It’s hard to believe I’m finally writing this blog post!  After nine months of waiting, dreaming about what (and who) our little guy would look like (the jury is still out, but more family and friends keep telling us they see his daddy in him!), and wondering what life would be like with a newborn (spoiler alert:  it’s super hard), Caleb Ray finally made it out of mama’s belly and into our arms at 8:59pm on July 12.  One full week and a day past his due date – which is hilarious, given the fact that I was convinced I had a “feeling” that he would be early!

I won’t go into length about our birth story, because I realize not everyone wants to know all of those details, but I will say that for the most part our labor and delivery went about as well as we could have hoped it would!  My water broke on Sunday (July 11), and although contractions didn’t start right away, we were able to let my body progress on its own natural timeline which was super important to us!  I started having contractions early Monday morning (YAY for a full night’s sleep the night before!) and our little guy was in our arms by 9:00 that evening – after 3h 45m of pushing, which I still can’t believe I did! 🤯 Our midwife and the nursing staff at LewisGale Salem were absolutely incredible – we could not have asked for a better team.  And Jason and my mama were the best support people I could have asked to have in the room with me!

That first week was a BLUR!  Like, literally just felt like one really, really long day!  Haha!  But I did manage to take a few one week portraits of this little nugget, and of course I had booked a spot on my friend Kaitlyn Phipps‘ calendar months in advance for our lifestyle family session, which we did right on Caleb’s two week birthday – and today I’m going to share all of my favorites from both!  (It’s only taken me almost until his two month birthday to get this post prepped!  It’s fiiiine.)

First, our family session when Caleb was exactly two weeks!

I think one of the very best things about the last 8 weeks has been watching Jason jump head first into his new role as a dad.  Before he went back to work, I think he changed 99% of the diapers.  He’s come with us to every pediatrician appointment and he’s still my midnight partner, handling diaper changes before I nurse.  He’s given every bath.  He loves to do storytime (and has added several new books to Caleb’s library over the last 8 weeks) and he relishes every snuggle.  It’s really the sweetest thing and it fills up places in my heart that I didn’t even know existed. 💙

This next one is one of my most favorite candids from our session – our furry girl + our little nugget!  Mona has been pretty indifferent to Caleb’s existence and generally tends to ignore him unless he’s making a lot of noise – at which point she leaves the room. 🤣 So this rare moment of her approaching him for a sniff was super sweet and it was a gift that Kaitlyn was able to capture it on camera!

This next frame on the right is currently my lock screen on my phone … the sweetest shot of my two favorite boys. 💙💙

So I thought about sharing the one-week portraits that I took in a separate blog post from our family session, but honestly, I’m all about keeping things simple right now, and the simplest thing to do was combine them all into the same post!  So, here are our little nugget’s newborn portraits that I took when he was just one week old!

This moses basket is a new prop that I’ve added to my arsenal for my clients’ newborn sessions, and I couldn’t wait to try it out for the first time with my own little nugget!  And I love, love, love the way it turned out!  Also, obsessed with this personalized wooden disc (and matching monthly milestone discs) made by my friend and long-standing client, Monica!  (You can get your own set – and check out all of her other handmade items, from earrings to hair bows – here!)

I love, love, love this next photo on the right because he holds his hands like this when he nurses – and I never want to forget those little hands!

Similarly, I took a million photos of his little feet all curled up like this because I know they are mimicking what he did in the womb and, again, I know he won’t do this forever but I never want to forget it!

Aaaand this next shot might be my most favorite close-up of his little one-week-old face.  I mean, I know I’m biased but CAN YOU EVEN?! 😍😍😍

If you’ve stuck with me to the end of this post, thank you!  Thank you for caring about our little family and sharing a little bit of life with us!

p.s. if you’re new around here and you liked this post, you may also want to check out our pregnancy announcement, gender reveal, our maternity session at Hotel Roanoke, and/or our little guy’s nursery (in hues of blue and with a sprinkling of rustic woodland adventure!)!