Pictures tell a thousand words, ​but sometimes you need a few words to understand the story.
 Well... believe it or not, my husband Jess and I are expecting a beach baby around February 2nd, 2021...and it's a girl! We are over the moon, and if we're being honest— we were completely shocked when we found out about the sex yesterday afternoon! We were both convinced Baby Powell was going to be a boy. Mainly because I have been so so blessed with mild pregnancy symptoms so far, but clearly all those midwife tales are a hoax. That doesn't change how excited we are though. Just a shift in perspective thinking about the future. Jess has his hands full with what will soon be 5 girls in our house (2 female dogs, 1 female cat, baby girl and me). HAHA! When we found out we were pregnant back in May, we knew we wanted to eventually get a genetic test called NxGen, an informed, noninvasive prenatal test that an expecting mom can take as early as 10 weeks to make sure the child is healthy and as should be as far as chromosomes + sub chromosomes go. This particular test also allows the parents to find out the sex of the baby earlier than most find out. The accuracy rate is around 95%. Every doctor's office acts independently when it comes to labs they contract out to do diagnostic work. My sister and sister-in-law in Raleigh had a similar test but it was called something different because the bloodwork went to a different company. Their experience encouraged us to do the same so we could be as informed as possible with our first child. So a wonderful patient navigator named Jessica at Glen Meade Center for Women's Health at Autumn Hall, made sure I had a printed copy of these results in my hands yesterday morning after a long 6-business-day wait. I took the envelope straight downtown to where Jess works and we opened it together right outside his office on a park bench at 10:30 in the morning. (We obviously couldn't wait till after he got off work that day!) After we found out the news, we texted my friend and occasional associate photographer, Sydney of What Sydney Sees to see if she would be up for a spontaneous drone announcement. She just got her drone license about a month ago so we knew she would be perfect for the job. We knew exactly what we wanted, something that highlighted both our beautiful hometown and our joy for adventure and we made this shoot happen that very evening in less than 30 minutes. So here we are at 13+ weeks. The baby is the size of a lemon, and we're chuggin' along, eating, sleeping and planning a lot. We are currently in the process of adding onto our home to make more room for our little bundle and for family and friends to be able to come visit while we figure out parenthood. I am excited to share progress photos as we move along in both construction and in baby bump size! This bump isn't very visible right now so that's why we didn't do any up close photos of the belly. I have not gained any weight but have a little pooch that most people would not notice, but definitely rocking some very big cheeseburgers up top that most people would notice if they know my former flat-chested self. Mamas constantly tell me that every pregnancy and every body is different so expecting mamas, I'd love to hear from you and how it is going for you! Thank you to those of you who have reached out saying we're in this together- it is such a reassuring feeling having our corona babies together! To all the women out there who are trying, Jess and I know how fortunate we are to conceive a healthy child and are so appreciative that God gave us an extra human to love. We are in no way flaunting our blessing, just sharing the news and being transparent as we have nothing to hide. If you are trying, and want to be a parent more than anything, know that it will happen, one way or another. God has a plan. If he has a plan you don't like, please feel free to yell, cry and pray to me. I'm here for you. To all my couples and clients, I want you to know that this pregnancy should in no way affect you, your wedding or event. The due date timing was perfect in the sense that I should hopefully be ready to rock and roll for wedding season starting mid-April (with lots of help from my amazing associates!) I just kindly ask all my couples and clients who would like an engagement, bridal or portrait session to please schedule your session before January 1st just in case Baby Powell comes early. We opted for a very short session with Sydney and were very happy with just a handful of these beautiful photos because I'm actually very shy in FRONT of the camera. Especially now more than ever because I'm not able to enjoy some cocktails beforehand! Jess is the exact opposite and is a total sweetheart about photos. I thanked him for doing this photo shoot with me, he simply smiled and said "I knew I signed up for cheesy milestone photos when I married a photographer." So the countdown begins! 27 weeks to go. Thank you all for your love and support for Baby Powell. It means more to us than you'll ever know.    
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