So here it is I’m in the 3rd trimester now, 3 more months and I’ll have a son or a daughter! My dr asked me if I had thought about that yet and I told her I still get surprised when I see myself in the mirror with this belly let alone think about the baby inside ;)! The nursery is coming together and now that my sewing machine is repaired I’m finally able to knock out a bunch of projects including learning to quilt. The baby is doing great, lots of kicks and flips! We are also at the stage where I’m seeing my belly roll with the babies flips. It really is just like those alien movies right before the thing claws it’s way out of the person it took over, so freaky!!!!
Things have been pretty quiet on the blog the last couple weeks and the reason for that is I’m in VACATION mode! After shooting 10 weddings in 11 weeks I have this month to relax and catch up. While many people think I have such a cool job and I only work one day a week they would be very very very wrong. Each wedding is a 40 hour work week for me sometimes a 48 hour work week because while I take Sunday’s off I usually work the rest of the week in my office. I love my job though and I’m so thankful for it!!! I’m happy though that I have zero July weddings of my own so that means I can relax and catch up on things!
To make the month even better David flew home for a week to hang out with me and play with the belly! We celebrated our 4th anniversary on July 5th! Most of the week was spent on the boat and we only had one minor issue with the engine after all the repairs my Dad and I did! On our first trip out after spending some time sailing we went to fire her up and nothing, she wouldn’t even try. So after freaking out we put the other motor to use, the sails. God was with us that day because we actually sailed the boat right into the marina and into a slip. Let me tell you the wind is never right to do that but it was that day and we only had to tack back once to make it into the entrance. I remember our first year of sailing with our smaller boat and how we would end up screaming at each other every time we docked and still end up crashing into our slip. We have come a long way on our communication skills and trusting the other person, I handled the driving and David handled the sails along with helping me navigate and we made it safely to a slip with no yelling and no crashing!!!! Of course when we got into the slip and started a more thorough check of the engine we found a wire had vibrated off the starter causing the whole issue. I have to say I was pretty proud of myself for knowing exactly where that wire went when David asked about it! Boat started like a champ and we said what the heck and went back out for more sailing! That is pretty much how we spent the week, sleeping out on the boat and sailing almost everyday. A perfect way to spend our vacation and enjoy some family time!
David got to feel Skipper kick and move around several times that week! I very much enjoyed being pampered and having someone wait on me :). Having a week to spend together talking about the baby and sharing in feeling the kicks was magical. I can’t wait till he comes home for good and very shortly after that Skipper will join us too!
Here are some snapshots of our vacation along with some belly pics thrown in to see how big I’ve gotten!
Yes she does have her own fan! Spoiled boat dog!
My handsome hubby making me a snack and hanging out in the hammock on the front of the boat! I even got in it with him!
A quick Instagram pic of David and I on 4th of July!
Not a really a super flattering photo of me but I wanted you to see that the dog has her own raft in addition to her life jacket :). She also knows how to swim right up into it when she gets tired.
My sweet girls!
Maxie prefers Corona to all the other beers while on the boat 😉 (Just kidding this was David’s beer but it looked funny how she laid with it!)
It was nap time after we tuckered her out in the water!
Out at The Inn at Willow Grove for our anniversary dinner! I love shooting weddings out there and am excited to be back in August and September for weddings!
Of course a vacation would not be complete unless David got some time in at the track! He finished in 4th place, not bad considering it’s been almost a year since he has been in the car!
Here is a catch-up collage of my weekly pics!
And here we are at 28 weeks!
Melissa Arlena is an award winning lifestyle newborn photographer in Charlottesville and Richmond, Virginia who has earned her Master Photographer Certification from NAPCP in maternity, newborn and family photography. Her natural and simple work has been featured in magazines and online blogs worldwide. She has been named Best Maternity and Newborn Photographer in Richmond and Charlottesville, VA in 2024.
Yay!!! You look so stinkin cute! Maybe now that I am in Fredericksburg, we can finally meet in person. 🙂