MY Open Letter To Every Expecting Mother Out There.
My oldest daughter is turning nine in a few weeks, and as we do every year around this time, we start discussing what her “year older pictures” will be. (What theme she would like, she gets to choose any theme she wants every year. Both of my babies do.) As we are discussing this I mention “let’s go all the way back and look at every photo shoot we have done with you, what do you think?” she then says “Yes mommy but let’s look at my VERY first pictures first.” She then goes to a magazine holder that sits right next to her bed and pulls out the ugliest, super girlie, pink album/scrapbook ever haha. She proceeds to say “This is my FAVORITE picture.” Pointing to an image of me holding my new sweet baby girl.
Ugly Pink Book
As I look through the very FEW images I have of this amazing experience, I am suddenly overwhelmed with sadness. I begin to realize that there is only ONE yes ONE image of myself with my baby. I was SO stubborn about NOT having my picture taken because I HATE images of myself. Yet as I look at this ONE image, I see that you can hardly tell that I had just been through 15 hours of intense labor. All I can see is my complete amazement and love for this new little girl, my shock as to how my husband and I had made such a perfect being, and my complete calmness and readiness to be the best mother this little girl deserved.
My letter to all expecting mothers, frankly mothers in general, is this :
DO NOT be that person that I was. DO NOT not document one of the most amazing days of your life! There is NO price you can put on the memories you receive from having your delivery and newborn experience documented. I have ten images of that very early morning when my first baby Aya entered into the world. 8 out of the 10 images are blurry (not the persons fault they are by NO means a photographer) and as mentioned there is only one – SINGLE – image of me and her together in that very moment. All along I thought I was doing good enough photographing my children every year that they get older. And I know that those images are just as important. But what I failed to realize are the images that my child would treasure most are so scarce because I failed to realize the importance of what was happening.
Blurry Image
Mothers EVERYWHERE PLEASE remember that these documentations are not just for you! These are memories that your children will treasure and want forever. PLEASE understand that when we pass away, all our children will have are albums and scrapbooks and prints of times in our lives that have been documented. But if you don’t have it documented or if it’s documented poorly you are leaving behind memories that are cloudy and hard to fully see. More times than not we take for granted the things that are happening all around us. I am here to give you living proof that it is absolutely a mistake to not document as much as you can, and leave CLEAR memories that your children can feel, touch, hold and most importantly keep close to them.
I thankfully have more documentation of my second because I was forced into pictures. AGAIN…. now I am SO SO SO thankful for them. And I PROMISE to do more documentation of me with my two amazing girls AND husband, so that they will have those memories FOREVER! I have been photographing birth/delivery sessions now for two years and with every one of these sessions I photograph it with every emotion that I have poured into this blog. I photograph these sessions the way I wish mine had been photographed! PLEASE moms to be, new moms, or mothers who have children that are grown remember my letter to you. AND NEVER take for granted the moments you have with your babies!
