Last week I had the pleasure of capturing some engagement portraits of Trevor and Nina here in Atlanta.  They are such a fun couple and I couldn’t have picked a better pair to kick off our Spring/Summer wedding season with this weekend.

Here are a few of our favorites:

Love the metal industrial door behind them in this shot.

A portrait with a view! (Of the Atlanta Skyline)

We can’t wait to document your beautiful day tomorrow!!

Week One

Week Two

We’ve been busy plowing through some work and loving on our baby boy, so blogging has taken a back burner for a bit… but we haven’t skipped out on our daily pictures of Atticus!!

15 Days Old – A few B&W images of us hanging out on this Friday afternoon.

Atticus practicing his baby Zoolander face

Playing the stick-the-tongue-out-game with daddy

16 Days Old - A bit of tummy time while Kim, Jason, Baby B, Lindsay, and Luke visit.

17 Days Old – Easter Sunday!!  Atticus wanted to celebrate his first Easter in top-style and asked if we’d give him a faux-hawk.  SOOOO cute!!!

More pics of his styling “do”

Aunt Laurel holding him with his first Easter Bunny that Grandma and Grandpa Lehman brought him.  

We had our families over for Easter though they did all the cooking and prep since we’re still in new-baby-survival-mode.  Baby Atticus was the center of attention of course for most of the day!  Here he is with Mike’s parents.

And one with Grandpa Lehman who did the turkey-cookin’

18 Days Old – Atticus with his baby bible.  We read him his first bed-time-bible-story.

Earlier that day hanging out with dad…

19 Days Old – Nothing in particular going on this day.  Just a random picture of one of his many faces…

20 Days Old – Our “Little Man” sitting in the vintage blue chair

Atticus is an Airplane….weeeeeeeeeeeee!

21 Days Old – Multi-tasking mom!  I couldn’t decide between cuddle time with the little guy (he fell asleep on me after nursing and cuddled up into the boppy on my belly) or getting some work done – so I did both.  Picture from my iPhone.

And that brings him to three weeks old!!!

In continuation of posting my Day in the Life of Atticus photographs, here is a selection from Week Two!!

***CLICK HERE TO SEE WEEK ONE***

Eight Days Old - Day eight held a lot of excitement.  It started with us heating our upstairs to a nice toasty 80+ degrees. Then I kept Atticus awake and active through a time when he wanted to nap so he’d be good and sleepy for his first posed baby photoshoot.  I put him down on a blanket on the floor in his nursery on his belly for some tummy time (only the 2nd time Mike or I had tried this) and he promptly ROLLED OVER onto his back.  With all the commotion of the photoshoot that morning, I almost forgot to report this huge milestone to Mike.  Most babies start rolling over when they are 3-4 months old, not eight days old!!  Later we tried it again and sure enough he’s been rolling himself over ever since!!  We have a freakishly STRONG kid!!

On to the pictures and his posed baby photoshoot…  Four amazing Atlanta area photographers cleared their schedules and came over that Friday morning to pose and photograph a very sleepy and very milk-drunk Atticus.  I stayed downstairs during the shoot so he could not “sense” me and keep calm and asleep for the shoot.  Thank you so much Elizabeth, Alice, Lisa, & Jenny!  We absolutely LOVE and ADORE these images!!  The first two images are by Elizabeth and the third by Alice.  These shoots really are a group effort that takes a lot more than just one photographer to make it happen – the art of luring and keeping a newborn baby to sleep, dreaming up the “set” and styling the shoot, plus posing the baby truly is an art form.  It’s no easy task!  I love this one because it shows off not only our dreaming-adorable-naked-baby but also the wall that Mike painted in his nursery and the card catalogue I found and refinished to match the wall.

And here is a behind-the-scenes picture I shot with Mike’s Fuji x100 when I snuck up to drop off a bottle.

Nine Days Old – Atticus LOVES to sit up…almost in a leaning-forward position.  We call it his “mute button position” as it quiets him down quickly.  He also likes to suck on everything.  Here is a random candid I took of a scene that happens at least once a day.

Ten Days Old – On Sunday afternoon we did another quick photoshoot – this time with Karlin – and more of a casual lifestyle type of shoot.   Love this image!  Baby feet are just way too cute!

Kisses from daddy in the nursery

A few of me and the little guy…

Eleven Days Old – My little sister and her fiancé came over (“Aunt Laurel and Uncle Ash” to Atticus) for a visit and to bring us a meal and spend some time with the little guy.  I’ve been good about storing up some of my milk for times when others can give him a bottle as a little snack or treat (and in the future for when I’m not around during mealtime so others can feed him).  It’s kind of nice to give others the opportunity to feed him on occassion – I’ve felt like a “milk machine” these past few weeks as I spend an average of 4 hours a day feeding him!!

Twelve Days Old – An image I took during one of his short tummy/play times with us in the afternoon.  Showing off his long long hair in back.  We fondly call him our “bogan baby” from time to time due to the tendency for his hair to look like a mullet- Bogan is Australian slang for “redneck” – haha!  We may have to take this kiddo for a haircut by the time he is a month old!  He also has hair on his lower back!!

Another image of him and daddy during afternoon tummy/play time…

Thirteen Days Old – We were out-and-about on this Wednesday morning, so I forgot to take a proper picture!  Mike did however take this picture of us during one of our appointments that morning.  We also took Atticus out to lunch for the first time that day – we sat out on the patio at Boneheads and enjoyed the company of our friend Dave that we ran into.  Atticus slept the whole time so it was quite perfect!

Fourteen Days Old – We celebrated him being two weeks old with giving him his first proper (non-sponge) bath!  LOVE love love LOOOOOVE this picture Mikey took of me holding him in his ducky bath robe after the bath.

He actually really enjoyed the bath – after we took him out of his baby bath seat and just held him in the warm water.

Getting out of the bath, however, is not his favorite thing!

Atticus turned two-weeks old on this day, but this day is ALSO very special to us for another reason … it marks our three year wedding anniversary!  So not only did Atticus get his first bath, but it was also the first time we went out without him… while Grandma and Grandpa Lehman watched him at home.  We tried out a restaurant we’ve never been to before in West Midtown Atlanta.  It was yuuuummmy!  Love you sweetie!!

And of course a few pictures from our wedding day three years ago…

And that’s a wrap for Week Two!!  We’ve got Week Three about ready to post soon so stay tuned…

Almost exactly a week after our little guy was born, Juli & William welcomed their beautiful baby girl, Dana, into the world! We headed up to their home for a newborn session when Dana was eight days old… in my opinion the perfect time for a newborn photoshoot!

Congratulations Juli & William – we couldn’t be happier for you two – what an absolutely beautiful family!!  We look forward to when baby Atticus and Dana are old enough for a proper “play date”!!!

I’ve never been big on 365-projects, but have been tracking a few of my photographer friends documenting their babies’ first year… and quickly new what I HAD to do once baby Atticus arrived.   The plan is to put together a beautiful BIG coffee table album at the end of his first year featuring a page/layout with at least one picture from every day.  A sort of “day in the life of Atticus” book.

Since it’s unlikely that I personally will be available to take his picture each and every day for a whole year… some of the images will be ones that Mike captures, other photographers make, and/or friends and family take.  After all, it would be good to actually be IN some of the pictures too!

I’m not sure if I will be posting all of the images online throughout the year, but I’d like to start by sharing what I have from his first few weeks.

The first set of images are by Katie of 6 of Four who captured the birth.  This first image was actually taken the day before Atticus was born – my water broke ON my due date – Wednesday March 21, 2012.

Zero Days Old – Atticus’ Birth Date – Thursday March 22, 2012 at 2:36PM.  Mike looking at me, just moments before…

I love that Katie took a picture as they called out the birth time

Atticus is born!!  The doctors checking him out and wiping him off for a few seconds before handing him off to us.

In our arms for the first time!

Atticus has been a thumb-sucker from the get-go… we even saw him on the ultrasound sucking his thumb!!  He pretty much sucks on whatever is in his path – fingers, fist, our hands/fingers, clothing, pacifiers, and he’s even gone for Mike’s neck and chin a few times!  Haha!

After about 40 minutes in our arms, he got weighed and measured.

Footprints done too!

It was a few hours later that we were transferred to the recovery room where we’d be for the remainder of our stay and the grandparents got to see their first grandchild for the very first time.

One Day Old

Mike took this one of me and Atticus in the hospital.  I couldn’t walk without assistance at this point and was pretty exhausted and in lots of pain but holding this little guy in my arms made it so much better.

Both sets of parents visited again that day and Mike tried out an outfit on Atticus late in the day.  I shot this image from the hospital bed with my iPhone just as Mike was taking a few pictures of him with my parents looking on.

Two Days Old – Going home from the hospital!  His little hand-mits were necessary to keep him from scratching his face up too much.

This was a really tough day for me since I still could not walk without assistance and I wanted so much to experience a lot of Atticus’ “firsts” at home but felt I could not due to my immobility and pain.  Neither Mike nor I had gotten much sleep at this point.  I hadn’t gotten more than an hour of sleep at a time since before Atticus was born since the nurses and doctors seemed to come in about every hour to check on the baby or me.  The first four to five days were somewhat of a blur due to sleep deprivation and being in extreme pain.  Thankfully my parents stepped in last-minute to help out and pretty much cooked, cleaned, and did whatever needed to be done… helped make sure Mike and I were taken care of so he could take care of us and I could feed Atticus and try to rest.

Three Days Old – What should have been a relaxing Sunday at home turned into another day spent at the hospital.  Mike and my dad took Atticus in to the nursery at the hospital for a routine check (since the pediatrician’s office was closed on Sunday and would otherwise would have been able to do the check).  The hospital pediatrician threatened to keep Atticus overnight on IV fluids because he’d dropped additional weight since we’d left the day before.  At this point my milk supply still had not come in and was in transition, so I had my mom rush me to the hospital to meet with them and work out a plan so we could take him home with us and continue to work on his feedings and getting his weight back up.  It turned out that the next day at our pediatrician’s visit they explained that Atticus had NOT lost enough weight that we should have been too concerned — we went through all of that stress on Sunday unnecessarily!!  The following two pictures were taken by me with my iPhone – Mike spending some time with his little guy after the hospital and Charlie keeping me and Atticus company during a middle-of-the-night feeding.

Four Days Old – Atticus’ first pediatrician visit.  Dr.Wagner was amazing and spent a good hour with us going over everything and was really encouraging.  It was a huge contrast to the scare we’d gotten from the hospital pediatrician the day before.  I left feeling SO much better even though I was pretty much a delierious basket-case still.  This day was somewhat of a turning point for me, and especially that night.  Mike got up with Atticus for one of the middle-of-the-night feedings (somehow without me hearing Atticus cry) and I was able to sleep a whole 5-6 hours!  It’s amazing what a little sleep can do for you!  I took the following two images with Mike’s Fuji X-100 camera.

When we got home, Atticus slept soundly in his car seat as Grace watched on curiously (iPhone picture).

Five Days Old  - After finally getting some good sleep and me being able to walk a little bit, day five was pretty amazing.  It also was the first day I picked up my trusty workhorse of a camera (Canon 5D MkII), which just arrived back from getting cleaned.  Speaking of cleaning… Atticus’ got his first sponge bath at home …

And made his first social visit.  We stopped by our small group for about a half hour and surprised them by introducing the little guy.  Here he is surrounded by all the ladies…

Six Days Old – Another great day!   The whole family ventured into Buckhead to see the same chiropractor who’d treated me throughout the pregnancy.  I got some much needed relief and she examined Atticus to make sure all was well with him after the birth – he checked out great and seemed to enjoy the small tweaks.

That evening Sara came by for a visit and took our first proper family portraits!   Thank you Sara!!!

Seven Days Old – Just a regular day at home.  It was the first day we were able to stay at home all day and didn’t have anywhere to be or much to do.  We had finally managed to get Atticus on a better feeding/napping schedule and had him more alert during the day, and sleeping more at night (versus the opposite which he seemed partial to since even before the birth!!)  

Here he is just hanging out with daddy in the afternoon during one of his “awake” times…

I’m so glad I have these images from this special time…and such a mix of styles too from different photographers, perspectives and equipment.  I can’t wait to see the finished 365-day-in-the-life book this time next year – I can already tell how quickly he is changing and it’s going to be so neat to look back on.

Introducing our first born – a son – Atticus Jameson Hall!!!

Atticus arrived at 2:36PM on Thursday March 22, 2012 weighing in at 8lbs 9oz and 20.5in long.  My water actually broke ON my due date (March 21) and it was just over 24 hours later that he was in our arms.

One of these days I will spend some time writing out Atticus’ birth story and everything that transpired in those 24+ hours.  We have both video and photographs to document it as well, most of which I’ve not looked at yet.

I must admit, the days that followed the birth have been a struggle physically.  I thankfully avoided having a c-section but did loose a lot of blood during the birth and there were some complications that have kept me on bed rest and unable to walk easily.  Mike has 3 months paternity leave and I’m SO grateful for that and his help and support.  It’s been so amazing seeing him in his role as a father.  I’ve been completely dependent on him and the help of friends & family these past few weeks.  I know I need to focus on my recovery, plus feeding and spending time with our little guy.

The days have gone by so quickly that I found myself in a moment of panic as Atticus neared the one-week mark to get some professional portraits made of all of us and him while he still has his “newborness” as I call it.  A group of Atlanta kids & family portrait photographers came to my rescue.  Thank you sooooo much Elizabeth, Alice, Lisa, & Jenny!!  They really worked together to get these images posing eight-day-old baby Atticus as he slept through most of the session.  The first image is by Elizabeth, the second by Alice.

Sara  and Karlin also came by to capture some family & lifestyle photos on day 6 and 10 respectively.  The first one is by Sara, the second one by Karlin.   Thank you ladies for the memories of all three of us together!!!

Last but not least, I have Katie to thank for photographing the birth.  Everything was such a blur, so these images are so special! 

I have a whole new appreciation for documenting life’s little (and big) moments after these past few weeks!  We’ve been doing our best to satisfy the grandparents with lots and lots of pictures daily, including some that we will be sharing here on the blog soon… in between naps and feedings that is!  It’s crazy how quickly this little guy is growing and how strong and expressive he is already!!  What a blessing and joy!

Today – March 21, 2012 – marks my official DUE DATE for our little guy to arrive, however he is still snug-as-a-bug inside my belly.  I’ve heard it called “guess-date” by many, and for good reason – only 5% of babies arrive on their “due date.”  Statistics show that most first-time moms deliver closer to 41 weeks versus 40 weeks so I’m not worried quite yet.  Both baby boy and I are in great health so my doctor is not worried about inducing anytime soon (not unless I go past 42 weeks).

It’s interesting though how many calls, texts, messages we get asking if I’m in labor yet … and Mike reminds him regularly “hey buddy, you can come out now!”  He is so excited to meet his son!!

Since I do not yet have baby pictures to share on this day we’ve been anticipating for so long… I’ll share more belly pictures instead.

Even though I was hesitant about having maternity portraits made, I ended up doing not one but TWO sessions – this one with Sara – and another one with Karlin (below).   I love how working with two different photographers, during different times of the day, yielded such dramatically different results!  These were all taken around sunset, in a part of our home that does not get much light to begin with, so it was a unique challenge for Karlin to capture these before most of our natural light was gone.  I love the glow and warmth of these.

Charlie filled in as my companion for this shoot since Mike was not able to join me.  Between the two kitties, Charlie seems much more “in-tune” with the fact that there’s a little life growing inside of me.  He regularly cuddles up to my belly and puts his paws on it for periods of time to feel the movements.  On the other hand, I think Grace, our little girl kitty, is in denial.

Love all of the negative space in this last shot – very dramatic.

Thank you Karlin for these golden keepsakes!!

About a month ago, the wonderful Karlin Connell came over to see us “in action” in the Press Room – making her custom Letterpress Wedding Invitations…and also to snap a few maternity pictures of me.   She took a number of “behind the scenes” shots including this one – love that the press is high up enough my very-pregnant belly fits underneath the feed board perfectly!  I’ve been able to continue running letterpress jobs while pregnant, however Mike has had to do all of the cleaning (without me in the room so I do not breath in the fumes).   I kind of like this arrangement!

Everyone warns you that, when pregnant, you will go through an undeniable period of “nesting.”  My nesting came as insane urges to wash the walls, reorganize every drawer in the kitchen, and get the nursery ready.  It started mid-way through the pregnancy and gradually went away when I got too big to comfortably scrub the floors on my hands and knees.

Then you go through ANOTHER period of restless nesting closer to your due date!  This time mine came in the form of OBSESSIVE grocery shopping, cooking, baking, and storing up food for when the baby arrives.  The fact that the nursery was not finished did not bother me that much, but the thought of not having food stored up and ready to eat was driving me crazy!!  I feared eating fast food 24/7 or starving to death once we have a newborn to take care of.

After much research, we decided to invest in a deep freezer a few weeks ago and I quickly realized I had this grocery-shopping addiction.  I quickly felt like I needed to call an intervention hotline and confess I was about to again walk into a grocery store… for like the 7th time each week!  I started paying attention to what stores had amazing deals on produce and meats and frozen vegetables.  We re-joined Costco.  I cooked meals according to what ingredients were on sale that week.  I whipped up a bunch of meals that are our favorites (that I know will freeze well) …and put together a few treats that I’ve never made before like “breakfast burritos” that seem to yield a life-supply of hot hearty breakfasts at a great price.

I pulled out my vacuum-sealer and stocked up on freezer-safe containers.  Every time I made a meal in the past few weeks, I doubled the recipe and froze most of it for later.  The new deep-freezer is now happily stocked and ready for the arrival of baby boy and the start of our maternity/paternity leave.

Has anyone else gone through this same ridiculous version of nesting!?  I feel a little crazy-psycho about it right now, but from all the new moms I’ve talked to, it’s supposedly a very useful form of nesting that they wished they’d done in retrospect.  Now I just need to teach Mikey to “defrost” and “heat up” …. just kidding, he’s actually become quite good lately about helping with some of the more complicated recipes.  Thanks hon for helping me and putting up with my crazy pregnant-lady nesting!

It’s so weird to have the tables turned on you and actually BE in the pictures!  Around Christmas time, Mike brought up the fact that he thought I should have some maternity pictures taken, and not by him.  He new better than myself that I’d probably regret it if I didn’t have some made.  I dragged my feet all through January and most of February before actually making plans.  December & January were a rough months for me – before going to see a chiropractor I was in excruciating pain through most of the holidays and until I started seeing her in mid-January.  The last thing I felt like doing was getting my picture taken.

Finally, at 36 weeks I knew it was “now or never” time!  My friend Sara did a fun session with both me and Mike (and baby belly) about 3 weeks ago.  We took most around the house and also at one of the outdoor locations down the street where we took engagement pictures (which she also did back in 2009!)

Here are some of my favorites…

I LOVE this one for some reason.  I think it’s because these are two of my favorite outfits for the little guy.  Mike and I both have “Irish in our Blood” and one of our favorite pastimes is to chill out in a good Irish Pub, so the “Kiss Me I’m Irish” onsie was a must-buy (and one of the few clothing items we actually went and bought!)

I don’t think I realized how ENORMOUS I’ve gotten until seeing pictures.  It totally sneaks up on you and the next thing you’re realizing you have to go buy more clothes because your long shirts are now short again!   I guess wearing horizontal stripes does not help the issue, but this dress is just so comfy and actually fits the baby-bump so well!

One of these days we’ll get around to posting about some of the projects we’ve been tackling in the nursery, including the fabulous geometric yellow accent wall Mike conquered all on his own – LOVE love LOVE it so much!!  Here I am training Mike to tolerate toys in his face so he can be reminded what to expect later this year with our little guy!

I’ve been craving a beach vacation for some time now.  Being unable to travel this late in the pregnancy has not stopped us from planning a trip for AFTER the little guy arrives!  When he’s about 2 months old we’ll be going on our first “family vacation” with a group of other couples/families from our church/small group and when I saw this HUNK outfit it totally reminded me of those old-fashioned bathing suites and I just HAD to have it.  It also reminds me of a little mini-muscle-man outfit and makes me smile/laugh EVERY time I lay eyes on it.  Mike says that “it becomes real for me when I open the closet and see all the baby clothes hanging in there… I think ‘there’s going to be a baby wearing those soon!’”  LOL.  So when we started sorting through baby clothes he kept picking up things and going “he’s noooooot gonna fiiiit in thiiiiiis!!  It’s sooooo tiiiiinnnny!!”  Haha.

Next it was time for a quick wardrobe and location change….

This one cracks me up.  Mike has been a great husband in that he’s generally moody when I’m moody and has given up his dieting in favor of eating carbs again with me and our growing baby.  He jokes that he’s got a baby bump too, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got him beat on the weight-gain and belly-bulge by FAR!!

Thank you so much Sara for making these maternity portraits and capturing the goofiness and quirkiness that is us, just like you did with our engagement portraits!!