"Maternity" Photos?

I was not in favor of doing a maternity photo shoot. Who wants to spend lots of money to take pictures of a time when they are bigger than they've ever been, nothing fits right, and it's hard to just move? A lot of people, but not me. But then I got to thinking about it. Maybe I should put this time down in pictures to remember and to show my kid when she's a bit older.

Now, I have not avoided the camera during this pregnancy. Surprisingly, I've not been as depressed about my growing girth as I thought I would be. After all, there's a reason for my increasing size and it's clearly a baby bump, which I've been documenting monthly (and in the same outfit) just for the sake of remembering. But those pictures are not my favorite - in fact, I don't like them at all for anything other than bump comparisons. It doesn't help that I seem to take them right before bed when I'm looking my most tired and puffy.

Every year, I feel like I'm surprised at how beautiful the scenery is in the background of all of my Easter pictures. Everything is so fresh and green. So this Easter afternoon, I decided to suck it up, use the new camera, borrow a sister for a while to act as camera-lady (Mary was the first sister we saw), and drag Matt out for a "maternity shoot." It was free and we could delete without guilt if we needed to. And we did delete. Quite a few shots. But, to my surprise there were a few we were okay with saving.

So below are my personal favorites. Even though the sun was too high and we were squinty or in shadow in quite a few of the shots we took, I'm pleased with how a few turned out. At least pleased enough to say that I've saved a visual of the bump and that I'm satisfied with this shoot as an alternative to spending money on a professional set of photos.

Thanks for the photog skills, Murry!