Pregnancy: Body Image & Maternity Photos

Outfit Details: // Dress // 

I've officially made it to my 3rd trimester (and then some)! My doctor told me that we are rounding third base and making our way to home plate. Eeekk! With the all of the joys that come with the third trimester (joking! It's hot and sweaty), it's also time to take the dreaded maternity photos.
First off, I 100% believe that my photographer did an amazing job! She was so quick and creative! The locations that she has are just absolutely beautiful and I would 100%  recommend her to anyone that lives in Southeast Texas. We will be using her again for our newborn photos and more than likely our first family Christmas photo.

 I don't know about y'all but, I had mixed fillings about taking these. I didn't want to regret not taking them so I just went for it. I searched and searched all of Pinterest looking for the perfect angles and poses to not make me look like a WHALE. The more I looked the more I began to feel so self conscious about my bump. I found tons of picture of these itty bitty belly girls that were probably 5'10 that had the most adorable little round baby bump. Well that's just not the reality for this 5'3 girl! I am very short-waisted so there's just not a lot of places for this baby to go.

Seeing myself in my maternity photos was shocking! I actually cried the moment I saw them because I am not use to seeing myself be so large. It really just hit me hard and made me feel bad about the way I looked. I was (at first) embarrassed to post any on social media, but I did it anyways. I read all of the sweet comments that my friends and family wrote and thought to myself, "are they just being nice and secretly thinking my gosh she's huge?"

 A couple of hours went by and I kept scrolling through each picture. The more time I took to look at them, the more I started to love them. I could feel my sweet baby boy kicking me in my tummy as I examined each photo. All of the sudden my attitude changed. I begin to feel extremely gratefully for the miracle child that was growing within me. I started to look at each photo with a different perspective. I had to remind myself that I am pregnant and this is what happens with your body when you get pregnant. I began thinking about how lucky and blessed I am just to get pregnant (our road to getting pregnant was not the easiest. it was a good 3 years in the making, lots of prayers, and the help of fertility treatments). I remembered how much we wanted this and how there are others that would do anything to be in my shoes.

I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to take these amazing photos! I hope that if any of you are dealing with the same insecurities that I was feeling about the way I looked pregnant that you will also take the time to think about how lucky you are to be pregnant! (It's not as easy as they make it seem!) I pray that you too will decide to take the maternity photos because this is a very short time in your life and you do not want to regret not documenting the memories of the miracle that you are creating.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from our session.