Hi Friends! I realize it’s been a while since I’ve done ANY blogging… I did have a baby and all. I wanted to take time to share and blog some of the maternity photos I took while pregnant with our new guy…

When I was pregnant with my first babe (the beautiful two year old you’ll see in many of these photos) I don’t think I took ANY photos of myself other than iPhone to document the journey. I think most of that is because I feel very strange taking photos of just myself and this time I could have Lucy in them with me.

Although it can feel like many more steps to set up the tripod and get the little wireless clicker ready, it really isn’t all THAT much more work. I’m glad that I took a couple times to do this throughout my pregnancy with Graham. I should note that my husband took the the photos above (except the one he was in) – I set the camera all up and he snaps some, it works out great!

This one (above) was one of my favorites… for many reasons. I love lifestyle photography and this is is lifestyle at its finest. I read Lucy a few books before her nap everyday (still do – unless it’s the weekend and her Dad can). I not only wanted to document the bump as it grew, but also some of my last moments with Lucy being our only child. We spend so much time together just the two of us so it was important for me to capture that. This shot was not set up in any way, I didn’t clean anything up, put Bernie on the bed in that spot, or make her cuddle extra close to me. This is our 100% real life and I will forever be thankful for the documentation of it.

Lookout folks! That is by BARE BELLY above! Some people think it’s a little strange to show that, but as a lifestyle photographer I felt the need to push myself and try it out – at least try a few photos that only my own eyes would view. I am grateful to have some photos (yes, more than one and you’ll see that as your scroll down) of my bare belly included in them.

I am also so thankful to have little Lucy to be in all of these photos with me. One of my favorite things about lifestyle photography is showing connection and she helped me do this! She was also very interested my growing belly. We told her before it got too big that there was a baby coming, but I honestly think the fact that my belly getting bigger and bigger helped her understand that a *little* bit better.

She would give my belly kisses often and we would pray for ‘baby brother’ (his nickname while in the womb). We weren’t sure if she really knew what was coming, but we talked about it a lot and read books about it, too. It was such a sweet time to see her loving on him before he was even born. I can’t wait to show Graham when he’s older these photos of his big sister being so sweet to him already.

With this pregnancy I continued to stay pregnant WAYYYYY longer than expected. In the beginning my OB thought I would be induced at 37 weeks, but I was able to go to 39 weeks, 2 days! It was exciting, exhausting, and unexpected. We’re all very glad he got to cook that long though – and he would have kept going if not for my scheduled C-section. Who knows how long he would have stayed in there if I didn’t have that?!

I did want to take a moment to tell all of you beautiful pregnant ladies out there to take time to snap a few photos of yourself while you’re pregnant. Even if you don’t love your body and don’t feel beautiful – know that first of all you are (beautiful) and your body is amazing for what it’s doing for you and your baby, and secondly you will appreciate having those pictures in the future… not only you will but those who love you will too, especially that baby in your belly! So get over thinking that you’re huge and document your journey! It’s worth it!

Also FYI – your belly gets that big (below) when you have a 10 pound 7 ounce baby in it! Yep!