Today we have a guest blog post from one of our favorite California cousins, Mrs.
Hannah Hanrahan. Pretty sweet name
right? The first time she met her husband, he said, ‘Wow, if you ever married me your name would be Hannah Hanrahan.’ Apparently she really liked that
name, because they are now married and just welcomed to the world their first
child, a beautiful baby girl by the name of Stella Noelle. She is perfect. She
is a girl. We are very happy about that! So without further ado, a little
something from Hannah about the wonderful ups and downs of life with a newborn!
Eat, Sleep, Poop,
Repeat (… and be cute)
Anyone with a newborn knows exactly what I’m talking about –
the early days essentially revolve around the baby eating, sleeping, pooping,
and repeating this every 2-3 hours 24/7.
The saving grace is they are so freaking cute and cuddly it keeps you
going!
Needless to say the past 3 weeks have been rough but, I got
3 hours of sleep - in a row - last night leaving me feeling refreshed and like
maybe I’ll sleep again one day! (Although I admit as each night rolls around
I’m slightly afraid of what lies ahead…).
Today we ventured out and added a photo shoot to Stella’s
usual sleeping schedule. Our
photographer Jess Swenson
asked us to prep by heating up the house to 80 degrees (no problem) and keeping
Stella awake so she was a little cranky and ready to eat and sleep when Jess
arrived at 11 am (maybe a problem). For
anyone with a 3 week old it’s impossible to commit to any timeline. Maybe it’s just me… but at this point what
Stella wants, Stella gets. So the idea
of keeping her awake longer then she wanted to be awake and not feeding her was
a bit scary. Luckily she cooperated and
right on queue fell fast asleep for pictures.
She was a natural posing perfectly for each picture.
Until about 20 minutes in, when the pooping started.
That’s the one thing you can’t predict. Eating – they give you signs of hunger. Sleeping - they get cranky or just pass out. But the pooping can hit at any moment. Dave found this out the hard way when on our first day home she literally sprayed poop all over the nursery during a diaper change. Of course she recovers quickly by being adorable.
(Dave’s trying to be cool but inside he’s terrified he’ll be her next victim).
Now for a newborn photographer, apparently this is just part of the job. So with poop running down her shirt, Jess quickly wiped up, made sure the shooting zone was poop free, and continued on like a pro. As for Dave and I…. well I was just trying not to laugh too loud and wake Stella up. Dave, for anyone who knows him, is a bit of a neat freak and was running around the house with wipes trying to keep things clean.
Aside from a few accidents Stella mastered her first photo shoot leaving her exhausted at the end – modeling is a tough job after all :)
Below are a few sneak peaks from the shoot (thanks Jess! For the pics and Lisa Inez for the hat).
Dave and I survived as well with only a few loads of laundry to do and one more adventure under our belt + many more to come!
Love,
bohoHannah
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