One of the comments I hear a lot from older clients, family and friends is that “maternity portraits weren’t a thing when I was pregnant!” and many of them don’t quite understand the concept. For some women, pregnancy looks glamorous – I don’t feel like I’m one of those! – and for others, it’s a very difficult process full of pain and sickness. Despite that, I have always believed that those moments – carrying your child – are worth remembering. Whether it’s your first or your tenth, the process you’re going through to bring a life into this world is so powerful. I knew before I ever got pregnant that I would want maternity portraits, even if it wasn’t always a “thing” – and here’s a little more about why!
This is a new journey for our family. Ryan and I have wanted children, but we were worried about timing – financially, with our jobs, the house we’re in, the list goes on and on. So when I say this baby is wanted, I really mean it. This pregnancy journey and journey into parenthood is all new to us – and I honestly think it would feel just as new if/when we someday added a sibling into the mix. Regardless, to me, capturing the moments for us as our lives started to change were and are so important to me.
These will be our last portraits as a family of two. Life is changing! While we’re excited for our little guy, this year has become a lot of “lasts” for us as a family of two. We can travel with ease (give or take!), our holidays are about to change, new traditions will form and our social lives will be different. I think it’s a great time to honor who we are now with portraits to remember this time in our lives for a different reason than above. I want to remember how he and I feel right now, as we wait anxiously for our lives to change in the most amazing way.
Pregnancy is hard. This has, without a doubt, been one of the hardest but most rewarding things I’ve ever done. Although I’ve thankfully had a fairly easy and healthy pregnancy, I’ve still learned a lot about who I am and what my body can (and can’t!) do. Who knows if we will have more children? Who knows when we will have more children? No one. So to me, I wanted to be sure we captured this pregnancy – because it is so special. Every pregnancy is. But to us, especially our first one. Documenting how I look and feel has been so important to me – I don’t want to ever forget any step of what brought our little guy into the world.
I’m so thankful we found an amazing photographer to capture our maternity session in the salty air of the Outer Banks. It’s one of our favorite places and we already can’t wait to take David there next summer. These portraits already mean the world to me and I know they will continue to over the years because they captured this huge monument in our lives. I can’t wait to share all of our portraits on the blog Monday morning!
xo
Kristina
All maternity portraits by Lundy Photography!
See other pregnancy related posts here:
[…] maternity portraits was so important to me for a variety of reasons (read about that here!), but picking a photographer turned out to be harder than I thought! I was so happy when we found […]