Baby bump photos & maternity shoot. glad i did it!

When I became pregnant with Daniel I wanted to make sure that my whole pregnancy journey and each of his monthly milestone photos will be documented. Pinterest was my best friend during those times, from all the mommy tips, baby stuff and to all the pegs I wanted to do for our milestone photos, everything seemed to look easy... or so I thought.
 
Being pregnant, lazy and moody took a toll on me. For my monthly baby bump photos, there were days when I just didn’t want to get up from bed and just sleep it off the entire day. You can see that in some months I was hardly even smiling but I’m thankful that Tat was there consistently pushing me to do each monthly baby bump shoot despite the many times I had unleash my pregnancy hormones on him – he is that supportive!

And how fascinating seeing how my body changed throughout my pregnancy!

Of course a formal maternity shoot was needed and so we travelled all the way from Manila to my province in Tarlac to do the shoot but upon arriving, I was already too drained from the travel that I had to reschedule the next day and had to ask the photographer and stylist to stay overnight. I was lucky that both of them are good friends of mine and were completely understanding about the pregnant mood changes thats happening to me. 

Tarlac was the perfect shoot location for me, this is where our family's rice business is located. Rice is our family's main source of income - it is our bread & butter for many many decades and is my Grandmother's legacy. She is the brains behind it, thats why its literally called "Gloria's Rice Mill".   So as a way of welcoming my baby boy to the family, I decided to have the shoot inside the Rice Mill and amidst the itchy grains of rice drying under the scorching heat of the northern sun!

This huge antique vanity mirror was given to me by my Grandmother and it was a perfect prop to use for the shoot

Looking back Im glad my laziness and pregnancy mood swings did not stop me from documenting my pregnancy journey. I'll only be pregnant once with Daniel, it is a once-in-a -lifetime experience for me and my baby. I'll be able to show him all these and tell him that this  was how his mommy's body looked like each month he was growing inside of me. 

If God will bless me with another child I will still make the extra effort to do all these things all over again. Being pregnant had been a wonderful journey for me and its something so beautiful I would want to experience one or two more times in my life again.

So if anyone of you who's currently pregnant reading this, go and document each of your monthly bump milestone and do a maternity shoot. Yes it's tiring and need extra effort but remember its you and your baby and you'll only be pregnant once for this baby your entire life!

Maternity Photos by Raphael Yu
Stylist James Nualla
Dresses Beyond White