Since I was about 11 years old, I have had the curse of getting migraines instead of just regular old headaches. I don't know if they are a hereditary thing....but my Mom got them when she was younger (they stopped when she had me) and she said that her dad got them as well. I really hope that I don't pass these awful things down to my sweet Sophia....but it kinda looks like she might be doomed.
If you don't suffer from these killer headaches here are some things you might find interesting about them....
1. They generally only occur on one side of the head/face.
2. They give you an extreme aversion to light, noise, movement.
3. It feels like someone is stabbing your temple and eye out with a knife.....oddly, I feel like if I stabbed my temple or eye with a knife during a migraine, it would feel much better.
4. Sometimes sleep is the only way to get rid of one.
5. If you don't get rid of one with medicine or sleep, you can end up throwing up.
I have had some pretty horrible migraines in my day. Some I can clearly remember, no matter how long ago it was. For example, when I was maybe 11, I had a migraine when my sister and I had a babysitter....I had a small (ahem) problem swallowing pills so I couldn't take the medicine that had been prescribed....so I ended up puking right in the sink. I'm not sure she baby sat us much after that.
I think when I was maybe 12, my aunt got married and I was a flower girl in the wedding. Unfortunately I had a migraine that day. I made it through the ceremony....but as I sat on an uncle's lap at the reception....I barfed all over the floor in front of the entire room. Ugh.
Once, I was working at the Dome at a football game and a migraine hit me. I didn't get a chance to take anything (game days were SO busy) and by the time I was able to leave that night, I felt totally horrible. I was stuck in game traffic trying to get home....the headlights of the other cars were killing me and I felt nauseous and by the time I was getting home, my arms were almost numb and I could barely get in the house. I have no idea how I drove home that night, but I made it.
Another more embarrassing time, I was with Michael and his family at the beach for a wedding of a friend of his family....we hadn't been dating all that long and this was probably only the second or third time I had spent time with his family....and at the wedding I got a migraine. It was so hot and loud and bright at the reception....normally a fun time....but I had to go off somewhere to find a dark spot until everyone was ready to go home...and by then I felt SO sick. It took sheer will power to not throw up in their car. I made it back but was still mortified.
These are just a few instances of what I have been dealing with. Sometimes I can just take some Excedrin and it will go away. I had hoped that, as it was with my Mom, when I got pregnant they would completely go away. Not the case. I did only have maybe one or two early in my second trimester but then they didn't come back until after Sophia was born.
And things have seemingly gotten worse lately, as far as the migraines are concerned. Medicine is not working.....not over the counter or prescription (I have a prescription from the couple I had when I was pregnant....maybe it's not strong enough if it was ok to take while pregnant?)....and the other night sleep didn't even help, as I woke up with the same migraine I went to bed with. And they are getting stronger, faster. For example, usually it is a gradual increase in pain and sensitivity.....maybe a couple hours before I am dying if I don't take anything. The last one I had, I took 3 Excedrin PM's within half an hour of feeling the headache coming on...and within another hour I literally felt SO bad and the medicine hadn't done anything. I ended up throwing up, something that hasn't happened in a VERY long time. They are getting worse and I don't know why or how to make them stop.
Over the years of my 'relationship' with migraines I have tried different things to get them to stop. Before I could really do the whole pill thing, I saw a doctor who taught biofeedback techniques to try and relieve the pain of migraines. Not so helpful, in the long run. I seen doctors that have suggested eating different things, eliminating certain foods, taking more of certain vitamins....I've heard lavender is helpful to use against migraines so I've put lavender oil on washcloths....pressure points.....different medications.....nothing is working at this point and I am really frustrated.
Michael found a neurologist under our insurance plan that is a family neurologist that deals with migraines....for kids and adults. I have an appointment in a couple weeks and if nothing else, I hope this doctor is able to give me a strong enough prescription to get rid of my headaches and then we can maybe try to figure out where they are coming from. If I had to give myself a shot right in the butt at the onset of every migraine, I would do it happily, just whatever has to be done. I hope that we never have to deal with this with Sophia but if we do, maybe this doctor can be a good family doctor to have concerning this topic.
So everyone keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer that 1) Sophia doesn't have to ever deal with migraines and 2) that this new doc will find just the right thing to keep my migraines away!! And if anyone reading has had any success with getting rid of migraines, please, let me know what you do....I'll try anything!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Wonderful Wednesday
Today I was planning on writing a blog about what I love in my morning routine...Sophia wakes me up and I give her a bottle and then we cuddle and watch some cartoons (lately her favorites are Curious George and Barney and today we watched Super Why). It is really a great way to start my day, as she is very talkative and playful but also gets very cuddly as nap time approaches.
But now I have something even more exciting to blog about....with just two weeks to go until Sophia's first birthday....she took her VERY FIRST STEPS all by herself!! We happened to be getting her one year pictures taken at the time. She was holding on to my finger and all of the sudden she let go....which is something she has been doing but then she usually just drops down to her knees. Instead, she took 3 or 4 steps all on her own! I was like, did you see that?! Michael definitely saw it and was excited too. Amazingly, the photographer got it all on film.
After we got home, we loaded the disc from the photo session on our computer and decided to make a little collage to commemorate the happy milestone. I think it turned out pretty great! (We just used Picasa and did it all by ourselves!!) You can see how proud of herself she is in the last picture. :-)
We tried to get her to take some more steps before bedtime so I could take a video with my new iphone4....but she was too tired to repeat the new trick. You can bet we will be practicing a lot the rest of the week!
I can't believe my little girl is growing up so fast! First walking, next she'll be going on a date (that is what my Dad said anyways), haha!
But now I have something even more exciting to blog about....with just two weeks to go until Sophia's first birthday....she took her VERY FIRST STEPS all by herself!! We happened to be getting her one year pictures taken at the time. She was holding on to my finger and all of the sudden she let go....which is something she has been doing but then she usually just drops down to her knees. Instead, she took 3 or 4 steps all on her own! I was like, did you see that?! Michael definitely saw it and was excited too. Amazingly, the photographer got it all on film.
After we got home, we loaded the disc from the photo session on our computer and decided to make a little collage to commemorate the happy milestone. I think it turned out pretty great! (We just used Picasa and did it all by ourselves!!) You can see how proud of herself she is in the last picture. :-)
We tried to get her to take some more steps before bedtime so I could take a video with my new iphone4....but she was too tired to repeat the new trick. You can bet we will be practicing a lot the rest of the week!
I can't believe my little girl is growing up so fast! First walking, next she'll be going on a date (that is what my Dad said anyways), haha!
Monday, August 15, 2011
Terrible Mommy
I didn't think I appreciated much about our too small condo...but now I greatly appreciate the fact that it does NOT have ANY stairs. Not even one.
Sophia and I (and Michael on the weekend) were staying with my brother at my parents' house while they were out of town since last Wednesday. Although their house is nice and roomy and has a pool, it is like a mine field for things that Sophia can get into or hurt herself on. The coffee table in the family room is her favorite place to pull up on...but mostly only on the corners, where I can envision her falling into and losing an eye. She also really likes a basket my Mom has that has pencils and pens and all kinds of papers in....it's on the floor at her level and every time I turn my back she crawls right for it. She likes to pull open drawers in the kitchen....that have scissors and other things that she can't play with. Basically I have to stay on my toes and direct her back to her toys that I place in the center of the room away from the general hazards. Not to mention the fact that Sophia is a little daredevil....she just doesn't seem afraid of anything. She will crawl anywhere and try to pull up on anything (even if it moves) and put anything in her mouth. She isn't really quite walking yet on her own....but when it happens (and it seems to be coming soon), I am in big trouble.
There are three staircases in my parents' house. Plus a few stairs up to the front porch and a few leading from the kitchen into the garage (I am deathly afraid of someone plunging down these stairs, as they are directly out the screen door, are brick and land on cement). Sophia has started to show interest in the set of stairs that lead up to her Uncle Dillon's room...and I constantly have to pull her away from there as well. Last night she showed an interest in the stairs leading to the basement....the door wasn't shut and I wasn't there to pull her away.
Michael was getting ready to leave (Soph and I were going to stay another night) and him and I went up from the basement to the guest room to get his stuff (the guest room is down the hall from the door to the basement)....Sophia was with us, crawling on the floor near the bathroom, right next to the guest room. My Mom and sister had followed us up from the basement as well and I guess I thought that Sophia crawled over to them to see what they were doing....but I didn't realize that neither of them were actually with her. I heard my Mom from the guest bedroom yell out something and I realized that Sophia must have found the open door leading to the basement.
I know you aren't supposed to panic, but my kid was falling down the stairs. I ran down the hall pretty fast, with Michael and my sister on my heels......my Mom was already almost to the bottom of the stairs and my Dad (who had been in the basement), was picking up Sophia, who was crying. I guess maybe my Mom had yelled to my Dad or something, or maybe he knew what was happening, but he was like lightening, and got to Sophia before she actually hit the landing at the bottom of the stairs. I didn't know he could move that fast, but I sure am thankful he did. I am also thankful I didn't actually see the fall with my own eyes. My Mom said she just saw Soph go over the edge, basically hit her face on the stair, and then kinda roll down sideways until my Dad caught her one step from the bottom and the wall. The stairs (thank God) are carpeted and pretty well padded for stairs that lead to a basement. A side thanks to my parents for spending whatever it was to get a decent padding under that carpet.
Sophia probably cried a bit more because she saw that I was kind of freaking out, but she didn't appear to have anything broken or out of place. She had a little red spot on her nose, probably a rug burn from where she hit it when she started down, but other than that, I couldn't find anything else bruised or swollen at all. Once she did stop crying, she seemed to be herself, seemed to crawl normally and not favor any of her limbs as if they were hurting her. We even got her to smile a little. She was probably amused at the heart attacks she had given her parents.
Obviously my run of almost an entire year of not letting anything bad happen to my child has run out. I don't know why I just assumed that she was with my Mom or sister or why I didn't at least double check to make sure the basement door was closed. I feel terrible that my poor baby fell down the stairs because I wasn't paying attention. I am very thankful that my Dad got to her so quickly and that she didn't seem to get hurt, other than her little nose (which is really just a mark, it didn't even bleed). I am a fairly nervous first-time mom as it is, but now I would say I am a much more nervous mommy with some added guilt of not doing my job of protection very well. I know that she'll fall down a lot and get bumps and bruises and scrapes and cuts....but this seems like something that just shouldn't happen, if I am doing my job right. Michael, who didn't outwardly freak out at the time, now seems to be hovering quite a bit more than usual. It scared him just as much as it scared me. He did find a website that explained that a baby falling down a flight of stairs usually doesn't come with as much injury as an adult falling down the stairs.....less weight, less height, babies don't tense up because they don't expect what is going to happen, etc.....it made me feel a teeny tiny small bit better. There were a LOT of comments of parents whose children had fallen down the stairs. I guess it happens a lot....which really doesn't make me feel a lot better about the fact that my baby fell down the stairs. I just feel terrible that it happened at all.
Almost every single night when I give Sophia her bottle and rock her before putting her to bed I say a prayer, something like, God, thank you so much for my sweet girl, please protect her...some variation of that. I guess He definitely listens to me because this is a pretty clear example of God making sure that my Dad was quick to react, that the stairs she fell down were carpeted, that she wasn't really hurt at all. And it was a little wake up call to me....to pay more attention....even if I can't prevent every single accident, I can at least try to prevent the preventable ones (I can make sure the door is shut, can make sure that someone else is watching her if I can't, to always know exactly where she is).
This coming weekend, Michael and I will be leaving Sophia overnight for the first time since she was born. My parents will be watching her at their house. Even though I am nervous about it, I definitely feel like they will be keeping all eyes on her at all times...and I also know that if something should happen, I don't need to worry, they can respond quickly. That makes me feel better. I definitely won't stop my prayers each night though, with extra thanks to God (and some for my parents as well) for protecting my sweet little Sophia.
Sophia and I (and Michael on the weekend) were staying with my brother at my parents' house while they were out of town since last Wednesday. Although their house is nice and roomy and has a pool, it is like a mine field for things that Sophia can get into or hurt herself on. The coffee table in the family room is her favorite place to pull up on...but mostly only on the corners, where I can envision her falling into and losing an eye. She also really likes a basket my Mom has that has pencils and pens and all kinds of papers in....it's on the floor at her level and every time I turn my back she crawls right for it. She likes to pull open drawers in the kitchen....that have scissors and other things that she can't play with. Basically I have to stay on my toes and direct her back to her toys that I place in the center of the room away from the general hazards. Not to mention the fact that Sophia is a little daredevil....she just doesn't seem afraid of anything. She will crawl anywhere and try to pull up on anything (even if it moves) and put anything in her mouth. She isn't really quite walking yet on her own....but when it happens (and it seems to be coming soon), I am in big trouble.
There are three staircases in my parents' house. Plus a few stairs up to the front porch and a few leading from the kitchen into the garage (I am deathly afraid of someone plunging down these stairs, as they are directly out the screen door, are brick and land on cement). Sophia has started to show interest in the set of stairs that lead up to her Uncle Dillon's room...and I constantly have to pull her away from there as well. Last night she showed an interest in the stairs leading to the basement....the door wasn't shut and I wasn't there to pull her away.
Michael was getting ready to leave (Soph and I were going to stay another night) and him and I went up from the basement to the guest room to get his stuff (the guest room is down the hall from the door to the basement)....Sophia was with us, crawling on the floor near the bathroom, right next to the guest room. My Mom and sister had followed us up from the basement as well and I guess I thought that Sophia crawled over to them to see what they were doing....but I didn't realize that neither of them were actually with her. I heard my Mom from the guest bedroom yell out something and I realized that Sophia must have found the open door leading to the basement.
I know you aren't supposed to panic, but my kid was falling down the stairs. I ran down the hall pretty fast, with Michael and my sister on my heels......my Mom was already almost to the bottom of the stairs and my Dad (who had been in the basement), was picking up Sophia, who was crying. I guess maybe my Mom had yelled to my Dad or something, or maybe he knew what was happening, but he was like lightening, and got to Sophia before she actually hit the landing at the bottom of the stairs. I didn't know he could move that fast, but I sure am thankful he did. I am also thankful I didn't actually see the fall with my own eyes. My Mom said she just saw Soph go over the edge, basically hit her face on the stair, and then kinda roll down sideways until my Dad caught her one step from the bottom and the wall. The stairs (thank God) are carpeted and pretty well padded for stairs that lead to a basement. A side thanks to my parents for spending whatever it was to get a decent padding under that carpet.
Sophia probably cried a bit more because she saw that I was kind of freaking out, but she didn't appear to have anything broken or out of place. She had a little red spot on her nose, probably a rug burn from where she hit it when she started down, but other than that, I couldn't find anything else bruised or swollen at all. Once she did stop crying, she seemed to be herself, seemed to crawl normally and not favor any of her limbs as if they were hurting her. We even got her to smile a little. She was probably amused at the heart attacks she had given her parents.
Obviously my run of almost an entire year of not letting anything bad happen to my child has run out. I don't know why I just assumed that she was with my Mom or sister or why I didn't at least double check to make sure the basement door was closed. I feel terrible that my poor baby fell down the stairs because I wasn't paying attention. I am very thankful that my Dad got to her so quickly and that she didn't seem to get hurt, other than her little nose (which is really just a mark, it didn't even bleed). I am a fairly nervous first-time mom as it is, but now I would say I am a much more nervous mommy with some added guilt of not doing my job of protection very well. I know that she'll fall down a lot and get bumps and bruises and scrapes and cuts....but this seems like something that just shouldn't happen, if I am doing my job right. Michael, who didn't outwardly freak out at the time, now seems to be hovering quite a bit more than usual. It scared him just as much as it scared me. He did find a website that explained that a baby falling down a flight of stairs usually doesn't come with as much injury as an adult falling down the stairs.....less weight, less height, babies don't tense up because they don't expect what is going to happen, etc.....it made me feel a teeny tiny small bit better. There were a LOT of comments of parents whose children had fallen down the stairs. I guess it happens a lot....which really doesn't make me feel a lot better about the fact that my baby fell down the stairs. I just feel terrible that it happened at all.
Almost every single night when I give Sophia her bottle and rock her before putting her to bed I say a prayer, something like, God, thank you so much for my sweet girl, please protect her...some variation of that. I guess He definitely listens to me because this is a pretty clear example of God making sure that my Dad was quick to react, that the stairs she fell down were carpeted, that she wasn't really hurt at all. And it was a little wake up call to me....to pay more attention....even if I can't prevent every single accident, I can at least try to prevent the preventable ones (I can make sure the door is shut, can make sure that someone else is watching her if I can't, to always know exactly where she is).
This coming weekend, Michael and I will be leaving Sophia overnight for the first time since she was born. My parents will be watching her at their house. Even though I am nervous about it, I definitely feel like they will be keeping all eyes on her at all times...and I also know that if something should happen, I don't need to worry, they can respond quickly. That makes me feel better. I definitely won't stop my prayers each night though, with extra thanks to God (and some for my parents as well) for protecting my sweet little Sophia.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Eleven Months, Really??!!
How can it be that my sweet little girl will be ONE YEAR OLD in just one month from today??? Wasn't I just pregnant?? Wasn't she just born? I am just so amazed at how time can fly by so fast. Actually, I never used to feel this way. I can remember days and months dragging on, seemingly always the same routine....work all day, maybe hit the gym, dinner, some TV, bedtime. And this went on for years. Even after Michael and I got married things weren't quite as slow and boring as that....but time didn't go quite so fast. The minute Sophia was born, time seemed to speed up and race by....and I can't seem to get it to slow down at all. On the one hand, it was an eternity ago....after all, not having a child (even just being pregnant) is a totally different life than having a child. But on the other hand, the busyness of all the day to day things of taking care of and raising a child makes it seem like time is just passing by in a blink.
Lately I have been looking back at pictures when Sophia was just born and was so tiny and comparing them to now....it's like it was a totally different baby! I love her sweet personality and how she smiles and laughs and plays and cuddles me and needs me...but I want things to stay the way that they are now, no more getting older! She'll stop wanting me around to cuddle and play with soon enough and then I will really be sad. Or she'll be a teenager before I know it and won't want anything to do with me. :-(
School starts tomorrow in our county (and for my brother, he has only one year to go....a senior, can you believe it?? Just another example of time flying by). I am very glad that I won't have to sniffle my way through the day yet since it will still be a few years (although could only be a couple depending on when and where we decide to start her out) before Sophia has to go off to school. Maybe the days will slow down a bit when she is off at school and I am home bored without her....but I highly doubt it. They will just race forward and pre-school will turn into elementary school, which will turn into middle school, which will turn into high school...then we'll be sending her off to college. :-(
I just want to freeze time. To let this one last month of her first year last forever....if I let the entire one year pass, then it will be two, then ten, then it will be her wedding day and then I'll be a grandma to her babies!! Well, maybe it won't go quite that fast, but it sure feels like it will.
I think it is somewhat amusing that when I was younger I couldn't wait until I was older....or couldn't wait until Christmas, or some vacation, or school to end, or college, or to get married and have kids. I never thought those days would arrive, and yet they did, and much more quickly than I thought they would. I guess now that I am older (and wiser, haha) I realize that I don't want to rush life, just want to slowly enjoy all these good parts. But life doesn't seem to want to cooperate and slow down. I just need to make sure I remember to live each day to the fullest (a tad cliche' I know) and take a lot of pictures (physical and mental) and make a lot of good memories so that I know I didn't waste the days that have flown by. And I probably shouldn't dwell on the fact that time passes so quickly, there definitely isn't anything I can do about it!
Happy 11 months, Sophia Rose! As much as I want you to stay my little baby girl forever, I am looking forward to your one year milestone (and the fun party!) and all the little milestones between now and then and thereafter. :-)
Lately I have been looking back at pictures when Sophia was just born and was so tiny and comparing them to now....it's like it was a totally different baby! I love her sweet personality and how she smiles and laughs and plays and cuddles me and needs me...but I want things to stay the way that they are now, no more getting older! She'll stop wanting me around to cuddle and play with soon enough and then I will really be sad. Or she'll be a teenager before I know it and won't want anything to do with me. :-(
School starts tomorrow in our county (and for my brother, he has only one year to go....a senior, can you believe it?? Just another example of time flying by). I am very glad that I won't have to sniffle my way through the day yet since it will still be a few years (although could only be a couple depending on when and where we decide to start her out) before Sophia has to go off to school. Maybe the days will slow down a bit when she is off at school and I am home bored without her....but I highly doubt it. They will just race forward and pre-school will turn into elementary school, which will turn into middle school, which will turn into high school...then we'll be sending her off to college. :-(
I just want to freeze time. To let this one last month of her first year last forever....if I let the entire one year pass, then it will be two, then ten, then it will be her wedding day and then I'll be a grandma to her babies!! Well, maybe it won't go quite that fast, but it sure feels like it will.
I think it is somewhat amusing that when I was younger I couldn't wait until I was older....or couldn't wait until Christmas, or some vacation, or school to end, or college, or to get married and have kids. I never thought those days would arrive, and yet they did, and much more quickly than I thought they would. I guess now that I am older (and wiser, haha) I realize that I don't want to rush life, just want to slowly enjoy all these good parts. But life doesn't seem to want to cooperate and slow down. I just need to make sure I remember to live each day to the fullest (a tad cliche' I know) and take a lot of pictures (physical and mental) and make a lot of good memories so that I know I didn't waste the days that have flown by. And I probably shouldn't dwell on the fact that time passes so quickly, there definitely isn't anything I can do about it!
Happy 11 months, Sophia Rose! As much as I want you to stay my little baby girl forever, I am looking forward to your one year milestone (and the fun party!) and all the little milestones between now and then and thereafter. :-)
Picture Crazy
No, there are not a ton of pictures in this particular blog. I have found it is not that easy to add photos to blogger so I don't do it nearly enough and anyway, this blog is more about the taking and printing of pictures. Sorry. :-)
It used to be so easy to get pictures developed. Just pop the film out of the camera, drop it at the drug store and pick up your pictures an hour later. Well, I guess it still could be that easy to get them developed, but now there are so many more ways to get the task done. And the bigger issue is that with digital cameras, you can take a million more pictures, the film doesn't stop you at 36 pictures and then you get them developed, thus a million more pictures to be developed. My Dad really loves to take a lot of pictures. He has a really good camera (a much better version of what we have right now) and has a really good eye for taking pictures...he gets some great shots. My sister is the same way. I guess taking a million photos could be a genetic thing??!! My Mom gets really annoyed that with all the pictures that my Dad takes, there aren't near as many hard copies of those photos. I do really like to look at the pictures my Dad takes and loads onto his computer or iPad, but there are some shots that I would love to have a hard copy of....it is just a much more time consuming task to get photos printed these days.
I have been using Shutterfly to print all my photos for quite some time now. The one negative to Shutterfly is that if you want your pictures sent to a store to go and pick up yourself, they send them to Target. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Well, the one time I tried that....well, let's just say our Target is less than on top of things and not only was there no one at the photo area, the manager that I called over knew absolutely zero about the photo area. Or the whereabouts of my pictures. So we can safely assume that I will never pick up my own photos and will just opt to have them sent to me. It does take longer to get the pictures in your hand though, and while I am not really a patient person, I have learned that it is much more worth the wait rather than having to argue with some incompetent person at Target.
Which does bring up the issue of shipping and handling. NOT cheap. Being that I almost always have a large order of pictures (this time was just over 500....it's because I wait so long between the times when I want them printed), shipping can be well over $20....and I am just not going to pay that. It isn't too hard to find a free shipping coupon code and I tend to place my orders based on when I can find one of these codes. Another option is to make disks of your pictures and then go to the drugstore and print them yourself....but with so many pictures to print (in my case) that could be a loooonnnggg trip to the drug store.
I store all my pictures on my laptop in Picasa.....and there seriously are a million of them. Then I choose which from Picasa to upload to Shutterfly (thankfully now there is an ultra fast upload option) and then I select those that I want to have printed. I have done this approximately 3 or 4 times since Sophia was born (almost 11 months ago, if anyone is keeping track) and I think I have printed about 1200 photos total (this is counting my order that I placed tonight of 508 photos). I know, it is a lot. And it can take a good number of hours to load pictures from my camera to Picasa, then to upload to Shutterfly, then finally to the cart in Shutterfly to be ordered. As tedious as it can get, I find it to be well worth it to have my pictures stored in several different places, as well as getting that hard copy in the mail.
I really love to take pictures, not that I am great with a camera or anything. We just have a point and shoot camera, nothing special, but I tend to upgrade my camera every two years or so and I like a lot of megapixels and good zoom and that sort of thing. I REALLY love to take pictures of my little girl. And she happens to be pretty darn cute, so even when I have taken 4 or 5 of what looks like a very similar shot, I often can't narrow it down to printing just one and will usually print most of them. I can't help it! One, she is just too adorable and two, I feel like I have to have a physical printed copy of the pictures, not just a file in my computer. I like to put the photos in a book and then flip through the pages over and over and over. I wish I could say that I was more organized and kept them all in neat order....and I definitely used to.....but all the pictures of Sophia have gotten a little overwhelming and it is still a work in progress. One that I definitely intend to get control of....when I am not chasing the baby around and taking more photos of her!
I do love and appreciate all the ever-changing options in photography as far as the taking and storage of pictures goes. But call me old-fashioned if you'd like....I still love a photo album full of memories to page through whenever I get the urge. And so I will continue to spend the time it takes to upload and transfer and select and all that, not to mention having to wait on my photos to be delivered....it's not going to stop me from taking a million pictures, that's for sure!!
It used to be so easy to get pictures developed. Just pop the film out of the camera, drop it at the drug store and pick up your pictures an hour later. Well, I guess it still could be that easy to get them developed, but now there are so many more ways to get the task done. And the bigger issue is that with digital cameras, you can take a million more pictures, the film doesn't stop you at 36 pictures and then you get them developed, thus a million more pictures to be developed. My Dad really loves to take a lot of pictures. He has a really good camera (a much better version of what we have right now) and has a really good eye for taking pictures...he gets some great shots. My sister is the same way. I guess taking a million photos could be a genetic thing??!! My Mom gets really annoyed that with all the pictures that my Dad takes, there aren't near as many hard copies of those photos. I do really like to look at the pictures my Dad takes and loads onto his computer or iPad, but there are some shots that I would love to have a hard copy of....it is just a much more time consuming task to get photos printed these days.
I have been using Shutterfly to print all my photos for quite some time now. The one negative to Shutterfly is that if you want your pictures sent to a store to go and pick up yourself, they send them to Target. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Well, the one time I tried that....well, let's just say our Target is less than on top of things and not only was there no one at the photo area, the manager that I called over knew absolutely zero about the photo area. Or the whereabouts of my pictures. So we can safely assume that I will never pick up my own photos and will just opt to have them sent to me. It does take longer to get the pictures in your hand though, and while I am not really a patient person, I have learned that it is much more worth the wait rather than having to argue with some incompetent person at Target.
Which does bring up the issue of shipping and handling. NOT cheap. Being that I almost always have a large order of pictures (this time was just over 500....it's because I wait so long between the times when I want them printed), shipping can be well over $20....and I am just not going to pay that. It isn't too hard to find a free shipping coupon code and I tend to place my orders based on when I can find one of these codes. Another option is to make disks of your pictures and then go to the drugstore and print them yourself....but with so many pictures to print (in my case) that could be a loooonnnggg trip to the drug store.
I store all my pictures on my laptop in Picasa.....and there seriously are a million of them. Then I choose which from Picasa to upload to Shutterfly (thankfully now there is an ultra fast upload option) and then I select those that I want to have printed. I have done this approximately 3 or 4 times since Sophia was born (almost 11 months ago, if anyone is keeping track) and I think I have printed about 1200 photos total (this is counting my order that I placed tonight of 508 photos). I know, it is a lot. And it can take a good number of hours to load pictures from my camera to Picasa, then to upload to Shutterfly, then finally to the cart in Shutterfly to be ordered. As tedious as it can get, I find it to be well worth it to have my pictures stored in several different places, as well as getting that hard copy in the mail.
I really love to take pictures, not that I am great with a camera or anything. We just have a point and shoot camera, nothing special, but I tend to upgrade my camera every two years or so and I like a lot of megapixels and good zoom and that sort of thing. I REALLY love to take pictures of my little girl. And she happens to be pretty darn cute, so even when I have taken 4 or 5 of what looks like a very similar shot, I often can't narrow it down to printing just one and will usually print most of them. I can't help it! One, she is just too adorable and two, I feel like I have to have a physical printed copy of the pictures, not just a file in my computer. I like to put the photos in a book and then flip through the pages over and over and over. I wish I could say that I was more organized and kept them all in neat order....and I definitely used to.....but all the pictures of Sophia have gotten a little overwhelming and it is still a work in progress. One that I definitely intend to get control of....when I am not chasing the baby around and taking more photos of her!
I do love and appreciate all the ever-changing options in photography as far as the taking and storage of pictures goes. But call me old-fashioned if you'd like....I still love a photo album full of memories to page through whenever I get the urge. And so I will continue to spend the time it takes to upload and transfer and select and all that, not to mention having to wait on my photos to be delivered....it's not going to stop me from taking a million pictures, that's for sure!!
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