Happy Monday everyone! Lots of changes have been going on around here, some personal and some that will affect my business, and I thought I’d share a little update to keep you all in the loop.Big change number 1 (and 2): Mike and I are totally, crazily ecstatic that we will be welcoming not one but two new additions to our family this winter. The twins are due February 10th, though we’ve been told repeatedly that if they make it past the average 35.5 weeks for twin gestation that the doctors won’t allow us to go past 38 weeks due to, well, running out of space for lack of a better word. So my “new” due date is “sometime in January”. We are more concerned with keeping these little guys or girls or whatever happy and healthy and not delivering early, which is a really big risk with multiples. I’ll get to what this means for the business in a minute, but first I thought I’d answer some of the most common questions that we’ve been getting 🙂 Yes, twins run in my family. No, I didn’t realize just HOW strongly they run in my family until after we found out. No, they don’t run in Mike’s family at all. Apparently fraternal twins (which is what they believe we have) are a maternally passed trait.We found out at 6 weeks. I was visiting the midwife for my 1st appointment and was refusing a sonogram. She was very uncomfortable because well, apparently I’m really fertile, and said something that made me change my mind. Luckily. Otherwise lord only knows when we would have found out.Yes, I cried like a baby when we found out. For 24 hours straight. What can I say, I was a little overwhelmed. Never, EVER unhappy. Just a big, crazy change to adapt to.No, we don’t know what they are. Originally with one baby we were not going to find out. I’m not really into modern medicine and doing unnecessary things and was not going to have a sonogram. Now, with twins, they can’t tell the heart rates apart until around 20 or so weeks with a doppler so they HAVE to sonogram every time we go in. Since we’ll be looking around in there so often anyway and there is going to be a lot more chaos around here once they come we thought we’d go ahead and find out. But we won’t be sharing it with everyone until much later (would like to keep a few things for ourselves 🙂 ).Yes, I feel good. I’ve been lucky and had minimal sickness and fatigue, (though I did lose about 5 lbs in the beginning from just not thinking anything looked good to eat) and since the 1st trimester have only had normal aches and pains.No, I don’t care what we end up with. Of course a boy and girl would be pretty picturesque, but I’d be ok with whatever. Mike, on the other hand, is all boys all the time. I’ve been telling him since we first met that his obsession with only having sons meant he’d only have daughters….we’ll see 🙂 And in response to another common question, what we have this time will dictate if we decide to try again for a 3rd kid.I’m about 19 weeks along and just started showing last week. I’ve put on the healthy amount of weight, don’t worry, I just must carry close. I’m not complaining one bit considering the fact that by the end I’m going to be too huge to function. As nice as it would be to “feel” more pregnant I’d be kicking myself around week 35 for wishing more size on this ever expanding girth here.And for the big question: are you going to quit working? I’ll address that in just a few more minutes 🙂
Mike, my husband, took some pictures for me the other night now that I’m finally starting to show (figured if I was going to bore you all with a big blog write up I needed some pictures to go along 🙂 ). I have to say I’m pretty impressed with how far my second shooter has come along!
Alright, and for the 3rd change-Mike and I are in the process of building a new home! Yay! One that will hopefully be here before the babies. We bought about 4.5 acres off the island last fall and quickly got to work picking out plans and contractors. Al, our contractor, was able to get back there late spring and we are enjoying watching the progress. It’s a 2664 sq ft Low Country style home with huge porches, big dormers for window seats, and extra space over the garage for Mike’s own space, and I’m totally obsessed with it. Oh and a gorgeous front entry office with double french doors for me (finally a real office, woo hoo!) Right now we’re in the process of picking out finishing details-counters and cabinets, floors, appliances, all that stuff that I love and my husband absolutely hates. We’re also in the never ending process of clearing out what we want to of the land (the lot is completely wooded) so that a) there’s no more poison oak, b) some sun can get in to our half mile long driveway, and c) we can finish up our fencing so that EVENTUALLY I can live out my dream of filling the lot with horses and goats and taking on this whole Homesteading deal. I love working in the yard and gardening and plan on doing a lot of growing and canning in the future years.
So anyway, this also is going to have a little bit of an affect on my fall schedule. But first, of course, a few pictures.
So what does all of this mean for my personal and business life? Well, personal-wise not much and everything. We’ve got lots of family support so while these are both major changes we will have people to help us and to make ALL of these transitions smoother. For my business though, there’s going to be a few changes:First, I will not be traveling off of the Eastern Shore after October 31st this year until next spring. Anyone outside of the area who is interested in Christmas or Fall Family pictures, please contact me ASAP so we can set up a time before then to get them in. If there’s a large enough interest in one area maybe we can set up mini-sessions to fit you all in with a good deal. With the higher risk of being put on bed rest in the third trimester with twins we thought it would be better to just not schedule much during that time instead of schedule things that had to be cancelled last minute. If you’re on the Eastern Shore you’ve got a little more time. I’m planning on working through November if everything goes well. My schedule is going to be a little less flexible as the house gets nearer to finished (we’ll want to try to move in as quickly as possible so we can be settled a little bit before babies. And while I can still move around a lot).I’ll be taking leave from all work from December until April. Starting April 1st I’ll be accepting the normal scope of work again-weddings, families, babies, etc (including resuming my travel availability). This doesn’t mean I won’t answer emails and working on scheduling things in advance before hand though. If you’d like to chat about any of the above this fall/winter to get it set up by all means please do! I just won’t be booking anything to take place in those few months.As for the long term changes on my business. This past year I was able to take on multiple clients a week from May through August, some last minute, some months in advance. I am not going to have as much flexibility from now on. I will only be able to accept 2 full weddings per month (not including elopements) and one to two regular sessions per week. This means that I will be filling up my schedule much further in advance and will be less likely to accommodate any last minute requests. I of course want to work with everyone possible and love spending so much time doing what I love, but with two little ones running around I’ll need to prioritize my time better. So please, keep in mind that the earlier you can book or tentatively discuss a session the better!Whew, so that was a lot of words. Thanks for hanging in there! I’m so, so excited for everything to come and very excited for the time when I can get back out there and work with all of you again! I hate having to limit my schedule in any way but at the same time I love the reason I have for doing so 🙂 If you’ve got any questions or just want to chat and check in I’d love to hear from you!Lots of Love,Allie
