Maternity Shoot

A few weeks ago, Matt and I had the pleasure of doing a maternity shoot with Joshua Veldstra. This lucky guy is dating my best friend Brittney, so of course I've heard a lot about him and seen a lot of his photography. But I finally got to see him in action! I was a little intimidated to step (waddle) in front of his camera, since he normally shoots with models (and has been recognized several times by Vogue), but it ended up being really fun and easy. I'm hardly even still mad at him for whisking Brittney away to live in Alaska. Here are some of my favorites:

 

I can't believe I'm facing the last few weeks of this pregnancy. Since I found out I was expecting the earliest day possible (my doctor furrowed her eyebrows in disbelief when I told her I had a positive pregnancy test), it seems like this pregnancy has lasted forever. And then at the same time, it has just whizzed by.

I hardly even remember my second trimester, but this one is going by nice and slow. Despite hard days, and every pregnancy symptom intensifying in the evenings, I've loved being pregnant. (Is anyone else picturing the scene from Friends when Rachel says that a few days before her due date and then they cut to a scene of her overdue and miserable?) Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely looking forward to sleeping on my stomach and putting on my running shoes by myself, but I have been blessed with a pretty fun and easy 8 months and I'm so thankful. I wouldn't mind if he came a little early and I missed out on the last couple weeks, since my back is starting to ache and I've been in the same pajama pants for four weeks. But I'm mostly trying to enjoy it; you only have your first pregnancy once, right?

I think the main thing I'll miss is my extrovert-dream-come-true of having someone with me all the time, stirring around. This kid is so active! At my first appointment with my new doctor here, she was trying to find his heartbeat and looked up with wide eyes as my abdomen thrust around before saying "hm, you are definitely going to have your hands full...". We're so thankful to have a healthy, active baby but we are already brainstorming ways to keep up with him (as if there are better solutions than coffee).

Joshua and Brittney did a great job of finding flattering poses for us the whole shoot (not an easy task when there's a 33 week pregnant woman draped in a black maxi dress), but I especially love these last two pictures. We were about to head back to the car when Matt asked if we could take one more shot and bent down to kiss my stomach. I love how they turned out and I love how genuine Matt's face is. It's not easy getting him comfortable in front of a camera, but he loves kissing that baby. He always goes a little nuts when he hears Matt's voice. I can't wait to see those two together!

Thank you again for a wonderful shoot, Joshua! I love having such great shots of our almost-family-of-three.