The Queen's Rambles

One of my biggest regrets with Erik’s babyhood was not getting newborn pictures. We are both cheapskates by nature and it didn’t really seem necessary since we were taking about ten million pictures a day. But in my little mommy heart I really wanted the professional, curled up little baby pictures.

I wasn’t about to make that mistake twice.

*Click through for the whole set if you haven’t already seen them on Facebook.

True, she was only a week old, but I wasn’t going to put it off and miss my opportunity.

The good: Post-Easter is not a popular time for pictures. We were the only customers and we ended up with a fabulous photographer. I know it can really be potluck at Penny’s, but now I have the name of the woman who did our pictures and will request her in the future. She spent over two hours with us, trying to get some good shots.

The bad: My children.

Elsa hates to be naked and I love the naked baby pictures so she spent a lot of time screaming.

Erik. Well. Let’s just say the boy is lucky I didn’t find a willow switch and beat him bloody. My original plan was to do the pics while he was at school, but I was scared we would run out of time if there was a big crowd. Sibling pictures are nice, of course, but he can be a little butt head sometimes. Only this time? He was more than a little butt head. He was a giant asshole.

We were trying to do Elsa pictures first and every time we would get her settled or sleeping he would purposely make a loud noise. Finally my mom took him out. You can’t even imagine how angry I was getting.

Then we did the sibling pictures and he refused to cooperate. First he refused to take his shirt off until we bribed him. What the hell? The kid refuses to keep his clothes on at home. I know he was just jealous because he wasn’t the star of the show, but I was having a hard time feeling any sympathy for him.

The photographer had the patience of a saint. I was ready to pack him up and send him out to sit in the van with grandma, but she kept working with him even when he was being totally contrary and doing exactly the opposite of everything she asked him to do.

Here’s a perfect example. She had his hands over Elsa’s tummy and told him to hold it there. She counted to three and as soon as she said three he let go. It may look funny, but it was most definitely not.

By the time it was my turn for photos my hair was flattened and my make-up was drained. I was a sweaty, tired mess. I really over did it yesterday and paid the price in pain.

In other news, I did nothing today. I am so, so grateful for my mom. She’s done everything for me today including Erik care, diaper changes and washing all my bedding. She just did my bedding yesterday, but I have a serious problem. I am totally engorged and one breast leaks so much that even with several receiving blankets wrapped all around it, my bed gets soaked with milk. I do not enjoy the smell of sour milk while sleeping. I hope the milk supply evens out soon because I am pretty sick of rock hard breasts and leaky boobs. My feet are still swollen, too, and it is just about on my last nerve. I don’t know how much bigger they can get before my skin splits open.

Things are still going great with Elsa. She sleeps for hours at a time in her bassinet, which is just incomprehensible to me. Last night I made Mike get up and make sure she was still alive. He stood over her forever before answering me and I was getting panicked. If it didn’t hurt so much to jump out of bed, I would have hurdled right on over there. She continues to be non-screamy and I continue to wait for the other shoe to drop. She was awake for three hours this morning, just sitting around in her bouncer or on our laps. Life doesn’t seem to hopeless when your baby is happy. Erik’s screaming really took a lot out of me.

And now I better take advantage of her early bed time and get my butt into bed. No telling what time she will have her waking hour tonight.