Cook Baby #3
Pregnancy Update & Personal Maternity Pictures
If it seems a little early for maternity pictures, I’ll confess. I broke my own rules and scheduled our family maternity session wayyyy before I was 30 weeks along.
But my heart was set on beach portraits, so I justified my rule-breaking pretty quickly. Tommy and I have been vacationing at Oak Island, NC since we were dating. He has been vacationing there since he was a child! I’ve never scheduled family portraits at the beach because I was always able to just take my own beach photos of our kiddos. So for whatever reason, I decided maternity pictures in September at barely 20 weeks was the way I wanted to handle things this pregnancy. Haha!
I’m really glad we did this. We had a wonderful experience with Caroline Jean Photography from start to finish. While I am not super crazy about the photos of myself and the job the wind did on my hair, I am really very happy with the pictures of the girls, of the girls and Tommy, and there are a few maternity gems that I will absolutely treasure.
Pregnancy is always worth documenting, whether you go all-out on a full maternity session or just have someone snap a few at the end of a family portrait session. I treasure each one of my own maternity portraits!
Most Frequently Asked Pregnancy Questions
Do You Know What You Are Having?
It’s a BOY! Oh we are SO happy and excited and I was in such disbelief when we found out! This was the first time we found out the gender together and we were able to find out early in the pregnancy, too! It’s definitely been a different experience for me bonding with this sweet boy and I’m really grateful I’ve had that!
How Are You Feeling?
This is by far the most common question! And I am always so happy to say that this has been the easiest pregnancy, by far. It’s a little hard to believe since I am older and I started this pregnancy heavier than I started my previous ones. That’s truly my only complaint - just being heavy. But nausea was minimal (just enough to keep my anxiety from being through the roof), short-lived, and easy to treat. I have struggled with mood swings but it seems like they are behind me for the most part. Of course I’m writing this while in the bliss of my second trimester, so who knows what is to come!
Where Are You Having This Baby?
As far as birth plans, I really went back and forth this time around. For years I have wondered what I would choose to do if we had another baby.
Sunday was born blissfully at home… it was truly a wonderful experience! For Izzie’s birth, the combination of perinatal anxiety and witnessing a difficult home-birth led me to change my home-birth plans to a hospital birth midway through her pregnancy. We had a wonderful, uninterrupted hospital birth with zero complications and countless hamburgers for Tommy. I LOVED having the nurses there at my beck and call - what a luxury!
But this time around, I settled into the decision of another home-birth and have been seeing the wonderful Leslie Payne for prenatal care. I was able to visit my favorite hospital midwives group last week for our anatomy scan, though! Baby looks great and so far, so good with our plan to deliver at home.
What’s Different This Time Around?
Aside from being older, I do think I am approaching this entire experience with more self-care, more grace, and more patience. I have said it multiple times; I will fully surrender my birth hopes and dreams for a proper postpartum period full of restful days of bonding with baby! I don’t need to re-learn the importance of this! I have already started stocking my freezer, interviewing postpartum doulas, and inviting close family and friends in to help me and my family during this season of adjustment. If I can prevent any form of PMADs by spoiling myself and creating a stress-free space for bonding with this baby boy in the first month of his life, that feels like a NO brainer to me!
I’m using the following resources to prepare for postpartum and if you are expecting, I encourage you to check each one of these out as well!
Keep scrolling to see a few of my favorites from our beach family maternity session on Oak Island, NC!
Are you expecting and looking for a caring maternity or newborn photographer? I would love to work with you at Liz Cook Photography to create portraits you will cherish for a lifetime. Contact us and we will share with you our special memory collections such as maternity + newborn or newborn + baby milestone packages. You may also set up a complimentary, no-obligation consultation here in the studio to answer any questions and help you feel comfortable capturing this beautiful new season of life.
Liz Cook is a motherhood, baby and wedding photographer in Central Virginia. She loves to photograph emotional and storytelling portraits, the details of parenthood, and fun and easygoing couples in love. If you are interested in working with Liz, simply fill out the quick form here.
