Levi's Cake Smash Session in Royal Palm Beach, Florida by Palm Beach County Baby Photographer

WOW! So let me just say I give a huge kudos to our friend Melissa for taking these photos for me and my family. She did such an awesome job capturing us! Pictures were taken by A Little Story Photography and edited by me. Let me just say… Levi is my 2nd rainbow baby. Tucker is my first. It actually took us a whole year to get pregnant with Tucker after we lost our first. I was not expecting to get pregnant with Levi, he kind of surprised us. I got pregnant immediately after a miscarriage and 6 weeks after my miscarriage I never got my period and then I realized I should probably take a pregnancy test and I got my BFP. I don’t know how we got so lucky because it literally only took ONE TIME.. They always come when you least expect it!!!

Let me first talk about our one year journey of breastfeeding.This was such an accomplishment and I am proud of the struggles we tackled to reach my 1 year goal. I successfully breastfed my first with no issues until he was about 15 months. I thought it would be easy the second go around. Levi’s first latch was great but then I switched breasts and he instantly damaged my right nipple. It was so painful and I instantly got upset that I didn't fix it right away because it took a whole month for my cut to heal. I didn’t understand why he could latch on one side with no problem but couldn’t latch on the other. Long story short, I realized he had torticollis. I only knew because my first son had this and ended up in a helmet for a flat head. I started noticing very early on that when Levi slept, he was always looking to one particular side. Two chiropractor visits later he could FINALLY latch better and then we started seeing a physical therapist. At about 6 weeks I would say we finally got the hang of breastfeeding and I was finally healed. I’m not going to lie, this gave me hardcore baby blues, maybe depression. Everything made me cry. I never experienced that with my first.

Not only was this an issue but he was also throwing up so much after a feeding and in his sleep that he only gained 1 lb in 5 weeks. I figured something was up because some days when I was feeding him he would cry so bad and arch his back. I also noticed a foul body odor smell that came from his mouth. I knew that wasn’t normal. It turned out he had a dairy allergy which is why he was throwing up so much because everything I ate with dairy would hurt him. It was so hard changing my diet to accommodate him. but I did it!! One whole year of being dairy free (most days!!) After about a month of being dairy free I noticed a huge difference. He wasn’t throwing up as much and he started gaining a lot more weight. He is not my little chunky money. He almost weighs as much as his big brother. Which is crazy, Tucker is 3.5 years old. Tucker is my little peanut though.

After 3 months he just grew like a weed and was hitting every milestone so quickly. I wasn’t ready for that. Having a toddler running around while raising a baby really made the time fly by so fast. Levi has always been challenging, crying a lot and needy. He actually has not laughed until recently. He’s full of smiles but MAN when you try to get him to laugh he has such a stone face and then gets mad at you for trying. But I love him so much! He is such a funny boy. I am so blessed to have him in our life. I look forward to our toddler years, even though I’m so sad we are already there. Happy first birthday little man. Embrace that first year because it really does go by so fast. The days are long and the years are short.