Sharing is Caring.....or is it?

By sharing, I mean the info about every step of your pregnancy. This is something every single person has a different opinion about, and NONE of them are wrong. When do you tell people? Do you find out the gender? Who do you tell the gender to? Do you have a gender reveal? What do you share on Facebook? Each of these answers are yours and yours alone. It is no one else's decision, and what info and when you decide to share is between you and the father. Do not let other people's decisions help you make yours. Also, every pregnancy is different. My little girl has been head down the ENTIRE pregnancy. I hear it over and over.... "She is in a perfect position for birth, but not for seeing the gender". Or a lot of other things for that matter. My anatomy scan took forever because it was hard to get accurate answers because of her position, and the fact that she hates having her picture taken, so she constantly moves during Ultrasound's (not a good start for this Professional Photographer of a mom). My insurance did not cover the blood test, so there were many "It looks like a....." and "I'm going to say it's a....." before we FINALLY, at 27 weeks, got "It is DEFINITELY a girl!!!!" What did this mean for us? Not much, but no gender reveal party (as we were already sending out invitations for the shower) and a gender neutral bedroom (which didn't bother me anyway, I love the black and white look).

I am not a flashy person, so we didn't tell most people about the pregnancy until half way through our second trimester, then made a cute announcement to post and that was it (I am a photographer after all). The "gender reveal" was a sticker on the back of our baby shower invitations that said "It;s a girl" and another photo collage of us opening a girl onsie and posted on FB. And, even though they were all A Nightmare Before Christmas theme, we did not post a lot of photos, updates, or anything else pregnancy related. It's just not our style. But, some people love these sort of things. Maybe you had a hard time getting pregnant and want to celebrate this amazing part of your life as much as you can. Maybe you want to get as much partying and family time in as you can before your little one arrives and sucks up all your time (at least for a little while). Maybe you want to show off each week how you are growing (I took every 4 weeks and plan to do one composite towards the end), or maybe not, but in the end, how you do your pregnancy is what is right for you.

Oh and maternity photos? I say SERIOUSLY think about it, or just do it!! You may not always feel you best, or prettiest, or fit into much, but they are a great memory and something to look back on and feel good about. You may never show them to anyone, but they are not for anyone but you. And, it will be last photos you take before the little one arrives as a couple, or family of X (if this is not your first). It does not have to be much, but at least something will make you smile when you look back at it in the future.