34 Weeks- Maternity Photos

If you are anywhere near your Facebook or Pinterest, you know the rage on maternity photos.  I can tell you, if you go back 33 years to when my Mom was pregnant with me, there is only proof due to one random photo in which she looks like she is wearing a tent.  We have come a long ways my blog friends.

My Husband and I are not the adoring couple, who gaze lovingly into each others eyes, while holding bump .  We can’t stare down, lovingly, at the bump looking like we are dreaming of the perfect future with an infant that immediately sleeps through the night.  I sure as hell am not the woman who can pull off the flowing, see through, white dress, while standing in a meadow of flowers with the perfect sun setting behind me.

I have honestly looked, with jealously, at all those perfect maternity shoots that my friends have done.  Trust me, I am not against them but I just couldn’t see us doing them.  Needless to say, it is something I went back and forth on.

I didn’t want to regret not doing some sort of photos but I have had a hard enough time taking a few bump pictures for my own memory.  I also didn’t want to shell out the money that was associated with the all-inclusive photos, followed by all the baby shoots.  I decided against them and went to book our newborn photo shoot instead.  When I did the photographer said she was running a deal, a free maternity shoot with the booking of the newborn shoot.  Well hell, how do I turn that down?

So I reluctantly told the lady we would go for it but begged her to not do cheesy.  Could we just do a few shots together, with our furbaby, something basic and if we hated them then we didn’t have to show anyone?  We could at least have them and move on with life.  She happily replied she knew exactly what we were talking about and could take non-cheesy photos.

One Sunday evening, after our second baby shower and an hour of sleep, we set off to the perfect meadow, with the sun setting behind us, my sister loaded with dog treats, our fur baby pulling us along and 200 friendly mosquitoes.  I brought along one dress, not see through or white, but blue and basic.  After 15 minutes of the basic shots I went and changed into jeans and a top and comfortably took a few more in another, easy, 15 minutes.  The whole time our fur baby smiled happily and listened well. My sister gave us many thumbs up, meaning we didn’t look ridiculous.  Before we knew it, we were done and there were no strange moments.

I have to say, picking the right photographer makes a world of a difference.  This lady was quick, to the point, laid back and truly understood we just wanted the basics.  This past weekend we received a link to all of our photos via email.  We held our breath as we opened the link and were pleasantly surprised.  I wasn’t overly fond of the ones in the dress (my belly button timer was sticking out:) but I looked much better in my comfy clothes.

Overall I am so very happy we had these done.  We aren’t going to up and frame them but I am happy we have a good reminder of this point in our lives.  So if you are on the fence about them, go for it, it is better than regretting you didn’t do them later because you can’t really go back and do it again.