to decide on. We narrowed it down to four names that we both would've been fine with any of them, but we couldn't both agree on just one. We numbered them 1-4 of our most to least favorite and were completely opposite on our line up. Hmph... So we decided to go with one of the two "middle favorite" names. Dennis pretty much let me (or made me- haha) decide on her first name. I had only ever heard the name Maylee once before. My young women's leader in Utah was Maylee Lemon. She is a tall, beautiful, and kind woman and I've always liked her name. After deciding on Maylee we have since heard of a few more Maylees out there, but I like that it's unique without being weird.

Her middle name was EVEN HARDER to decide. For most of the last few weeks it was actually going to be Jane after my favorite author (can you guess who? haha. I'm a classic romantic when it comes to literature.) It meant something... But we always thought it would mean a little more if it was a family name. In the hospital they give you paperwork to fill out for the baby's birth certificate. A couple hours before we left they asked for the paperwork so we could be released... The middle name spot was still blank. I asked for five minutes and we debated on 3 names. Finally I just told Dennis it was up to him because I felt like I made the final choice with her first name. Dennis decided on Renae after my dad, Reyn. We were kinda up in the air about the spelling though. We obviously wanted something phonetically correct, but weren't sure how to go about it. We didn't want to use the y because it was a little too weird spelling. We decided not to use the e accent because we thought it would make things difficult when it came to typing on an English keyboard. We also didn't want to use the double e because that was just a bit too many e's (maylee renee?). So we went with the ae like my middle name is spelled (Shalae- pronounced like the french chalet) which was also a contender for her middle name so we kind of mixed that in too.

So there you have it!

Miss Maylee Renae Peters

Maylee's Visitors

Grandma Mary

Grandma Teri

Grandpa John & Aunt Kati

Aunt Kati

La familia Huerta (Clara's nursery teachers)

Grandpa Reyn (whom Maylee's middle name is fashioned after)

Uncle Dylan & Nicole

Clara loves her g-pop...

"scratchy cheeks" and all...

Cousin Sharlene...

And aunt Kamilla & uncle Joe

Aunt Kristin