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Lifestyle Newborn || Nashville, TN Photographer || Ivy Everson

Nashville Lifestyle Newborn Session

New mom and dad at this newborn session by Knoxville Wedding Photographer, Amanda May Photos.

Last week, some really dear friends of mine had their first babe. Her name is Ivy Everson, and she is absolutely beautiful. They live in Nashville, and when I photographed their maternity session back in the fall, I had every intention of making the drive to Nashville again when Ivy decided to come so I could be the one to do their newborn photos. This was important to me on so many levels. Mostly because I LOVE Sarah and Aren and walked this journey with them. For baby Ivy to be here FINALLY is such a blessing, and I so badly wanted to document that joy. Then, our whole home buying/selling situation happened out of the complete blue, and when Sarah told me baby Ivy was here, we were (and still are) RIGHT in the thick of all the home stuff. My word for this year and the theme I want to reign over my life in 2020 is to slow down. In the past, I would have made this newborn session happen. I would have woken up at 3am after a late night of midnight editing, driven to Nashville to shoot a sunrise newborn session for a couple hours, turned around, and driven right back. But this year, as I’m 10 feet under with life, I approach every decision with a is this going to help me slow down or not help me slow down? mindset, and in just one month’s time, it has already been life changing. I explained the situation to them (being right in the middle of prepping one house to sell, prepping another house to move into, closing on the new house, etc…), told them that I have an AMAZING associate photographer who lives in Nashville that I ADORE and takes family photos of us all the time, and asked if they would be okay with her shooting it and me editing it. Because they are friends, I offered that if it just devastated them to think of anyone else shooting their sweet sweet baby that I would do the 3 am wake up and make it happen because I love them so dearly, but they showed me SO much grace and love at that moment and told me that as much as they would love me to be the physical shooter, they totally understand and would be perfectly fine with Erin going in my place. You have no idea the weight lifted off my shoulders at that moment. It pained me to have to do this though. Every single bone in my body does not know how to slow down. Every single bone in my body wants to do everything for everyone and be the best at it all. I’m a three on the Enneagram, and I hardly have a wing because I’m just a three. Learning what it feels like to say no to things is hard. When it comes to my family and friends, it’s even harder. I don’t know if Sarah and Aren realize it, but them showing me compassion in that moment was the Lord helping me to stick to my guns of slowing down. He knows that if they had said one single thing about just “dreaming of me being the shooter” I wouldn’t have been able to resist, and I would have been even more exhausted than I already am (is that possible??) and all my people who see me exhausted would have said WHYYYY Amanda??? Why did you do that??? and I would have said Because I love these people and wanted me and I wanted me for them through watery eyes of tiresome. So, thank you, Sarah and Aren. Thank you for being okay with my associate photographer and still knowing that I love you dearly and as terribly as I wanted to snuggle that baby girl of yours, for my own mental sake I couldn’t and supporting me in that. You are truly one of my most treasured Nashville friendshipsm and I’m so so so thankful our paths crossed so briefly at EY all those years ago. You will never know how much you mean to me! Now, I can’t wait until that Nashville wedding in a few months so I can swing by and see Ivy!!

I’m a Knoxville Wedding Photographer that loves to travel…I shoot anywhere! Click here to contact me with any questions you have about pricing or booking! If you liked what you saw above, go ahead and follow me on Facebook or Instagram to see my daily updates of the latest sessions!

See more from Amanda May Photos:

Natchez Trace Glen Maternity

Lifestyle Newborn

Ramble Creek Wedding

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