Early Adventures of Baby H: Baptism in Dubai

When I was pregnant with Baby H, my sister asked us to try to meet her in Italy in August since she was planning to be there with her in-laws for their 50th wedding anniversary.  We tentatively said yes, pending Schengen visa approval for Miss J (approved!) and passport and UAE visa stuff sorted for Baby H (almost sorted!).  We very very very briefly entertained having Baby H baptized in Italy, since we wanted Danielle & Jonny to be her godparents and we would all be there at the same time.  I started looking into the logistics of it though, and quickly decided a UAE baptism with proxy godparents would be much, much easier.  Had I known you could proxy godparents, Baby L would probably also have Danielle & Jonny as godparents, but having Dad and Mary is ok.

We asked Eric, one of my coworkers, and his wife Tracey to stand in as proxy godparents for Baby H.  His family moved to Abu Dhabi just before G and I did, and his family also moved from Abu Dhabi to Dubai just before G and I did.  Eric had given me tons of advice about moving (both times!) and his family was kind and welcoming to us, we asked them to stand in and they immediately said yes!

Eric and Tracey, sweet proxy godparents to Baby H!

Since Eric was moving back to the USA over the summer, we had a short window between when Baby H was born and when Eric's family was scheduled to leave.  The Catholic Church in Dubai has baptisms every Tuesday, so we settled on 04-Jun since it would be during Eid (and thus we'd be able to easily find a dinner venue that would let us eat before sundown). This also happens to be G's birthday, so dual celebration!

I chose a dress that Granny gave to L that she never got to wear.  Baby H also had some white and silver mittens that Ba Ngoai gave her, and I found some matching gray socks.  I had also picked a white and silver headband, but I never managed to get it on Baby H during the baptism ceremony.  I took some photos of her wearing it later, along with her baptism quilt.

G wore the same shirt and jacket that we had made L's baptism, but opted for jeans so he could wear his boots like a true Texan. Ba Ngoai had given L a pretty white and pink dress that seemed appropriate.  I was at that awkward stage where my maternity dresses were too big, and my normal dresses were too small, so I dragged myself to the mall and took a page from Meghan  Markle's book, opting for a belted trench dress. I like it enough  that I'll probably have it taken in after I lose the baby weight!

I asked Jo, my favorite photographer in Dubai, to come take photographs, and as usual, she was fabulous.  Here are my favorites - G and I joke that it was Baby H's baptism, but L totally stole the show with her wide eyes and adorable curls. We invited some of our other expat friends to join us for the baptism, and L -- who is super shy around new people -- let Jin hold her for almost 20 minutes!  It was a long night since the baptism included a full mass (unlike L's baptism, which was short and sweet. I actually don't remember most of it because I had a fever and felt miserable that day), and while we couldn't have our family with us for H's baptism, we had our "expat family" with us, and that made it just as special.

Baptism was held at St Francis of Assisi Church in Jebel Ali

Our shy little L let Jin, who she'd only met that evening, hold her for almost 20 minutes!!

Our expat family!

Baby H: Squishy Baby Portraits

While G and I have been making a conscious effort to spend time with L and make sure that she knows she's special and still loved, I also want Baby H to have some things that are uniquely hers.  I love our family portraits in Baby H's First Photo Shoot, and I knew that we'd also have some more family photos at Baby H's upcoming baptism, so I let myself get suckered into a newborn photo shoot for Baby H through Pink Pepper Photography. More on that later.

I'm actually not a huge fan of studio newborn photo shoots - babies wrapped in gauze and put into baskets of flowers or covered in pearls really aren't my thing. It's not that I don't think the photos are super cute - they are - it just seems kind of over done.  Plus, newborn photographers prefer babies around a week old, if not younger, and since both my girls were in the hospital until Day 5, I just couldn't fathom being organized enough to get booked into a studio.  Enter Pink Pepper Photography...I'll call them PPP for short.

At the private hospitals in UAE, they offer free passport photos to infants - which is brilliant because most babies born at private hospitals are children of expats and will need a passport right away, AND PPP gets the parents' phone numbers. They also make sure to include a coupon for a free one-hour  photo shoot, plus 1 free digital photo from the shoot. I didn't end up getting a passport photo from them because Baby H wasn't being cooperative, but I vaguely recall giving the hospital photographer my phone number, so of course they called me a few days after we got home from the  hospital.  The gal on the phone was really friendly and made it super easy to book the session - so I figured, why not?  It's free, so there's nothing to lose.

Now, I know that there's nothing really free. I actually hate this model - where the photo session is  free and you pay per image. I usually work with photographers where I pay for their time for a session, and the I get a full gallery of images. I'm also loyal to photographers that I like - for example, when I lived in Abu Dhabi, Lacey did all of  my professional photographs, and in Dubai, most of my photo sessions are with Jo - because I love their work.

But.

For all the reasons I listed above, plus, I didn't want to drag G and L through another family photo shoot, I took Baby H to her portrait session with PPP.  The photographer (I can't remember her name) was really sweet and was a pro with Baby H.  I was impressed with her juggling of her camera, Baby H, and Baby H's pacifier to get some pretty great shots in between H's fussing. Obviously, since the business model is pay-per-image, they do not allow cell phones or external cameras in the studio, so I couldn't take a picture of the  photographer at work. You'll just have to trust me that she was pretty great at working with my baby!

 Once the shoot is over, you have  to go back to the studio to view the photos - again, no online gallery to protect the business model.  I did my homework ahead of time and prepared myself knowing the budget I wanted to spend, what the current promotions were, and exactly how many images I intended to go home with. I'm pretty sure if I hadn't, I would have ended up spending way too much money for images that I didn't  love! And sure enough, the coordinator sat me in a really comfy room and play sappy music while she scrolled through my adorable baby's photographs - 56 total. Since I had a target number of images, I put my "work" hat on to get down to 21 images, and I'm proud to say I was 100% successful at not spending any more than my budget!

So -  here they are!  Well, 16 of the  21. I excluded one series because they will be used in Baby H's birth announcement. If you'd like to receive a birth announcement, and you're not currently on the Christmas Card mailing list, please update your address in our address book through Postable.

And yes - I get the irony that the very first series is Baby H sitting in a basket of flowers.

Baby Story: Baby H's First Photo Shoot

It's been a busy month at home with  Baby H - between visitors coming to meet the new babe and a week-long holiday in Dubai, G, L, Miss J and I have been on our toes!  I'm a bit behind and  catching up, but to start, I have updated Baby Story: Induced Labor to include photos from G's phone.

During this time, we received the official photo gallery from Baby H's first photo shoot! I posted a sneak peak in Baby Story: Baby H's Time in the Hospital of the first photos from Jo, but here is a more complete collection of our little darling. Also, I think I finally figured out how to make my blog image posts mobile-friendly, so there's also that. :-)