Maternity Photos for Vera

Throughout my pregnancy, I (mostly intentionally) didn't take very many photos of my growing belly. This being my first child, I guess I was admittedly a little self conscious about growing out of the same jeans I'd been wearing since high-school, and I wasn't all gung-ho to document that. Despite having always wanted kids, I remember telling my husband when we found out the news that it is strange to suddenly be happy or even excited about gaining weight (maybe had we "planned" this a little better, I would have been more prepared for that change). I suppose my athletic background combined with the unquestionable pressure on women to look a certain way in our society made changing that mindset a little more difficult for me than flipping a light-switch. I'm sure a lot of first time mom's feel that way too. As it turned out, however, I was consistently measuring a little small at each check-up, and towards the end of the journey whenever someone tried to compliment me by commenting on how little I looked, all I could think of was how I hoped the baby was big enough and worry whether I was doing everything I could to make sure she was healthy. Its funny how parenthood changes the focus from you to the little one- even before you meet them. A couple things I did commit to during the incubation phase were documenting one photo each month for a nursery project I'm still working on (more to come on that soon) and taking a couple of maternity photos with Brett so that our daughter would be able to look back on them someday and see how things were before she got here. So here they are: My very helpful sister took these shots for us less than a week before Vera was born. Nothing like waiting till the last minute! I sincerely hope that someday she will be able to look at these and see how in love we were with her before she even arrived.

- Dawn