What happened in Week 16?
Edward was born! And then I spent the next five days in hospital. Apart from missing the other boys, I loved every moment of it. I feel incredibly nostalgic even just thinking about it now. On Friday, Rick and the three older boys picked Edward and me up from the hospital and we all drove home together. The six of us together. Rick was straight back into work on the Saturday, and I had one of the most chaotic mornings in the history of my parenthood. It was so chaotic it was almost comical – I honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Thankfully, the practice run meant that on Sunday morning, I somehow managed to get the four boys and myself to morning church on time all on my own. It was so wonderful being able to introduce Edward to our church family for the first time. Everyone had been so looking forward to meeting him.
How did you choose from the hundreds of photos that you took that week?
Very good question. Naturally, in the first week of your baby’s life, one tends to overdose on taking photos. That’s just the way it goes. I had to remind myself that this wasn’t the baby journal, or the baby book. In other words, the spread wasn’t all about Edward even though obviously he was the focal point of the week – that is, I wanted to make sure I included photos of the hospital, visitors, etc. Firstly, I decided that I would allow myself four pages instead of the usual two. This meant that I could choose thirty-two photos instead of just sixteen. Then I decided I would only include my iPhone photos in the main spread – to keep a consistent feel to the layouts and also because I knew I would be using the DSLR photos in Edward’s first year photo book. Plus, I could always include my favourite DSLR photos in the form of inserts (which is what I ended up doing). In the end, the photos I ended up choosing were mainly the ones that I’d processed already on my iPhone using the VSCO Cam app, because they had been my favourite photos at the time I took them. So it wasn’t all that hard after all.
Number of pages and inserts?
Like I said above, I settled on four pages instead of the standard two. I also had six inserts using 8×10 vertical protectors, ie. twelve insert pages in total. The first insert held my birth story. I used the second insert to frame my favourite photos of Edward and myself that were taken on the Canon EOS. The third one contained the more traditional ‘family shots’ that we took on the day of his birth using the EOS. The last three inserts allowed me to include my favourite EOS photos taken during the rest of the week (I used a similar collage layout to the one shown in this post.)
How were the photos taken and processed?
All the photos were taken on my iPhone 4S camera. About 80% of the photos were processed using VSCO Cam on my iPhone. The rest were processed in Aperture on my Mac using the VSCO Film 01 Kodak Portra 800+ preset.
Anything special in this week’s documentation?
Apart from the extra two pages, I adopted an approach like the one I used for our family holiday earlier this year. Instead of my usual point-form summary of the week in the first 3×4 pocket, I wrote a small paragraph outlining what happened for every day of Week 16. I then spaced these throughout the four pages. It was a nice way to visually break up all the photos, and I felt happier including some more detailed journalling for the first week of Edward’s life (keeping in mind the whole time my overall framework).
Favourite photo(s) from Week 16?
This is very hard, as technically, all the photos that went into the main spread are already my favourites. But if I had to pick, it would be the black and white photo of Edward on my chest in the first page, the one of his first bath at the top of the second page, the one I took of him and myself at the bottom of the second page (I absolutely adore the lighting in that shot), and the one of him in his cot for the very first time (fourth page). If I could also sneak in a fifth favourite, it would be the very first photo – the one of Rick and myself on the morning of the induction. He has gotten me through every single birth and delivery, that amazing husband of mine.
Overall thoughts?
I love the overall calm feel to Week 16. It’s almost hard to believe it, but that really is what the week was like. I remember talking about that wonderful quiet lull of being in hospital, and I think my Project Life layout has captured it beautifully.
Supplies used?
Becky Higgins Design A page protector; Becky Higgins 8×10 vertical page protector; Kodak 210gsm glossy premium photo paper. All photos printed on the Canon MG6360 Pixma using genuine Canon ink.
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Other posts you might be interested in reading:
My weekly Project Life process from beginning to end
Tips on taking photos for Project Life
What you need to get started with Project Life
You can read all my Project Life posts here.
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Project Life is a system created by Becky Higgins that is designed to simplify your efforts to document life and help get your photos into a book. To learn more about the product and how to get started, click here.



