the answers: PART I

Thank you for ALL of your awesome questions!! It's taken me much longer to respond to them all than I had anticipated...I'm breaking it up as not to bore you :) and I leave you with a few precious pics of the babe in preparation for the start of the most wonderful time of the year {behind Christmas}----SOONER FOOTBALL SEASON!! Happy Football'ing!

1) For your photos are you shooting in Manual or Auto!?!?
I am very very amateur and so most {75%} of my shots are taken on Auto. I find the manual ones I take come out too blurry/strangely out of focus/etc...again, amateur.

2) How did you lose the pregnancy pounds? I'm just amazed! Do you have any left to lose?
You are far far too kind, but I still have several to lose! That post-baby fat found its way to my thighs and set up shop. Disgusting. Pregnancy re-routes all the normal fat and disperses it in places it may have not been before. I lost about twenty pounds between delivery and two-weeks post-partum and ideally have another 15 or so to go. We started out nursing, and I know that helped tremendously but I also had very little appetite for the first 2-3 weeks and was not eating my normal HUGE meals...I eat like a 250 lb man.

3) Was your pregnancy planned?
No, not necessarily :) This one's up for grabs because I get mixed responses when I say that my birth control pill days were long gone and I know my "baby days", but really we were just letting nature take its course. It took!

4) How long were you married before you got pregnant?
6 months. From wedding bells to babies. Stat.

5) Did you have a girl name picked out just in case?
The girl name was always up in the air, we never could quite settle on one. Ironically, most of our baby names are all typically used as last names :) We named Hudson the night we found out we were pregnant in NYC, on top of the Empire State Building over Thanksgiving weekend.

6) I'm pregnant right now so I would like to know what were your key pieces of maternity clothes you couldn't have lived without and what were your favorite stores to buy them?
In all honesty, as soon as I got a tiny bump I immediately ran out and bought myself some fancy pants maternity jeans just to feel "cool" and quickly got too giant for them. Yes, I outgrew my maternity jeans. My thighs were the furthest thing from fancy that you could think of...the clothes I wore most were from Motherhood Maternity---affordable, comfortable, and AFFORDABLE. You do lose track of the fact that you are only BIG for a few months and to spend lotsa $$$ on a temporary wardrobe is plain silly. Email me and I'll let you borrow the fancy pants if you want :)

To keep it simple, I bought a couple pair of pants, plain colored t's and two nursing nightgowns with matching robes. That really is all you need. I promise. oh!! and a couple of enormous bras, because the MT's will triple in size. Motherhood Maternity. Do it.

7) What has been the biggest adjustment to having a baby? I'm a little nervous about the adjustment to parenthood, although I'm soooo excited and can't wait at the same time. Any advice?
I value sleep, in fact it is one of my most treasured and precious moments of the day. I now run on mommy fuel---a reserve tank we have built-in, necessary to survive the sleepless nights of newborn world. Losing and the lack of sleep for me personally, has been the hardest adjustment. Everyday does get better, and I slowly am adjusting to the new hours of eat, sleep, poop.

The nerves of impending mommyhood are, and can be overwhelming but I can say with all sincerity that the minute you see the face of your sweet tiny it is as if you have known that face all your life and the ability to care for and love that baby comes so natural you won't even realize you're doing it.

8) Where did you get your cute lounge clothes from while you were in the hospital and after?
Hospital wear was just a pair of maternity lounge pants, and a loose fitted Gap shirt. Nothing fancy, just comfy. You're wearing some pretty spectacular mesh underwear that hang clear down to your knees with an ice pack inserted---and your post-baby tummy wants and needs to know no tightness. I left the hospital wearing maternity cargo pants from Motherhood knowing that baby flab doesn't dissapear overnight. Shooooot.

9) What camera do you use?
The camera is a Nikon D50, and I could not be more happy with it. I have yet to really learn all of its features but from what little I know I can still highly, highly recommend it.

10) When you're not busy being a super cute mama, what do you do for a living? And Mr. P?
I am now a stay at home mommy :) Best, and hardest job in the world. Prior to our PA move I was lucky enough to get to work full-time for my dad who is a pipe supplier for the oil and gas industry. Mr. P does inside sales for the company that dad gets the pipe from :) all one big happy oil and gas family...