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Week 36 - Maternity Photos

This week was a mixed bag of emotions. Over the course of the holiday weekend, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and visit from our favorite photographers to snap some maternity photos. This week, we took the time to review and selected some of our favorites for you to enjoy. Photos were hard for Kiersten - this pregnancy has brought a lot of weight gain which is hard for her to ignore when she sees photos of herself. You may have noticed that the bump pictures quickly disappeared a few weeks ago. Its been difficult for her to get excited about documenting these changes. However, we knew we would regret not making the effort. So, we put on clothes that make us feel good, armed ourselves with some of our biggest cheerleaders and took some pretty great photos.










This week also brought about some very difficult decisions. As we have maneuvered the past several months, the global pandemic has had a profound impact on this pregnancy in ways we never could have imagined. As the arrival of our child becomes increasingly imminent, we have come to face the harsh reality that we must change our expectations for the way we welcome this little one into our world. Unfortunately, data for newborns is inconclusive, and all of the experts are recommending an abundance of caution. With hundreds of thousands of deaths world wide, these are nothing to turn a blind eye to. At the urgence of our midwives, we have decided to begin self isolation next week - # 37. The hope is that by staying home, away from work, family and the rest of the world, we might be able to have confidence that we are not bringing our baby into direct contact with COVID-19 when their fragile immune system first breathes life from this side of the womb. No one, us included, wants to hear that this isolation will continue as long as we feasibly can - through Ben's 1st required day on campus in late August. We are both incredibly disappointed that we will not be able to have our family at our side at the hospital, when we come home, and in the days that follow. We are nervous about the impact that isolation will have on our mental health. But we truly feel these sacrifices are appropriately placed for our child. We were incredibly nervous to share these decisions with our loved ones; no one wants to be the bearer of bad news. We know you all want so badly to be with us, to show us your love and support. Trust us in how much we want to receive that in person. There's nothing in the world that compares to being hugged by someone who truly loves you, helped by someone who truly cherishes you. We know that the postpartum experience will be scary. We are hoping we can soak as much of that up through phone and video calls as possible, knowing in our hearts that your prayers are more powerful than anything.

Another new parent wrote on this very eloquently. So, we will allow her thoughts to give words to our own feelings:

https://www.mother.ly/life/you-cant-meet-our-baby-yet

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