Alyssa’s First Birthday | Rhode Island and Massachusetts Cake Smash Photographer
“When I went in for my 38 week appointment, the last thing I expected was for my doctor to tell me my baby needed to come out either that day or the next. I’ve heard the consensus is usually that the mother to be is ready for the baby to come out, but I just wasn’t. While I’ve been told that I’ve mellowed a lot since college, I was hysterical the day Alyssa was born. The attitude adjustment has certainly helped my first year being a mother. While Alyssa has adopted the go-with-the-flow attitude, and I’ve tried to follow suit, we’ve had some hiccups. Mostly due to Alyssa getting a double ear infection at the end of January that just wouldn’t go away until we had tubes put in her ears at the beginning of April. I was not so mellow the first time I found green stuff oozing out of my daughter’s ear. I screamed for my mother (I’m not crazy, she was actually visiting for the week while my husband was away for business). She calmed me down and we went to the doctor. And when it happened the second time, I had to be the calm one so my husband could freak out. Through all of this, my little girl was full of smiles, giggles, and mischievous little looks, so I don’t know why I expected her to be different when we had her one year portraits done while she has a sinus infection and is teething with her very first teeth (two at once! I can’t believe I thought they wouldn’t come in). Would Alyssa be okay sitting in a hat box? Sure. Would Alyssa mind sitting on the cake? Not a problem. How about lying down next to/in the cake? Again, not a problem, although she did have to do some ab crunches for good measure. She had six pack abs that would rival the Spartans until her most recent growth spurt . It almost made me lay on the floor with her and do ab work. She’s just a bundle of inspiration. And I am so lucky that she’s like this all the time around everyone. I’m also very lucky that she stopped scowling at the camera at about 6 months. My mother thought it was her. I dared her to go through my 200 plus photos of the first 6 months of Alyssa’s life and find a picture where she smiled. And while we couldn’t get Alyssa to really smile while taking her bath, which is unusual for her since she loves her bath, she also wasn’t giggling and trying to climb out, which is her new favorite passtime. I will take the small victory where I can get it. My husband and I have spent the past year melting whenever she smiles and sighing with contentment when she snuggles. Alyssa has us so firmly in her perfect little palm that we’re just along for the ride and loving every moment of it.”
Ceddy | Rhode Island and Boston, MA First Birthday Cake Smash Photographer
He was such a pleasure to have in the studio… and had the most inquisitive eyes. It was great to finally meet him!
In her words:
Family Love | Rhode Island and Massachusetts Family Photography
In one moment, he will plow you over for a kiss attack or a tickle; only to snuggle you and sing sweet lullabies
Newborn Rebecca | Rhode Island and Boston, MA Newborn Baby Photography
Sarah has become one of my closest friends… she has helped me through so many things, and I feel honored to have been able to help her when she needed me. I met Sarah in the Rhode Island New Moms Connection years ago, and I have remained good friends with a few of the women in the group to this day. This past year has been full of ups and downs… it leaves me in tears to think about some of the hardships encountered. There has been happy endings and sad endings within our circle of friends, and through it all, I believe it has made each of us stronger women, mothers, and wives. I love this family.
In her words:
“It is April17th and it is a pretty typical day except it is my middle sister’s birthday. As I did every Tuesday and Friday for the last four months of this pregnancy, I am getting an ultrasound of my baby. This one marks ultrasound #63 and 64. I have spent more time in doctor’s office waiting rooms and being poked, prodded, and examined than I ever anticipated during this “high risk pregnancy” due to Intrauterine Growth Restriction. As it turns out, this day is different. The doctor says that baby has not grown enough since the last ultrasound; it is time to deliver the baby. I am in shock; feeling like a second place winner since I wanted to make it all the way to 40 weeks but instead, I am one week shy at 39 weeks. My head is swimming with thoughts of what this induction would be like or would I have another cesarean section. I met my husband at Women & Infants Triage at 3 p.m. We sat there waiting to meet with the doctor or midwife on call but after being there for over an hour, we were told that no one was available to discuss my options. Instead, we got a phone call saying that I should go home to get my things and come back to the hospital later in the evening. This was my chance to buy time. I wanted to savor my last hours with my daughter who was up until that point, an only child. We ate dinner, goofed around in the front yard, and told her stories about princesses before bed. It was now 9 p.m. and Women & Infants called to see when I will be arriving to the hospital. I left my house at 9:30 p.m. knowing this would be last time I would close the door of house as a mother of one.
At 11:00 p.m., one of the midwives came into my hospital room to explain the induction since we decided that I should attempt a VBAC. My birth experience with my first daughter was traumatic and the thought of a traditional cesarean section terrified me. The midwife was aware of my desire to have a natural non-medicated birth so she opted for a more holistic approach to the induction. And she said she wouldn’t be able to any drugs to start the induction any way due to my prior cesarean, so instead she was going to manually dilate my cervix using a catheter. I slept through the night with the catheter hoping that it would work. It did! The next morning, April 18th, I woke up to be pleasantly surprised that I was 3 cm dilated. The nurses brought me down to the Labor & Delivery floor at 6 a.m. to start a Pitocin IV. It was around 7:30 a.m. when my husband arrived at the hospital after taking our daughter to daycare. It wasn’t much longer when the contractions started. As the morning wore on, they became more and more intense. The midwife checked my progress at 10:00 a.m. to find that I was 4 cm dilated. It was not much longer when I thought my body was going to explode. I did not anticipate that type of uncontrollable, unrelenting pain. My mantra “I am in pain but I am not hurt.” was no longer working. As much as I did not want an epidural, it was my saving grace. The epidural put my mind at ease and allowed my body to do what it is supposed to do. It was a short time later when my water broke and the midwife announced that I was 10 cm dilated. She told me to rest for a little bit and then I would start pushing. This was a thrilling moment to know that my “baby dream” might actually come to true–that I may be able to deliver my baby and get her place directly into my arms. The whole time, I had a picture from National Geographic in my mind. It is a woman in a tub of water holding her baby for the first time. The expression on the woman’s was pure joy and relief. I wanted to have that feeling that was lost due to groggy drugs during my prior c-section. My husband called this picture my “Rocky photo”. One of the greatest compliments that my husband has ever given me was when he told me that I had that same expression on my face when I touched our baby girl for the first time. The pride that I feel for having a VBAC after all of the struggles, fears and disappointments of a high risk pregnancy is unexplainable. My original doctor told me once that “happiness is healing”. Those words will forever ring in my head because for all of hurt and trauma that came my first born’s delivery and the frustrations and disappointments of this high risk pregnancy– all of the negative feelings have melted away in the first touch of my second born. Rebecca Hope Rocchio was born at 4 pounds, 4 ounces on April 18th at 1:47 p.m. She truly is my second first born.”