Berkley's 1st Photo shoot, but don't let this first photo trick you. This little girl didn't get ANY shut eye during the session

I had to share. These are some of our favorites from Berkley's newborn session when she was only 7 days old! Even though it took us 2 days (literally) we are so happy with how they turned

out. Here is how it all went down...

Days before, Tiffany (our Fabulously talented and Patient Photographer) gave me all the details on what to do the morning before the shoot. The instructions went a little something like this...

1. Come 30 minutes prior to session so you can nurse her right before starting, to ensure her tummy is full during the entire session.

2. KEEP her awake for a few hours prior to shoot so she will be sleepy.

SEEMS EASY ENOUGH RIGHT???

Well now let me give a timeline of how the morning played out...

6:30am- B wakes up for her early morning feeding, I feed her and send her downstairs to play

with Grandma with STRI

CT instructions to keep her awake. Grandma does her job and B played and played while Mommy and Daddy got ready to head to Tiffany's.

9:15am- Driving to Hurricane trying our hardest to keep her awake, poor lil thing had been up since 6:30 and her eyes were Heavy!

9:30am- Arrived at the Photographers house, went in and started feeding her so we would be ready for "show time" by ten.

10:00am- Baby fed, just trying to rock her to sleep...

10:30am-

We finally decided to just get started with the Family pictures while she was awake.

10:45am- Baby pee's all over Daddy :)

11:15am- Finish up with the pictures of all 3 of us and the shots we wanted of just her and Derrik and her and I.

11:30am- We start with her individual pic's. Feed Baby B and try to get her to sleep so Tiffany can do her job and capture some Great photos! She was being SUCH a good girl, and wasn't making a peep (BUT, Keep in mind she's still WIDE Awake!)

12:00pm- She has had an accident or two by now and is still wake...

1:00pm- STILL AWAKE, by this point mommy is getting a little uptight and starts to feel sorry for her poor photographer that is literally working overtime with this little girl :) It was so funny, just picture this...

Two grown girls huddled around a bean bag type prop holding up this teeny tiny little naked newborn in a BLAZING HOT room, our "White Noise" Blaring in the background in hopes to get her little eyes to close, one of use holding her arms and legs in the curled up positions that look oh so cute while the other "Shhhhh's" in her ear, all the while Berkley is gazing up at us like "what we doing guys" or as we like to say from the day she was born she is most definitely "Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed" and we Love it!

1:30pm-Yep you guessed it... SHE'S STILL AWAKE??? What the Heck, this is a newborn we're talking about. I swear she had to have been laughing at us the whole time!

1:35pm- Oh the angels are singing, she Finally closes her eyes

5 minutes later

1:40pm- Oh False alarm, she's back awake.

1:50pm- We called it quits and she asked us to come back tomorrow for another session so she

can try and at least get more than 3 shots.

2:00pm- We leave and Poor Tiffany is left Scratching her head and saying "In all the 3 years of photographing newborns this has NEVER happened." (Oopsy)

2:02pm- We drive out of her neighborhood and Berkley is basically snoring in the backseat :(.....

ahhhh, for the Love child!!!

The next day

Another 3.5 Hours of the Exact Same thing, except this time she fell asleep for about 20 minutes, so we were rushing to change props as quick as possible! Tiffany was a Champ through the whole experience and I would HIGHLY recommend her Amazing talents to Everyone. tiffanydphotography.com Check it Out! And I must say even though it was chaos at times, they couldn't have turned out better and I am still smiling about the whole fiasco :) Oh and a little side note, she pretty much slept the next week straight. She showed us who's boss!

How sweet is this... one of my Favorites!

Our first few days home...

Berkley LOVED the Christmas lights on the tree. My mom stayed with us for the first week and said that in the middle of the night during her "Shift" Berkley would just lay on the couch and stare at the bright lights, she was mesmerized it was so funny.

Enjoying one of our many snuggle sessions... some of the best moments of all.

Practicing a little tummy time with Daddy. Not her fav :(

We were both a little sleepy here :)

2 week checkup!

A little dad time watching ESPN, its the craziest thing she actually likes it??? Once she was a month or 2 older she would literally stop crying if we turned on anything sports... Derrik teases that one day I'll come home and try to get her to come for a mommy/daughter night and go shopping with me and she'll say Nah I'd rather stay with dad and watch sports :( Oh how I hope that day will never come...

Adam and Jenni stopped on their way home from the NFR to meet and snuggle lil B!

Snuggle time with Grandma S

Meeting her cousin Kray and Aunt Stacey

First Bath

I actually made my mom do it because I felt too bad and was scared so I observed :) My mom is a Pro so she actually loved it! Everyone warned me that I would cry and be a mess once my mom had to go home and I just kept laughing at them saying yeah right. Well lets just say on Day 6 when she went home I may or may not have lost it for a few hours :) Derrik was Amazing to help make me feel better, and turns out a few glances at this sweet baby girl life was Perfect again!

 Mini Photo Shoot

 Big Yawns!

On December 1st 2011 at 3:15 pm our lives were forever changed...

A week OVERDUE and so ready to get the show on the road with my scheduled induction. Nerves were high, but surprisingly enough I was pretty calm considering how scared I had been about the whole situation the entire 9 months prior :) Everyone told me the more miserably pregnant you get, the less scared you become and your just ready to have that baby out of you. Thank goodness the last half of pregnancy was MUCH nicer to me than the first 4 months so I never really reached that stage. I was just thriller daily in the last trimester to have my head out of the toilet bowl :)

When Dr Chalmers came in and broke my water to hurry things along I was surprisingly very calm and collected... well that is until I was dilated to a 7, then the "calm and collected attitude" got thrown right out the window and all I cared about was to see my nice Drug Doc with those Heaven sent Drugs ;) Yet another reason I'm grateful I wasn't a pioneer, I surely would had died!

The paperwork that morning seemed Endless!

Our nurse was sweet enough to help up "capture the moment" before things got really crazy :) So anxious for whats about to come...

Best Moment of my Life! Words can't even describe... I love everything about this picture

I was so glad I was able hold her immediately after she was born, a memory I Will cherish Forever even though it was only a few short moments before things started going wrong really fast:( We were just so grateful everything with lil B looked fabulous!

I have a few friends that are expecting their first baby in the next couple of months as well, and I just try to put into words what the whole experience is like and will be like to try and prepare them and honestly all I can ever think to say is it's a moment/experience that only you and your spouse can truly understand by going through it personally. The feelings and spirit that you have and feel during the whole process is without question remarkable and one that I hope to never forget! Tiny babies are the most amazing Miracles on this earth and we are without a doubt loving this little girl and the sweet spirit she has brought into our home! I don't get much accomplished these days because all I want to do is just snuggle up and stare into her baby blues (Yes she has her daddy's eyes) YAY!

Love at first sight:)

She came out sucking her thumb/fingers, so tender!!!

A few hours after delivery just hanging out in the room. Right after I had her, I got the Shakes SOOO uncontrollably it was Crazy!!! I felt like I had hypothermia, I could not get warm for the life of me, even my Jaw was sore from all the teeth clattering. I ended up getting a Super scary high fever (due to the complications), that wouldn't come down all evening so lucky me, I got to get ice packs and stick them ALL Over my body :( NO Fun!

Brrrrrr This was a few hours after delivery. Lookin a little rough if I do say so myself, I may have even been a teeny bit tired... Wonder Why??? One INTENSE day thats forsure :)

But this moment right here made it All Worth it. All of the

-Toilet hugging

-dry Cracker eating

-ER crying

-Body Stretching

... and the list goes On and On, point is I would do it all 20 times over just to snuggle this little bug!

Her cute little hairs :)

Berkley had So Many Visitors, here are just a few... Somehow my Dad managed to be there for the first 2 days after she was born and we didn't end up with ONE picture with him and her :( I'm still sick about it, Ugh!!!

Uncle Brady

Grandma & Grandpa Shakespear

Grandma Camille

Aunt Lacee

Day 2: Nyxon came to meet his new cousin, they'll be pals soon enough :)

Aunt Angie, she was so excited to get there and snuggle up with her new niece.

Uncle Dal... Derrik was concerned he wouldn't know how to hold her so he gave him a pillow to help, haha not awkward at all :)

Uncle Adam, he's a natural!

Our First Family Picture :)

He's been absolutely Smitten since the moment he laid eyes on her. It melts my heart just watching them interact :) LOVE

I may even be a little smitten myself

Our Precious Baby Girl!

Heading Home... let the fun begin!

We had to get pictures of Berkley by the Christmas Tree since she officially made the cutoff of being a December/Christmas Time Baby! So, there will be many snowflake birthday parties to come, I'm excited for another excuse to party during the Christmas Season :)