Maternity Pictures

At 32 weeks pregnant, our good friend Joni, Perry, our dog, Rio, and I set out to Evergreen, Colorado to document the belly bump. Our first stop was Evergreen Lake. When we arrived, there was the sweetest father/son duo fishing on this patch of rocks that Joni had scoped out earlier. She wanted to shoot there because it had great light. We mustered up the courage to kindly ask them to move down the lake a bit so we could get some shots. They were happy to do it (I think having a huge belly and climbing in boots with heals really helped our case). I kept peaking back at the duo wondering if we had a son, if Perry would take him to fish at this very spot. Little did we know that we would have daughter (who we were just nine weeks away from meeting). I can't wait to take Winter here one day because hey, girls can most certainly fish too!

When I was about nine weeks pregnant, Perry and I went to one of our favorite hiking trails in Evergreen. We had been there a couple times and saw hikers up on top of this massive plateau but had no clue how to get up there. We finally figured it out on this hike and, while I was much more out of breath than normal, the views were breathtaking and most certainly worth the journey. I feel most at home when I am outside. It's something that Perry and I are talk about all the time---outside is home. Thus, it was only natural for me to once again, scour some big boulders for the next part of our session.

We ended our day as the sun was setting at Lookout Mountain. It was surreal getting the photos back that we took that day and seeing myself pregnant through the camera lens. I felt and looked so different; a bit wiser I think (wink, wink). It was the first time in my life that the majority of the time I wasn't insecure about my body. I say "majority of the time" because of course there were times when I felt frustrated, when nothing fit right or when I wasn't able to do the simplest of things with ease, like putting on my shoes or getting down on the floor with Rio. When I would catch myself in those moments (and the hormones didn't completely take over), I would often think that so many women go through months or years on end of disappointment before they get pregnant and some never do. My insecurities would quickly dissipate and morph into thankfulness. I was thankful that I got pregnant, stayed pregnant and had a beautiful, healthy baby girl. It was an honor to carry Winter. A true honor. 

All photos were taken by the lovely and talented Joni Schrantz. You can follow her story on Instagram.