Maddie, the easy baby?
September 28th, 2008Catherine and her son, Aiden, came to stay with us this weekend. Catherine’s visit (and a dinner outing tonight) inspired me to reflect upon her previous photo sessions with Maddie. The newborn session occurred when Maddie was only about 10 days old. For many reasons, that was a very difficult session. Gabe and I were still trying to figure out this whole taking care of a newborn thing, and we were operating on very little sleep. Gabe’s mom had visited for the first week, and my mom was visiting for the second week. At this point, being alone with Maddie for any amount of time was a scary thought! I know I wasn’t the best host for this visit, and I barely interacted with Aiden at all. I guess this is all excusable given the circumstances! I was one exhausted Mommy! The photo session was over a period of two days, and we had a very difficult time trying to get Maddie to sleep. Catherine has the best success with newborns and sweet poses when they are sleeping. Maddie was colicky, so we spent one entire day in little bursts trying to get photos in the few moments that she was not screaming. I must have nursed her 20 times that day. We were all quite exhausted once we were finished.
Fortunately, Catherine did not decide that we were too much trouble, and she came for another visit in May. Maddie was about three months old. She had started smiling around this time, but she didn’t seem to want to smile much for the camera! This session was not nearly as trying as the first one, but she was still colicky and screamed often. The session was still quite a challenge.
This weekend was Maddie’s third session with Catherine Keene Photography. What a difference four months makes! Maddie still has her moments, but she usually only gets upset these days when she’s really tired (or bonks her head on something). She smiles quite a bit, except when she’s tired, and she’s quite a bit more interactive. The challenges now are getting her to stay put in any pose for more than a few seconds. She loves to be on the move! She also loves to play with Aiden.
Tonight, we went out to eat at Mimi’s Cafe. Maddie was wonderful throughout the entire meal. We even took a lot of time to figure out what we wanted to order since it’s not the best place for avoiding dairy. We had Maddie set up in a high chair and brought our own “tiny diner” placemat and a container of puffs. Two ladies came up to our table after they finished their meal and asked, “is she always this good?” We thought that question was quite funny, but then I thought about it for a moment and you know what? More often than not, she really is an easygoing baby these days. It’s hard to believe, especially after all our months of constant screaming and crying. And the sleep thing? She doesn’t sleep for more than 2-3 hours at a time, but we’ve adjusted. It’s not as bad as it sounds, though I wouldn’t turn down a solid 8 hours of sleep!
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