"Is Her Face Always Gonna Be Like That?"
( I started this post like 3 weeks ago, but I'm just so over talking about this already. Haha. Forgive me if this is shorter than you expect!)
That ^ precious gem was from a flamboyant cashier a few weeks ago before he said a single word to me in regards to Norah's cheeks. I nearly said "No, but people will ask YOU a similar question if you don't learn some manners, sir/ma'am"
While this post isn't about how I nearly lost hope in all humanity after dealing with increasingly rude people for the last 7 months, though it could be, I wanted to share the information I got from Norah's new doctor this week.
After months and months of elimination dieting, lotions & creams, sleepless nights and cheeks, wrists, thighs and ankles scratched raw, I threw in the towel [and several millions of dollars] and started looking for a doctor that would be able to help us.
I feel like every second of free time I've had where I wasn't meal planning, editing, [facebooking, pinteresting, doctor whoing...whatever] and being the general supermom/wife that I clearly am, I have been looking up dairy and egg free recipes, learning about Gut And Psychology Syndrome, and rubbing lotion on Norah. But when we came back from Rockport, it seemed like her immune/digestive system was completely shot. Every bite of everything she ate caused her to break out in hives. I'm talkin bananas, sweet potatoes, CHICKEN BROTH, everything made her break out, it was awful.
It started off as this:
Then once eggs and dairy were cut out it was good until the hives:
All babies are born with weak intestinal linings. This is why they can only have liquids, ideally breastmilk, for AT LEAST six months. Around this time, their gut lining starts to heal and close up. Lots of people start to introduce solids at this point [as I did] and that's [arguably] fine and dandy. BUT- if that gut isn't healed or properly lined to be able to digest the food you put into it, it can reek havoc throughout the body. The amount of area of which this can affect ones body is mind blowing. From hives, to asthma, to psychological disorders... the list is never ending. I can't believe how one organ [albeit a GIGANTIC FRIKIN ORGAN] can effect so much of your body. Ok, so babies need their gut lining closed before starting solid food, you with me so far?
So since she was 3 months old I have been on a strict diet of no eggs or dairy- which is in a LOT of food. No butter, no goat's dairy [FETA] all and any food that has even the tiniest trace of eggs or dairy. It's been very tough. But, her body hit it's breaking point. About two months ago it just kinda gave up on trying to digest food. It's allergy alarm went off to everything she ate as if to say "No way man, I'm not ready" even though she'd been eating food for a while. It was then, after giving her benadryll after everything she ate, then essential oil baths, I decided I needed to find some help.
If you'd like to know the doctor we decided on, please feel free to email me [mae annette at gmail dot com]/message me on facebook. He is locating in Arlington, Texas [also sees patients in Plano once a week] and is very kind, knowledgeable and I believe that he cares about Norah. We tested positive for major egg, lactose, and casein allergies as well as a mild soy, sugar, wheat, gluten, and red meat. So...I've eliminated all of those too, with the exception of red meat, I am allowing myself some of that. And we are both Vitamin D deprived [insert me drinking a quart of chicken broth a day] It is down to just meat and veggies around here. And Norah is starting to show some improvement as well! She can now tolerate some chicken, green peas, banana, sweet potato, coconut anything [she LOVES coconut!] and chicken broth, which she proudly drinks from her sippy cup.
I never knew I had so much self control. This has been VERY hard for me. But, it's not like dieting. It's not like I can say, "Oh screw it! I'll just do some extra minutes on the treadmill tomorrow to make up for this butter in my oatmeal" [ya, let's not use brownies as an example...I am lightyears away from brownies right now...] no, any slip up costs us dearly. Scabby red face, itchy thighs and ankles, up all night screaming. That my friends, is not worth it. Eamon also DESPERATELY wants to take me out on a date to a nice restaurant. He wants to romance me with some of my favorite food [He knows just exactly what I would do for a lemon square, ladies. My standards are not that high.] and get me out of the kitchen for a break. But...I just can't right now.
STOP THE PRESS.
SUSHI. If I get sashimi...this might work out. Can't get any sides, but I may be able to eat a whole raw salmon filet. So sexy.
Anyway, there's that. And there's my size.
Every pregnant woman gets really sick of hearing "LOOK HOW BIG YOU'RE GETTING" every time she walks out the door. It's always said with good intention, but, it just kinda wears you out. [Or maybe it's just me and I'm taking this generalization of females too far. My bad.] Let's talk some numbers here. I was 205 the week before I had Norah, 185 [almost my Norah weight]at 8 weeks, and now I'm 145...I feel like a bag of bones...and boobs. It's bizarre. We won't discuss the fact that my clothing size kinda freaks me the hell out. I'm not a Betty or a Peggy people, I'm a JOAN. ...Right? Ugh. I don't know how long it's going to be like this, but I'm trying to find the awesome in being a size that I used to associate with prepubescence. [Insert major self loathing for realizing my double standard on size issues] When I read this, I had no idea what size I was, got pants a week later. Now I know that I am "Very Very Skinny"
- I was cold all the time
- I had a pair of size-four corduroy short shorts. That I wore. To Work. In the middle of Manhattan.
- I loved it when people told me I was getting too thin.
- I once took a bag of sliced red peppers to the beach as a snack.
- I regularly ate health food cookies so disgusting that when I enthusiastically gave one o Rachel Dratch she drew a picture of a rabbit and broke the cookie into a trail of tiny pieces coming out of the rabbit's butt.
- Men I had met before suddenly paid attention to me...and I hated them for it.
- Sometimes I had to sleep with a pillow between my legs because my bony knees clanking together kept me awake.
- I had a lot of time on my hands because I wasn't constantly eating.
- I ran three miles a day on a treadmill six days a week.
- I felt wonderfully superior to everyone.
- I didn't have a kid yet.
We should leave people alone about their weight. Being skinny for a while (provided you actually eat food and don't take pills or smoke to get there) is a perfectly fine pastime. Everyone should try it once, like a super-short haircut or dating a white guy.
Now that I've convinced you to go buy Bossypants, I should add, THERE IS HOPE for us!
All of this dieting, and supplements, and being able to see my hips will eventually stop. We are eating only these foods bc they are easily digestible. So over time, when our gut is healed, we may be able to start adding in some foods we weren't able to before. I'm sure that will be the day Jesus comes back for us as I can't see how that day could possibly get any better. Norah's face looks so fantastic, and that does make me very happy. Here is the latest not phone picture I have of her. No retouching of her little face needed!
If your child has food allergies, asthma, eczema or any of the above mentioned problems, I would highly suggest getting this book and finding a doctor near you with some experience in healing leaky gut.
Thank you for reading all of this [or just skimming through to find what looks like could be funny/informative/held against me in a court of law.] I hope it gave some good insight into what we've been dealing with lately.
Happy Monday!
[We get the keys to our new house today!!! More on that later ;)]
Mae
Welcome!
Welcome to my new blog!!I'm so excited to be able to have a place to share my images aside from facebook :]
My old blog [When I typed that, I heard "She Who Must Not Be Named" in my head] was such an eye sore! I couldn't bring myself to send people there, honestly! But NOW, beautiful clean blog!
Here I will be sharing recent sessions, some going on's of my home life with my two beautiful girls and hubby and hopefully encouraging images to inspire mamas everywhere.
Take a minute to look around! There's a little bit about me, all you need to know about booking a session with me, galleries of some of my favorite images ever, and a way to reach me from anywhere in the world! [...that's probably a little bit dramatic...whatever]
I just finished up the images from this oh so lovely session and realized something...
My maternity portfolio is TY-NEE!!
I have only done a handful of maternity sessions [thanks to a few mamas who decided to go into labor when they were supposed to be taking their pictures, silly ladies] and very few of them are recent! I was unbelievably blessed last year with about 50 nursing mamas and their babies, but didn't seem to take many maternity sessions! So while I have the largest nursing collection in Texas [outside of birth photographers, of course ;)] I think I might have the smallest maternity collection...OOPS!
This is where YOU come in. I kept thinking, "What oh what can I do to start my blog off with a BANG!?" And it all of a sudden hit. I need more pictures of big, round, lovely bellies, and you [more than likely, I'm totally assuming right now] need pictures taken of your beautiful belly! So to celebrate, I have an amazing deal for FIVE mamas!
If you have checked out my "Details" page, you will see that my rates for most portrait sessions [excluding Nursing] is $300. For five lucky mamas I will shoot a full session with you for $150. You'll recieve everything you normally would for a full session with the exception of prints. This is a one time offer that I am incredibly excited about
***GIVEAWAY CLOSED***
Here's the details:
FIVE Maternity Sessions up for grabs at $150
What you'll recieve
- Pre-session phone/e-mail consult
- Photographer’s time and talent
- 60-90 minutes shooting time
- Custom editing and retouching of 20-25 images
- Password-protected online Proofing Gallery including 20-25 images for review (multiple edits of single image at photographer’s discretion.) The online gallery will be available within two weeks of the session and will be viewable for only 5 days.
- CD of 15 selected favorites (Hi-Res & Lo-Res Watermarked) with limited personal printing rights
- Option to purchase more digital/physical prints
How to Enter [Each comment counts as a seperate entry]
- Leave a comment here and let me know when you [or your friend!] are due.
- Become a fan of Mae Burke Photography on facebook and leave me a comment here saying you did.
- Share this giveaway on your facebook page and leave a comment here saying you did
It's that easy! Friday morning I'll pick a winner through using a random number genorator and five lucky ladies recieve their gift card for nearly 50% off their session with me.
The fine print: Prize must be claimed within 48 hours by emailing me at maeburkephoto@gmail.com After your prize is claimed, full payment of $150 must be made within 72 hours. Session must be used before August 1, 2012. Sessions are only good for maternity, may not be redemed for another type of session as this is for portfolio building. All deposits are non-refundable.
SO, Are you DFW mamas ready?!?
Start commenting and sharing!
And for the rest of you amazing fans out there, don't worry, I have a giveaway coming up JUST for you!
I'll be back later this week to share my "Grow" Project <3
***WINNERS ANNOUNCED***
Congratulations Amanda, Blair, and Suzanne!
Please email me at [mae burke photo at gmail dot com] to claim your prize!!
Dirty Little, Ahem, Huge Secret | Prov 31:27
This post is pretty difficult for me to right, but for the sake of having some accountability and share some truth...here it goes.
When we visited Austin in October, I noticed that my friend's house was like...immaculate. My husband said something about it to her and she said "Yeah...I'm kind of obsessive about it."
WHEW!!!
For a second, I thought I was a total slob.
I watched her clean up her kids toys as soon as they were finished with them, she wiped down her counters as she was cleaning, her dishes...I mean, WHAT DISHES? They were no where to be seen, except, well of course, her perfectly beautiful cabinets. She has two kiddos, the exact same age as mine, I just didn't get it.
"BUT, she isn't a photographer who was in the busiest season of her life, and she can take a break and get out of the house so it's not overwhelming, and she, and she...she isn't me." *eyeroll* Whatever, that's what I told myself. Over and over again.
Not long after, Eamon and I had dinner with some new friends at their house.
Same story. You couldn't see the vacuum cleaner lines on the floor, but you just knew that thing had never missed a day of being cleaned.
After we got home that night, I laid in bed listlessly, and tapped Eamon's arm [you know, that tap that says, "Hey, I'm not trying to be a pain in the ass, and I know that you are probably ALMOST asleep right now and this is probably gonna wake you up and make you think you're falling from a 30 story building, but I have something to talk about. Right now. At midnight."] After he realized he wasn't falling to his death, he gave me a very patient "....yes?"
"I think there's something wrong with me."
thinking that we were doing the weekly "Guess what fatal illness Mae has this week" game I got an "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah....why are we so messy?"
*crickets*
"Uh....are we?"
"yes, babe! We are! Why doesn't our house look like the Smith's or the Jones's?"
"Hmm...Well, we do live in apartment, ya know? We don't have any storage, you're really busy with your photography, and the kids are just messy! It's hard to keep up with them all day, no one really does that!"
WHEW!!!
See, that's what I thought. I just have a knack for picking really clean people to be friends with. Opposites attract, amiright?! *eyeroll*
So then I take pictures for these new friends of ours, sorta as just a thank you for their friendship. She loves them and asks me if she can repay me by cleaning our house while we were in Rockport.
*tires screeching*
"Uh...I mean...Is it really that bad?" She nervously laughs and acts like it ain't no thang.
I hand over the key to our apartment with way more reluctance than I thought possible.
To make matters worse, as we're leaving for Rockport, Eamon empties out our car, dumps all of everything he found in our living room, Norah has a HUGE blowout on my bed, and there's a ton of laundry that I didn't get to do that's just sitting there stinking the place up.
About once an hour on the trip I get a pit in my stomach.
"It IS that bad, Mae. She's not gonna want to be friends with you after she sees how bad it really is. You don't even have a sense of smell, you don't know how bad it smells like pee in there!"
Day by day the tension in me builds and I just don't know what to do. I bring it to Jesus and ask Him what on earth am I supposed to do about this? He simply tells me that it's time to start over. To start fresh. And it terrifies me.
I immediately remember the Proverbs 31 woman and start seeing "She does not eat the bread of idleness" Ouch...is my home a wreck because of this? Then I think back to looking at houses and remembering hearing in my head "You don't deserve this house, this house is too nice for you. You will trash it." I felt sick, how had I not realized that was the enemy keeping me under this bondage. And I just listened to him and accepted it as truth.
After some texts and emails back and forth to Erin, I was nervous to go home.
When I walked in the door, I felt like I was on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I didn't even know that my house could look like that. From top to bottom, it was spotless. The pee trap of a couch was gone, every stitch of clothing and bedding we own was washed and put away, every thing had a home...it was [and still is] so unreal. Eamon and I were humbled, embarrassed, encouraged, and hopeful.
Almost immediately, the Lord began to instill confidence and knowledge into me. He specifically pointed out areas of my life that were causing and allowing the filth to just pile up, led me to resources to find management systems that will work for our family, and created an excitement in me and even Lily to start cleaning every day. The first few days were easy. We even took pictures of the entire house before we unpacked so that we would both know how clean the house could be and use it as an encouragement. But after about day 3, I felt the idleness creep in. Dishes started piling up, dirty clothes weren't going in their hamper, beds weren't being made, spills weren't being wiped up right away, and I kinda just got overwhelmed. Slowly I started to build momentum again, giving myself little tasks here and there to keep things up to par, but by Thursday of last week, I knew it wasn't...great. Not bad, nowhere near what it was before, but not what it could be. I took the day to wash/fold/hang all of the clothes and diapers, and room by room just, DID IT! I wore Norah and gave Lily little tasks to do. At the end of the night, I got into a bed that had been made all day, looked around my room that didn't have anything on the floor, and no clothes in sight, laid down and sighed a sigh of relief. I can do this!! I can't tell you how freeing that moment was right then. There wasn't more mess hiding in the bathrooms or closets, there wasn't a sink full of dishes, there wasn't a pee diffuser in the living room...my house was clean. ALL OF IT! And I did it! All by myself!
There are curses that have had their hold on Eamon and I that the Lord has been faithful enough to break, and this happens to be one of them. Sexual immorality was a sinch compared to this. This was harder than probably anything we've dealt with so far. I'm so grateful to be given this time that we have in our apartment to become confident in having a clean space to live in, that way when we move, it will be a much easier transition and we'll have a clean home :]
I want to encourage you to take this time in the New Year glow of hopefulness to let the Lord grab hold of the things in your life that have become too overwhelming. The things that embarrass you, that you ignore or hide away, that terrify you just thinking about them. Let God pull them out and work through you to move past it. It's going to hurt. Probably a lot, but when it's done, it's done. And you don't have that weight over you or your family anymore!
Oh, and here's something cute and completely unrelated to look at :]
Hope you all are having a great week,
Mae