Have you ever heard your friend say, “oh I don’t want to get photos taken yet, I still have 10 pounds to lose since my last baby was born and I just really don’t like the way I look”? Have you ever said this? I get it…I’m not sure if I said it out loud after I had my daughter, but I sure thought it.

When my son was born, my body bounced back unusually quickly. I have photos from when he was about 2 weeks old and I look almost back to my pre-pregnancy normal. This is not typical!! It really set my mind for how I expected to recover after my daughter was born 2 years later. Little did I know, while I was in my 2nd trimester, the Covid pandemic would start and I would spend 11 weeks at home, not biking, not getting 5,000+ steps a day at work. We tried to go walking every day, but I was SIGNIFICANTLY less active. Top it off with my often nightly helping of ice cream because the reflux was brutal from about 22 weeks on and I had a lot more pregnancy weight gain the second time around. Not only that, but my abs had already been stretched out; this time they stretched even more and they did NOT bounce back after a couple of weeks. I didn’t even realize for a few months that my thyroid was enlarged because I thought my neck just looked fuller from the additional weight. I ordered 3 or 4 outfits online for newborn photos and cried as I tried to find something that felt comfortable and made me feel like me. Eventually I settled on an option and a good friend of ours came to take lifestyle newborn photos for us.  My daughter was 5 weeks old and I was not feeling great about the idea of being photographed. I made myself do it despite my insecurities because I knew that someday I would want to have those photos. Now, as a little girl, my baby pulls the magnets of her and me from that photo shoot off the fridge and kisses them and tells me how much she loves that they are her and mama.

She doesn’t care that I weighed 30 or 40 pounds more than I was used to. She doesn’t care that I felt exhausted, depressed, overwhelmed, and not beautiful at all. To her, looking at photos of us together when she was tiny brings all the feelings of love. She can see that I love her in those images. Now, she takes my face in her hands and says “mama, you’re so beautiful”.  And I can’t possibly thank her enough for loving me just the way I am.

It took me 3 years to find the time, energy, motivation, and medication to balance my thyroid before I started to look and feel the way I wanted to about my body after she was born. I have forced myself to take family photos with my kids every year and, though I wasn’t comfortable in my skin, I am so very glad that I have those moments recorded for myself and for them to be able to look at as they grow up. I would be so sad to not have the photo of my son kissing my nose or my daughter squeezing me so ridiculously tightly in her signature hug. 

I say all of this to let you know that I see you. I see that you may not feel comfortable in your skin. I see that you may feel self-conscious. I see that your body changed. But it changed because it did an amazing thing; it brought a whole human being to life. Please let me help you feel beautiful while being IN THE PHOTO WITH YOUR KIDS.

Your kids will treasure these photos and memories. You will cherish the ability to see yourself snuggling the sweet softness of your newborn. You will want to remember how your little girl would put her tiny hands gently on your face and tell you “you’re beautiful, mama”. Because you are. And that is all that your kids see. They see your love and that is beautiful. They see that you are a safe place for them and that is beautiful.  They see that you are proud of them and that is beautiful. They see that you will always be there for them when they need a kiss, a bandaid, a shoulder to cry on and that is beautiful. They love you for who you are, not what you look like, and they want to see you in the photos with them. Before you realize it, they will be grown. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to really capture this chapter of your lives. Now is always the perfect time for photos.

Updated February 12, 2024

© Eickhoff Photography