When I was pregnant, I remember thinking that I needed to capture my growing bump throughout my pregnancy. I wanted to do it in a creative way, something along the lines of those cool Mums who photograph their growing belly each day and then put all the photos together to make a cute little twenty video, compressing nine months into twenty or so seconds. Well, like all good intentions time got away from me, and I either forgot, couldn’t be bothered (to get off the couch) or was busy doing something else that pregnant people do. So many people told me to ‘stop and smell the roses’ – capture the moment so you don’t forget it. The thing is, time goes so fast these days that it’s hard to stop and take it all in, and this makes me sad.
I was looking back through the (thousands of) photos that I have taken this year of our darling little girl. We don’t have to worry about having missed any moments in Ella’s life so far…let’s just say her life is extremely well documented! Before Ella was born, my husband gave me a fabulous SLR camera as a Christmas gift. However, I noticed that whilst we have hundreds of photos of Ella, there are hardly any of her with her Dad, and even less with me. I have been trying really hard of late to make sure that I capture precious moments of her with her dad. Often what happens however, is the person who remembers to take all the photos ends up not being in any. I guess I’ll have to make a conscious effort to remind friends and family to make sure that I get snapped holding my little one or else I will end up having nothing to show for it!
Whilst looking through the photos on my iPhone, I found the few photos I took of myself whilst pregnant. Mainly in response to others’ requests for pictures 
showing my growing belly. It’s so funny to look back on how much my body changed over those months, and hot it has once again transformed back into a semblance of its old self. To be honest, I remember saying throughout my pregnancy that I would;t miss the bowling like ball that I carried around, but really, I do. I look at these pictures and remember feeling a sense of awe that something was growing inside of me. At the same time, it was so hard to imagine and comprehend, even after looking at the scans. I guess what made it real were the beautiful kicks that I felt each day. These kicks, whilst bordering on karate chops in the end, grew stronger and stronger until the final weeks when Ella clearly loved the idea of pushing my ribs outward until they almost broke. Whilst at the time this felt really painful, the tumble turns that she often perfected is something that I remember with love. It was a little reminder each day that slowly but surely, she was coming.
In Melbourne, we are today celebrating the last day of winter. I cannot wait for the warmer weather and long summer nights spent at the beach. These photos reminded me of how hot it was in the final stages of my pregnancy. Laying on the couch with our dog Lloyd, no energy! The day I went into labour it was 42 degrees and we spent the day at the beach and in car yards looking for a new car! This summer will bring with it a different set of photos – hopefully lots of beautiful beach shots, swimming for the first time with our baby girl.
