Maternity Must-Haves

There are a whole slew of things that I've realized you do/do not need to invest in when you're pregnant.  For example, one good pair of maternity jeans are a GAME CHANGER.  Seriously.  I just barely found a pair at the beginning of my 7 month mark, and they were worth every penny.  I wish I would've found them earlier.  And maxi dresses?  Oh man.  Don't even get me started.  Every pregnant lady needs a handful of those bad boys.  I'm pretty sure they are one of the only articles of clothing that have gotten me through this crazy morphing of my body.  Some women are super lucky and don't even show until like 20+ weeks, but I started showing a lot earlier, and pretty much none of my normal clothes fit so I needed something that would show I was pregnant and not just fat & at the same time be comfortable.

One thing I went back and forth about for a while was maternity pictures.  I couldn't decide if it was actually worth it or not.  Were they really that important?  Is it kind of awkward to have pictures of just you and your massive belly?  Was it something that I should be spending money on when I have so many other baby things to buy?  Here's what I concluded: Every woman needs them.  Seriously.  I actually have really enjoyed being pregnant but let's be real…. a huge belly full of veins (& I'm sure the stretch marks will be joining the crew any day now) is not exactly something that makes a woman feel beautiful.  At least not this woman, anyway.  But I decided a few months ago that you can either embrace the belly, or hate it.  For the sake of my sanity, I need to embrace it.

I guess one pretty essential thing is finding someone who can get the job done right.  We lucked out & an awesome photographer, Amy Carlston, moved to San Francisco just a few weeks ago & we were able to snag her for an evening.  Even though I was extremely awkward (& JD even more so!), she did an amazing job capturing not only the beautiful place we get to call home - which for whatever reason, was really important to me - but also captured the beauty of this growing bump.  It was super windy, super foggy, and pretty chilly, but the second I saw these photos, I realized that I was SO glad we did it.

Pregnancy is an amazing thing.  The body is CRAZY COOL.  I still am in shock that I have two humans inside of me.  With that, of course, comes some crazy changes, too.  Even when you aren't really showing yet & you've hardly gained any weight, your pants just don't fit the same anymore and you find yourself (or at least I did) constantly yanking at them to sit in right spots.  Then you do start to show, but you kind of just look like you had 4 Thanksgiving dinners within a 20 minute span & people aren't totally sure if you just carry all your weight in your stomach or if there's an actual baby in there.  And then you finally show.  And someone congratulates you!!  And you want to kiss them because you realize for the first time someone actually recognizes that you're not just slacking at the gym and eating crap… but that there's a life (or lives) inside of you!  You're freaking growing humans and that ROCKS!  And then you just keep getting bigger…and bigger….and bigger still!  And you feel those kicks!  And really…if it weren't for those kicks and jabs and somersaults, that massive stomach might be a little bit harder.  But even then, sometimes the growing is hard because you realize you can't just bend over and pick something up.  Even rolling to the other side in bed becomes a challenge.  And worst of all?  Shaving is the hardest thing in the world to do (ladies…you know what I'm talking about) & eventually becomes virtually impossible.

So when you ask someone to take pictures of you at the end of this weird stage, it almost feels silly.  Why would I want to have pictures of myself looking like this?  After I opened up Amy's email with all of the proofs, I first of all wanted to hug her and thank her a million times over.  Then, it hit me that I was so glad that I did this.  For the first time in 7.5 months, I felt pretty…and not just "cute."  I mean, cute's not bad…. but puppies are cute.  Babies are cute.  For goodness sake, the pillows on my couch are cute.  In one of the most womanly stages of my life, I don't really want to be referred to as cute. So, sometimes us women need to feel pretty - straight up.  And that's when it hit me… every pregnant lady ought to do this.  First and foremost, I think it's so important to capture the big milestones in life with photos.  Secondly, I want my girls to see these first few photos of the four of us together (that's right - I even talked dad into being in some of them!).  And third, that womanly "I want to feel beautiful even when my body is different," side of me screams…"Do this, ladies!"  Our bodies are magical and awesome and yes…even beautiful!  And we're crazy not to capture such a special and yet, short time in our lives on camera.

So if you're like me & you're constantly going back and forth about whether or not it's worth it to spend the extra cash on maternity photos…just think of me and my blogging rant.  You should do it.  Tell your husband I said so. ;)  And you should feel proud of that bump and what those photos actually mean, amidst all the other nutty parts of pregnancy.  And let's be real…when you have that kind of a backdrop as your backyard, how can you say no?

All photos were taken by the beautifully, talented Amy Carlston.  

And if you can snatch her up, you should!