Friday, January 27, 2012

Maternity Photos a Prequel

G and I were married in a tiny little brew pub over cheeseburgers and microbrew, with Judge Judy on TV in the background and 8 of our closest friends sitting around the table...2 years ago, today.  That day was pretty freakin' great.  Today, so many things are different.  I am no longer in medic school, we live in a house of our very own, I am working, I am 35weeks pregnant....Lots of things have changed in the last 2 years.  My favorite change is this, I love G more today than I did the day I married him.  Not in the rom-com, super smushy, "love grows every day" sort of BS.  I love him more than I ever dreamed possible.  I love who he has become and who he aspires to be day in and day out as well as on the grander scale, like who he wants to be as a father, a teacher, a medic, a man.  I love how dynamic he is.  He is ALWAYS learning and growing and trying.  He is never the same from one day to the next.  I love that he was a cargo pant fanatic, all I can talk about is work, nerd boy, afraid to tell me to stop being an asshole, when we first started dating.  Now he is a carhart wearing, house rewiring, home birth supporting, "honey, you're doing that thing that makes me want to run out into traffic" asserting, man who is about to become a dad.  He is 100 X hotter and more interesting to me than he was when we first met.  That sounds mean but think of it this way.  I found him interesting enough and hot enough to marry after a little over a year of dating.   I wasn't selling myself short or rushing into anything.  He was a "good" man and I loved him very much and was very much looking forward to spending our lives together.  These days I am giddy to report that I have a total crush on my husband and I honestly crave spending time doing just about anyoldstupid thing with him on our days off.  I should qualify all of this with the fact that when we are both working we go 4 days on and 4 days off.  During those 4 on if we are VERY VERY lucky we will see each other for about 45min total.  Our shifts are opposite and so we really do miss each other by the end of the work week.  This may impart some unfair advantage over the average married couple who goes through the first 2 years of being married spending, on average, much more time together.  But unfair advantage or not, being married is the shit and being married to this guy in particular is the freakin' Cricket's Knickers!  Its even better than the bee's knees.  I just wanted to put that out there.

SO, this all begs the question; How did we celebrate our 2 year mark today?  Well, after working a busy night G came home and slept for about 2.5hrs and then we went to the same park we had engagement photos at and we had maternity pictures.  The photographer, Sarah, was great.  She was very natural and easy going.  G and I just did our best to relax and get smoochy.  We wandered around the park kissing and rubbing my belly and gazing into each other's eyes for a while and then we went down to the water.  It was a gray, foggy day and the bridge seemed to go off into the fog like some magical, far away land.  It looked cool.  I stripped out of my tights and skirt, down to a bra, panties and some purple rain boots.  I wrapped up in the beautiful baby quilt and we took my "belly shots".  It was MAYBE 40 degrees outside but I didn't care.  I had spent a lot of time thinking about how I feel about my body and what I wanted from these pictures.  I didn't need more lovey pictures of G and I REALLY.  We had sweet engagement photos and I get to look at his mug and feel how I feel about him all the time...I wanted pictures that celebrate the power of what WE are doing, bringing this life into the world and pictures that celebrate what a fucking awesome thing my body is doing.  I don't mean that in the "I'm awesome" way.  More like "holy moses, my body has been doing this thing without my input (for the most part) and it knew how to grow this little body and expand to accommodate it and soon, it is going to know how to release it into our arms and the world.  It may sound crazy but I am totally convinced that it is magic.  So, yeah, I stripped and got cozy on the dock in my belly and undies.  The photographer kept saying "You're so bold!  I love it!"  I can't wait to see the pictures.  I am sure I will have criticism for my chunky thighs or my extra padded arms but so what?  These pictures will forever, remind me that I once grew a person and I looked like a total Amazon doing it.  So, the lesson today is, anyone thinking of doing that wild "more naked than not" maternity shoot should go for it.  You will feel amazing even before you see the photos.  You will feel like you did yourself justice because, after all you ARE magic.

**Photos to follow when available** :)

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