The Present Before the Push

Way back in the day at some point or another I mentioned a Push Present to my dear husband. I'm not sure what I said, or how I said it but whatever it was, lucky for me it stuck with him. This is a newer tradition where the man will buy the woman a gift as a thank you of sorts for carrying his child for the last 10 months...and pushing it out of her nether regions. Although women have been doing such a thing for years and years, I think its nice some men are recognizing that it's a real bitch to be the one who's pregnant and then produces the actual child.

He recently brought up the topic of what I'd want for a Push Present again and we spent some time tossing out ideas. A lot of husbands get their wives some nice jewelry as a present. But I don't wear a ton of jewelry, and what I do wear has been adorned to me in the last year for all our wedding hoopla by Adam.

So, with jewelry out of the question, we started tossing around untraditional ideas. Some were a weekend getaway, clothes for after baby weight loss, etc. But nothing was really popping out at either of us. Then I decided to task Adam with just figuring it out for me since I didn't want to deal with it. Truthfully, I'm not sure there's a real need for a push present. The best reward for both of us is to have a healthy daughter at the end of all the swearing, sweating, screaming, and ugh...tearing that takes place. But if he insists, I'll gladly accept a token of appreciation and thanks.

A few months ago, I purchased a new Canon Elph to capture all of Adly's first moments with. I've had plenty of this brand of camera in the past, but unfortunately have had bad luck with dropping and breaking them. That was, you know, back when I was young and wild. I didn't love it after I purchased it, but felt comfortable with it. I had been gun shy about going for a nicer camera like the Canon T3i, due to my inexperience as a photographer. That and I didn't trust myself to handle it properly.

That was, until I went to Laura's (another preggo- one month ahead of me) baby shower. It was there that I noticed her husband be-bopping all around taking beautiful pictures with what I thought was my camera. The one I was originally too scared to buy. I crazily grabbed him by the neck stopped him as he was snapping away and asked him all about the camera. Turns out it was almost identical to the one I had wanted to buy! And even better, it was really easy to use. With that, I raced home to turn my camera envy into a new camera for me.

It was then that Adam brought up paying  for the camera upgrade as my push present. This camera is not cheap by any means and is more like an investment. I jumped on the idea. Untraditional? Yes. But perfect for us? Definitely. The reason I had even wanted to invest in a nicer camera was so I would be able to perfectly capture every waking moment of my dear daughter from the moment she arrives. So with that, I hastily made the purchase and my beloved camera arrived yesterday.

Normally, I'll tear open a new digital camera and just start using it, figuring it out as I go. But not with this beauty. Instead, I took my time, actually put in the CD they provide for instructions and did something crazy. I read what it said. 

After reading for a bit, I decided to try the first step and put on the strap. It's one of those big neck straps, that makes you look real professional. Call me crazy, but putting a strap on a camera is not as simple as it sounds. At least for me it wasn't.

 Fifth attempt at putting on the strap. I had to take a picture to remember the frustration. 

 Then I saw pictures on the instructions! Yay! I finally did it!!

Strap, complete.

Yay! I'm a whole new camera woman. 

So now, my present before the push is that I get to document the rest of this pregnancy using an amazing camera, thanks to my amazing husband. Luckily, I will now have this beauty with me to document my first baby shower on Saturday!