Kyla's Maternity Photo Celebrations

My favorite body type is the pregnant body type. I love to photograph pregnant women and I love my body shape most when I am pregnant. I know a lot of women who struggle with their quickly changing figures while preggers, not I. Here are the top 3 reasons why I love my pregnant body:

1. Curvy, curvy curves!!! Voluminous was a descriptive word my husband used when we were pregnant with our first born, Odin. It's direct meaning: Having great volume, fullness, size. To me it meant sexy and full of life, which felt amazing.
2. Purpose. Growing a life inside your body is truly magical. The fact that a woman's body can change so much in such a short period of time is miraculous to me.
3. There is no need to suck in your tummy. Once I became aware of my own body image (some point in my teens) I was always overly conscious of sucking in my tummy. The only time in my life that I didn't have a bit extra in the belly area was after a 23 day Outward bound course where we hiked 6 to 10 hours a day. So, I guess if I wanted to maintain that semi-six pack I would have had to maintain that lifestyle. Not so much on the cards for me, so to not feel the need to suck in... heavenly!

Loving my pregnant body is awesome, but I haven't completely overcome the body image issues that come up for me after pregnancy. Even knowing what I do about body image, trying to embrace and maintain a positive attitude after the dramatic changes my body endures after giving birth is a challenge for me. I have affectionately named my stretch marks my "Odin tattoos," which the baby in my belly now has added too. I don't mind them so much because they are the proof that my kiddos came from me. Prior to being pregnant with baby #2, Odin would play with my belly like it was play dough, because it was soft and squishy and fun to play with... I guess. My Odin tattoos look a bit like a brain once they are no longer being stretched by a baby from the inside. It is what it is, but it doesn't feel pretty. Even though I am proud of my Odin tattoos, I likely won't be rocking a bikini after this baby either. With that said it doesn't change the way salt water feels on my skin, so I am grateful for that. There are a few other issues that I would like to embrace, mostly having to do with the continued sacrifice made when breast feeding and va-jj issues. Don't worry I will spare you the details here. As I am writing this I am remembering that the rewards are so much greater than the sacrifices. There is nothing more tender then nursing an infant or watching my toddler thrive. I would think I will own the fact that I contributed to that. I did good and I am grateful to my body for what it has given to get us all to where we are now. Yes, I believe we can consider all of this baby making/growing/body changing stuff a miracle. Wow, pretty powerful!

Thank you to my patient and ever-giving sister, Wesley, for taking these photos (except for the ones she is in). Thank you to Christina Knickerbocker of Paint the Dog Productions for giving up part of her Saturday to add my maternity shoot to the footage for our film ExposurSELF (a little follow up piece.) I purposely included a couple nudes/semi-nude images in this series since I often post nudes of our trusting and beautiful clients. A giant thanks to the rest of my family and friends for joining in on the festivities to celebrate Baby Jenkinson #2.

*These events were a few weeks apart. ;)