Fall Maternity Shoot, Boulder Colorado
I’m sharing some pictures from our maternity session by the talented Susan B Photography. We were lucky to have pictures taken just 10 minutes from our house at South Boulder Creek West Trail. I didn’t realize it until we got there, but this trail allows dogs to be off-leash. We ended up visiting again towards the end of my pregnancy and letting our dog Bear run around on the trail.
We had so much fun taking pictures while looking at the beautiful Colorado Flatirons and celebrating our daughter on the way. This trail will always hold special memories for me and I can’t wait to take baby Holland here in her jogging stroller when she’s older.
I never journaled or recorded much during my pregnancy other than having Reed take pictures of my bump for weekly updates. Now writing this with my 3-week old baby girl, I figure I’ll add some of my memories from pregnancy to this post. I also hope that Holland can see these photos when she’s older and knows how much she’s loved. 
This pregnancy was a wonderful gift in an uncertain time. I got positive pregnancy tests in my hotel in Thailand and that’s when I started to feel like this might be real. Also at that same time in early March, the first Coronavirus case was confirmed in Colorado. People started buying up all of the toilet paper and medical supplies. I ended up ordering toilet paper off of Amazon while still in Asia. I was terrified of catching the virus and losing my baby.
One of the difficult parts of being pregnant for the first time during a pandemic was that Reed was not allowed to come to any of my doctor appointments. I thought the first ultrasound was incredible. I didn’t go in until mid-April and by then I was 10 weeks pregnant. I couldn’t believe there was a baby on the screen and she was moving! Reed was able to watch my other ultrasounds through Facetime. I hope we will be lucky enough to have another baby where Reed can attend the ultrasounds.
When we got back from Aisa I was feeling very tired and the jetlag plus pregnancy made me feel awful. I had morning sickness all through the day from 6 weeks through at least 19 weeks. I was not throwing up but needed to eat constantly to keep my stomach feeling stable. Nausea went away during most of the 2nd trimester but came back some during the 3rd. Other than mild morning sickness and massive weight-gain (I blame COVID), my pregnancy went smoothly with no major health issues.
April 28th was the day we found out we were expecting a baby girl! I had my blood drawn to check for chromosome abnormalities at my 10-week appointment and the test was able to tell us the sex of the baby. Reed was out picking me up food when the doctor called to deliver the exciting news. I thought I would wait till Reed got back, but I was too excited and told him over the phone. I asked him to pick up something pink on his way back. He brought home pink cupcakes and we called our parents to celebrate.
I first felt Holland kick at 15 weeks, but it was so faint that I wasn’t able to identify what it was. I later realized that I was feeling baby kicks around 18 weeks. It was awesome to feel her move and made the morning sickness worth it. I felt my first Braxton Hicks contractions at 24 weeks. I was jogging and got really worried because I wasn’t sure what I was feeling at the time. I should probably thank my body for all of the contractions since I had an easy labor, but I had Braxton Hicks all the time during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters.
You can read about Holland’s birth story here. Reed and I had hoped to have children of our own for a long time but never felt truly ready until I became pregnant with Holland. We are so thankful for our 2020 blessing baby. I don’t feel like our family is complete yet, but I feel so happy to be where I am right now ending a difficult and strange year with my husband, our dog and bunny, and our new precious baby!
