November is usually my busiest month of the year between editing and last-minute family shoot bookings before Christmas.  However, maternity leave made that month September for me this year.  Couple that with a 2.5 year-old, a 1.5 year-old, a complicated pregnancy with 2-3 appointments per week on average (and one shared car), and being 8 months along… well…. some things I excelled at, and other things I just waved the white flag on and surrendered right away.

Things I rocked at:

• Staying on top of all my clients with super fast turn-around times (because, hello, baby is coming).
• Keeping the house relatively tidy and clean because mama can’t function in a mess.
• Lots and lots of couch cuddles and snuggles, because mama is sore and tired and that’s where the t.v. is.
• Finding little things to do for self care.
• Weekly date night with hubby.  We may have moved it once to accommodate shooting schedules, but it always happened.

Things I threw out the window:

• Meals.  Nope…. hello snack foods and toast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and take-out more often that I will openly admit on here.
• Restricted screen time.  Hahahahahaha hahaha ha ha ha…. My kids are averaging like 5 hours a day, but hey, Micah’s learned all his primary colours.  Thanks, YouTube!
• Socializing.  All play-dates were put on hold this month.  I still get my mommy-sanity time through messenger and chat, but I think I only saw one friend face-to-face in real life this month and that’s because we both had an unexpected rained out shoot the same day and met up at Chapters for coffee instead.

So here’s an awful lot of photos (in no particular order) from my living room which is about as far as I like to move these days if I don’t have a shoot, and at least one from when I pulled myself together and got the kids outside.  You will also find, in three of these photos if you look closely, what happens when I go to Chapters.  Money gets spent, lol!

Also, just so you know, third babies DO get more than a single sleeper to welcome him to the world and a stuffed animal of his very own.  I also picked up some diapers.  You’re welcome, Benjamin.  (He doesn’t care.  Spoiler – first babies don’t either.  You need half as much as they tell you, you do).