Hello Everybody!

My name is Megan Begley and I am Peter's wife. He has been bugging me to get on the forum for the past few months so now I am finally here. You seem like a great group of people and I look forward to being a part of your discussions and learning from everyone!

A little about me...
I came to Santa Barbara in '94 from St. Paul, MN to attend Westmont College where I majored in Bio. My junior year of Westmont, I decided that I didn't in fact want to be a biologist and applied to Brooks Institute, where I met Peter. We started our photography business together and were married in 2002 and I think you all know that we will be having our first baby in August. While I'm a bit bewildered by the process of bringing life in to the world, I am very excited to meet baby Caleb for the first time instead of just feeling his kicks, punches and lately, hiccups.

We are moving on Friday to San Luis Obispo so our lives are in a slight state of chaos and you may not hear from me for a little while, but I intend to start writing and I look forward to talking with all of you!

God bless,
Megan

Hi Megan and welcome! You sound like a pretty nice person -- it will be fun getting to know you here...

...and yes, I was sitting down. Glad to have you start participating here -- it will help balance me out a bit!

YEA!!!! I'm so glad you joined! We can all be friends now! LOL...

WOOOOOHOOOO!!!

Megan it's about time! I've been waiting for you to finally join!
I want to talk all about your pregnancy. Are you craving anything? Any names picked for the baby? What's the theme of your nursery gonna be? Favorite baby stores to shop at?
I LLLLLLLLLOVE BABIES!

KK

Thank you everyone for the welcoming!



I have been really fortunate in my pregnancy. Nothing too weird has happened to me although pregnancy in general is quite a ride! Our baby's name is Caleb Vincent. Caleb means "bold & faithful" and Vincent means "victorious", so obviously we have high hopes for this little guy! I don't really have a theme for the nursery because unfortunately the house we are moving in to has awful green carpet and cheesy wallpaper that we can't do anything about. I originally was going with a Noah's Ark theme but that's kind-of fallen by the wayside. Hopefully we'll have more options at the next place we live! Thanks for asking about this! I'd be happy to talk about it anytime.

Megan

Hi Megan

Welcome to the forum, and a big CONGRATS on your pregnancy (you too Peter) !!! Thank God for moms!

Hi Megan! I knew you wouldn't be able to resist us:)
I think we are the only two part photo teams on here! It's great fun!

What are your post baby plans with the wedding biz? Did you schedule yourself some maternity leave???

Congrats! Babies are wonderful... (ours is just hitting the starting to sleep all night thing:) and I am feeling great:))
Let me know if there is anything I can do for you guys!

WELCOME!!!!!!

Welcome Megan!

I got the pleasure of meeting Megan (and Peter) a few weeks ago. SUCH AWESOME people. Megan, I'm so glad you joined....now the three of us have to get Katie on here. I'm glad we have seperate computers though, or else I know I would never get her off!!

Hey again Megan...

watch out...lol...I think I'm hormonal this week. I have been sooo crying about everything. Thank god I have a little break between now and my next wedding....Just thinking about being pregnant is making me cry. It's sooo (sob sob...sniffle) beautiful! (sob sniffle sniffle)

When I was preggo...i craved cucumbers. And they HAD to be cut a certain way...paper thin...or else I couldnt' eat them! Those good ol' days..

KK

And Peter...if you're reading this...I hope you are rubbing Megan's feet every single night!

Thanks Gregorio!!


HA! That's what we thought about you and Katie! So you mean my ramblings about The Corporation (have you seen it yet...) didn't bore you both to death? (I swear, I should just buy a pallet of the DVD and pass it out.)


Okay sweet. Now I'm in trouble! I really should be rubbing her feet every night and a bunch of other caring things... I give her little backrubs throughout the day -- does that count a little? I'm going to have to kick it up a notch the next few weeks!

Thank you Gregorio! We are very excited for the months ahead.


Thanks for the welcome Amber! Next weekend is my last wedding until Caleb is born. (I can't wait!) Then we actually have a wedding scheduled for 3 weeks after his due date. We're praying that he's no more than one day late if that!

Peter pointed out some photos of your baby that you had posted (I think) - so adorable! I'd love any advice that you can give. Each parent has a different story so I'm always open to hear what people have to say. How long did you wait to start shooting again?


We had a great time with you and Katie too! It's always fun to talk to fellow alum and also fellow photographers - what a great combination! Even though we're headed north, we'll have to get together again soon.


Well, I guess if you are going to crave something, at least cucumbers are healthy! I'd love to hear about your baby and experiences. Like I said before, any advice is welcome!

As for Peter rubbing my feet, it doesn't happen every night but he does a really great job of trying to keep me happy and comfortable. He's been to all of our pre-natal appointments and all of our birthing classes (except the breast-feeding one ) and gives more than his fair share of massages. I consider myself very lucky!

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!

...heh-heh... So nobody really wants to hear this, but I was supposed to go to the breast feeding class (it was tonight). However, I had a few too many bowls of Raisin Bran in a 24-hour period... (where's that darn "embarrassing story" thread...)

Welcome to the club Megan.

Hey Megan... I did my first wedding 4 weeks after addison was born. We do all day coverage, and I had started at about 8 that morning... so I had someone come and finish out the reception for me. I think two weeks later I did the whole shebang, and haven't looked back since. I had a c-section, so it was a bit more difficult maybe?
You should be good to go at 3 weeks after a natural birth... i would try to wait another after a c-section.
You guys have family local to help with childcare??? That is my biggest stressor...

Hello Megan,
And welcome to this great forum. I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as all of us. Best wishes for a smooth pregnancy and delivery when the time comes. My little guys are now 6 and 7, but I remember their births and the incredible emotional impact from those miracles. My advice to Peter is to stock up on photo albums and keep up with the onslaught of images or risk being buried alive in boxes of photographs (or overflowing hard drives).

Thanks for the advice Amber! I'm so glad to hear that you were out there only 4 weeks after a c-section. That gives me a lot of comfort! Of course I'm not planning on having one, but you never know. We have a backup photographer lined up for the date just in case.


We don't have any family locally but we have a couple of good friends, both who had babies last year so we trust them to take care of Caleb while we are out shooting. Fortunately, Peter only has 3 more weddings to finish and then he'll be in school full-time so I'll be shooting alone and he can be with Caleb while I'm at the weddings. That's the plan anyway!

Thanks again for the input!

Thank you Alan! Glad to be here!

And thank you to you Christopher! Good advice for Peter and me too. We both have a tendency to get behind on organizing our personal photos.