Baby Photographer, Professional London Photographer

Antonina Mamzenko Photography » Contemporary Portrait Photography in London and Surrey

ONE.

Saturday, February 11, 2012 Filed under Personal

OMG. Really? REALLY? My baby boy is ONE? When did this happen? And how?

The first year had flown by, and every day I’m falling more and more in love with this little human being we created. No, there is no instant motherly love everyone is talking about. Yes, you love this tiny tiny newborn baby that just came out of you, but it’s a completely different feeling to loving your almost-toddler, after a year of watching him grow, learn and develop his own personality.

Last night, just before I settled Alex to bed, I stood with him in front of the bedroom mirror and watched him cuddle with me, with his sleepy face and a half-smile. I smelled and kissed his hair, wishing I could capture this moment somehow, and remember it forever.

Moments like this make all the hard work and tears so worth it.

So, happy birthday my boy. Look how far you’ve come.

4 comments

Tamara - February 11, 2012 - 9:01 am

Happy birthday Alex!! X

Dasha - February 11, 2012 - 9:48 am

Awww… Even I felt all teary! Happy Birthday little Alex!

Kirsty-Abu Dhabi - February 11, 2012 - 10:31 am

Happy Birthday Alex – the year has flown by – hope you’re celebrating today :D

Rosie - February 11, 2012 - 11:13 am

Gorgeous! Happy birthday Alex. LOVE that last shot.

Mummypost: Baby Led Weaning

Thursday, February 2, 2012 Filed under Personal

A few days ago I posted on my Facebook wall that I was stuck for baby-friendly lunch and dinner ideas. Which started a great discussion… which lead me to writing this.

See, before I had a baby, I could happily survive on just sandwiches (or sometimes I’d forget to it at all!) In fact, before I had to start weaning Alex, I still survived on sandwiches (and an occasional fruit).

When it came to weaning, I realised that (a) I had no patience for puréeing things and cooking separate meals for us and the baby and (b) that Alex was not very happy being spoon-fed the various mush I was giving him.

So Baby Led Weaning  seemed like a great option for us. We had a few false starts, of course, Alex being frustrated by not being able to pick things up and eat them (and as a result refusing any food, and screaming bloody murder every time we tried to put him in the high chair), but I’m happy to report it all gets better.

Mealtimes now are not nearly as stressful as they once were, a lot of the time food does get eaten (especially if it’s scrambled egg or a ham sandwich) and I cook fresh food every day (well, almost, sometimes I do run out of ideas and have to resort to Ella’s Kitchen pouches). Plus, we get to eat together and I don’t have to rush to grab a bite of something while he’s napping.

I will be posting some recipies that either people shared with me, or that I’ve picked up from books or invented myself, so stay tuned.

And to finish off, here’s a little video I digged out of an 8 month old Alex exploring a “shashlik” (a Russian version of shish-kebab), just basically a piece of marinated meat cooked on skewers on fire. I recently filmed him exploring a bowl of spinach soup, and will post it too when I get to edit it!:)

1 comment

Kirsty-Abu Dhabi - February 3, 2012 - 4:56 am

The video is so cute!!! As you know, I loved BLW – it just worked so well for us and took a whole hassle factor out of food preparation :) So happy to hear it’s worked well for you too

Baby Ram, 8 days new

Monday, January 30, 2012 Filed under Newborn

I’m a little bit behind with my blog posts. Blame my baby boy who somehow managed to kick me right in the eye and scratch the iris with his toenail, and I couldn’t see very well or use computer for a couple of days, which given our childcare arrangements means that I slipped behind with the blog posts for the whole week!

Anyway, there’s a lot of newborn goodness heading your way (I think I have three more newborn sessions to share from last year!), but for now let me introduce you to baby Ram.

It was truly lovely to see this family again. In 2010 I photographed their daughter Amerie when she was only 8 days old too, and being called to photograph the newest arrival has been an honour. Catherine and Andrew felt like old friends and I think we spent as much time chatting away as actually taking pictures!

Here are just a few of my favorites from their session.

It was also lovely to see little Amerie – I couldn’t believe how much she’d grown and how talkative she’d become!

We had a lot of fun with the chalkboard (‘thambi’ means brother in Sri-Lankan) – and it was rather difficult to stop a 1.5 year old toddler from getting the chalk absolutely everywhere!

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Mummypost: Breastfeeding

Friday, January 20, 2012 Filed under Personal

Today a breastfeeding support group I used to go to at Kingston Hill Children’s Centre celebrated it’s first birthday and I, together with two other “veteran” mummies popped in to say hello and have some cake to celebrate the occasion. It was lovely to see all the new mummies with their newborn babies, getting to grips with breastfeeding. It was also a good reminder on how quickly the time flies, and that we need to appreciate and enjoy every moment of parenthood, however difficult we find it at times.

I will not bore you with the details of my breastfeeding story. Suffice to say, it was long and difficult with lots of crying (both me and baby). If you do want to read about it, I wrote a guest post detailing my experience here. But thanks to a wonderful breastfeeding consultant Anna Page we got through the initial humps and I still breastfeed my 11 month old son, and for the moment we both are very happy with this arrangement.

If you told me 10 months ago I’d be able to do this, I would not have believed you. Breastfeeding without having a zillion pillows laid out around me to support the baby, or having my boobs out in the open because Alex just couldn’t latch on without help? Crazy.

This was taken in The Alps, at 2811m above sea level. I honestly did not plan this but by the time we got up there Alex got a bit unsettled, so I had to give him some milk. Easy peasy.

So what would I say to a new mum who wants to breastfeed but it is not proving easy and her friends keep telling her to give up?

Just hang on in there. If you want it, then try for a bit longer. If you think you’ve tried hard enough, then don’t feel guilty about switching to formula. And if you want to continue breastfeeding beyond 6 months – then do it, nevermind people who will tell you your baby is “too old” to be breastfed. After all, WHO recommends to continue breastfeeding up to 2 years old and beyond.

4 comments

Mel (MilkChic Breastfeeding Fashion) - January 21, 2012 - 12:19 am

Lovely post and fabulous photo! Congratulations on making 11 months too :)

helen - January 22, 2012 - 2:47 pm

congrats on making it 10 months! the first time i had to nurse in public I was horrified but eventually I too got the hang of it.

Kirsty-Abu Dhabi - January 23, 2012 - 5:50 am

Yay for you!! And for supporting other Mothers and empowering them to make their own decisions on breastfeeding :)

Venera - January 25, 2012 - 1:52 pm

Excellent post! Well done for not giving up, Antonina!! Beautiful photo as well. I could only add that it’s much easier with the 2nd child. Alisa (my 1st child) caused me quire a lot of pain & soreness, not to mention the two scars “presented” by her, which will stay there forever but for my liitle son Albert it’s so much easier as my breasts are “trained”, no matter how small they are ;-) By the way, my daughter, now 26 months, is still breastfed – yes, it does keep her so attached to me emotionally but it does so much good to her. I will never understand mummies who with no reason do not breatfeed their babies as it is not only food but also connection & comfort for them. After all, nature knows better.

lavender fields + cute baby = bliss

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 Filed under Families, Children & Babies

Once again, I am still catching up on sharing the last year’s sessions! And on a grey day like this there’s nothing better than beautiful lavender fields and a super cute baby girl!

This family session actually was a birthday surprise for the mum, and we didn’t tell her until a couple of days before the session. Plus, the session happened on the actual birthday, which was even more special (how often does your birthday fall on a Saturday, anyway?)

The family lives just a few minutes drive away from the lavender fields, and even though it was September, the lavender was only being cut the following week, so we decided to grab the opportunity for some pretty photographs there!

After a quick nap (this little lady decided to be up at 5am on the day of the session – typical, isn’t it?, so was getting rather tired before we even started) we grabbed a few more images at the family home, before it was time for me to leave the family to prepare for the birthday celebrations.

If you are planning to book your own family photography session in the lavender fields this year, please don’t delay and book it now, as my availability will be limited.

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