Quick little studio session with these two! Jackson was there too, but absolutely refused to take part, so no photo of all three kids together. But at least I got these two!! This little guy is such a little sweet heart. Around 2.5 weeks he started to get fussy and also got baby acne, but at this point (9 days old) he was just a happy, sleepy little dude! Baby face!! I love these awake photos!!!
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Little baby boy, 7 days old! Slightly more cooperative this time around :) His precious little skin was so flaky! Being a newborn photographer, of course I loved posed newborn photos. In fact, Cole is probably the most photographed of all my babies! But, I also love taking pictures of the more REAL moments, the real everyday life of being a brand new baby!! And the princess of the house... :) She still loooooooves her baby brother! Jacky (at this point) still wanted no part of pictures. :) Wide awake and cute as can be at 7 days old!
He was 5 days old, and yes it is HARD to take pictures of your own newborn, especially when you are under a time constraint and still recovering from his birth! But here are a few shots I did get on my short first attempt :) Sooo many more photos to come!
He has already changed so much since then!! My sweet little baby boy. We are continuing the preschool picture tradition from last year, and these two are actually both very cooperative!! My little Cole baby... 5 days old. The view from the hallway into Cole's room, where he napped while we gave the big kids their bath. My little sweet pea.
Everyone asks me what Riley and Jackson think about their new baby brother. Do they like him, are they jealous, do they not care about him, etc... Let's start with Riley. One word to describe it? Obsessed. Girl looooooves her baby brother. She wants to hold him all the time. If he's sleeping she wants to touch his head and check on him, and if he makes any noise she runs to him and shushes him and tells him it's okay. She sings to him in the car and if he starts to cry she talks to him and tries everything she can to calm him down. She calls him buddy boo boo and yells to me to come give him milk when he gets upset :) Riley sharing her "Riley Bear" with her new baby. Same bear she used to share with Jack when he was a newborn. Now Jackson... although he wasn't super excited about his new brother when he came to visit at the hospital, since we've been home he has been very interested in him! He wants to touch him and hold him and see him, and for the most part he's pretty gentle, although he definitely can be rough and needs some reminding to be calm and gentle with the new baby. But he does seem to like his brother and tells people about his baby brother and knows his name is Cole. Definitely don't have nearly as many pictures of Jackson and Cole together, that's for sure! There always has to be someone close by (VERY close by) when Jack is holding Cole because he will just decide he's all done and basically hop up, even if Cole is still on his lap. :) And to finish off... a few of the new little guy all by himself. The ones below are the day he came home from the hospital, so 2 days old! And then three days old... Overall we are adjusting to life with three! A few more tantrums, a bit more whining, but a whole lot more love too!
This blog is going to have a lot of pictures of Cole for a while. Mostly because he's the only one of my children that can't run away from me or refuse to cooperate! And because he's brand new, and I know how fast they change and grow!! So first, a few more hospital pictures... notice the lack of Jackson participation in any photos. Ohhhh well. We stayed two nights in the hospital, really only because he was born so quickly and I was GBS+ but didn't have time for antibiotics in labor, so they wanted to monitor Cole for 48 hours just to make sure all was well. I was definitely ready to go home after the second night there!!
Because Cole was born at 9:28 pm, the big kids were already in bed, and had to come and meet him the following morning. Luckily Corinne was able to come back and photograph that as well! I love taking pictures and all, but was so relieved not to have to worry about capturing moments that i wanted to remember, and just being able to ENJOY them. Plus actually being IN the photos is a total bonus. Me and my sweet brand new baby boy... I already know Riley was going to be head over heels in love with her new baby brother. And I was 100% right. She was absolutely smitten!! Here she is coming in to meet him for the first time... Jackson was definitely interested at first, and came over to touch and look and see what the fuss was all about, but then decided he was more interested in exploring the hospital room. He didn't really want to hold the baby, or even sit for pictures, and that's okay. The next picture only happened because Mark was holding him up and throwing him up in the air. Anything to get all 5 of us in the frame and happy!! This little girl is just so in love with her new baby. These are just some of the photos taken by Corinne, I haven't even shared a single one that I took while we were in the hospital! Hard to believe this little guy is already 8 days old!
I wanted to get this written while it was still fresh in my mind, since I know from experience how the memory of birth fades over time! Although this time I was lucky enough to have a wonderful birth photographer there to help capture it all, which will hopefully make it that much easier to remember over time!! Cole Henry Bartlett was born on Thursday September 4th at 9:28pm. Right on his due date! That morning was just like every other morning. Woke up with the usual mild cramps that I had been having for over 4 weeks. I had to get the kids off to preschool, and then I had 3 hours all to myself! I actually really did NOT want to go into labor during the day because Mark had an interview that afternoon at 1:15, so I pretty much just laid low and hung out on the couch all morning. Luckily in that time I had no cramping, no contractions, nothing! I had a tiny bit of bleeding in the morning, but that was it. Once the kids were home from school we all had lunch and took naps, and still at 4ish when everyone was awake I had no signs of labor. Mark picked up a Chipotle burrito on his way home from work, and we ate dinner while watching the big kids play in the backyard around 7ish I think. Riley really wanted to go in the hot tub, so I told her we could go in for a little bit. I was getting some mild cramps, but no different than the ones I had been getting for the past month. At some point I felt like I wanted to get out of the hot tub and go take a shower. We all got out, and around 8:00 I had my first contraction. Not painful, just barely uncomfortable. Immediately they were about 2 minutes apart, although still not painful. At 8:05 I sent Corinne (birth photographer) a text to say something might be happening. I called the midwife and told her the same thing. We decided I would meet her at her office and call her when I was leaving my house. I took a shower, and when I got out of the shower and used the toilet, there was quite a bit of bleeding... which I knew meant baby was close. So we hurried up and left for the hospital around 8:45pm. Once in the car the contractions were very painful, and still 2 minutes apart lasting about a minute. I was timing them with my phone but quickly abandoned that because it was obvious this was the real deal. The car ride was about half an hour, but no traffic and a fairly smooth ride, all things considered. We got to the hospital and Mark asked if I wanted to be dropped off, but to be honest I was worried about getting up to l&d by myself and Mark not being able to find me before baby was born! So we went in the parking garage and found a spot on the third floor. As soon as we got out of the car (not sure of the exact time) I could tell baby was RIGHT there. As in, I felt incredible pressure and the urge to start pushing! All I could think was how fast could I walk to get to the hospital between contractions!! We booked it across the street and up to the third floor of the hospital to l&d, and my midwife was there waiting for me. The nurses wanted me to get all checked in (paperwork? now?) and I told them I needed to use the bathroom/felt like pushing, so we fast tracked it to the room to get all set up. Once in there I tried to use the bathroom but quickly abandoned that idea to get on the bed to get checked. I laid on my side and my midwife checked me and I was 10cm, baby right there and definitely ready to push. And so I did! I think I pushed through 3 contractions while laying on my side, and then he was here!!! He was apparently sunny side up (facing the wrong way) which is probably a good thing because that normally makes labors and especially pushing take a lot longer, so if he were properly positioned he may have been born faster, and in the car!!! Luckily that was not the case and he was born safely in the hospital. He cried right away, but just for a few seconds, and then he was put up on my stomach. I could not believe he was already here, and that he had so much hair! He was, of course, absolutely perfect! Born at 9:28, under 90 minutes from my first contraction, about 45 minutes after we left for the hospital, which is when my painful contractions started!!! Little guy was in a hurry! Our friend and birth photographer Corinne made it just in time, thankfully, which is how we were able to get all these amazing images from his birth!! He was super alert and calm, he just laid there just taking it all in, barely making a sound! Honestly I was expecting him to be much bigger, but I'm glad he wasn't! He was 21 inches long, so pretty tall, but not a very big baby! I'm not sure he really looks like either Riley or Jackson, but it's hard for me to tell. Maybe he will look like me since the other two look like their dad :) Sooooo happy! Corinne was able to come back the next day and capture Riley and Jackson meeting Cole for the first time, more pictures to come... All photos thanks to Corinne McCombs Photography!!
Let me just start this off with, yes, tomorrow is my due date, and no, still no baby. Anyway. Yesterday the kids had their first day of school! Riley is an old pro, and barely looked back and of course had a good time. Jackson was not so happy about the whole thing, especially being left by mama, but it all turned out well and he ended up adjusting well and he had a good time!! Of course we had to take the "first day of school" pictures on the porch that morning, which is going to be difficult to continue since Jackson is not easy to keep still AT ALL. Don't be fooled by the pictures, I have no idea how I got any usable ones. Runny nose and refusing to hold the little sign, and with his crazy new haircut (he cried the whole time, but that's another story), but still a cutie. Ahhhhhh the more cooperative of the two. She actually LIKES the preschool picture thing. :) Riley gets to bring a backpack this year, which she is pretty excited about. Hers is a My Little Pony backpack, and Jackson has a little Jake and the Neverland Pirates one. Also not pictured, of course, since he hates wearing it. :) I must say I am actually glad that I was able to take them to their first day and be a part of their full first week of school without being stuck in the hospital or adding a brand new baby to the mix. It has worked out quite well! But now that we are approaching the end of the week, baby is free to come annnnnnny time he feels like it. Preferably sooner rather than later.
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