Jade, Sophie and the bump.........

My lovely friend Jade is pregnant with her second baby.  The bub is due late January and I offered to take a few photos of her, her bump, and soon to be big sister Sophie. I know I felt particularly hideous when pregnant, but once that bump is gone, it's nice to have some photos to look back on. It's also lovely to have some photos with your first born before they become a big sister!

I am not a professional photographer, but I do enjoy  my photography, and I love taking photos for friends.  It's awesome to go to their houses and see photos I took up on their walls!  Aside from photos of my own pregnant belly,  I've never taken maternity photos. I've posted quite a few of my own bump shots previously and I did commandeer Anto (who is very handy with the camera) into doing some shots of me and Astrid when I was 38 weeks pregnant with Søren. I loved my Astrid and bump shots and hoped I could manage some lovely pictures for Jade.

We had a particularly bad weather forecast for the weekend, but we planned to meet early on Saturday morning to beat the rain and gain maximum cooperation from the toddler.  It's lucky we had an early start as not long after we finished it bucketed down ....... pretty much for the rest of the day! We did catch some awesome storm clouds as a backdrop though - and no one got wet, so it all worked well.

Jade is definitely in the 'feeling big, uncomfortable and over it' stage of pregnancy but I think she looks awesome. Hopefully these pictures will remind her of how lovely she looks.........

Of course I had a get a few pictures of the very cute Sophie!  Sophie and Astrid have been attending each others birthday parties for a few years now and Sophie is rather photogenic, so regular blog readers might recognise her from some previous posts.

Like many 2 year olds Sophie was a little shy and had definite ideas about what she wanted to do and when, but she was more than happy to have a chat about Peppa Pig and have a good run around with Astrid. We ended up with more than enough gorgeous photos, even if I did have to keep Astrid out of some of them (my girl likes to have her picture taken!).

We also got some great shots of Sophie with Jade's bump.  Jade will have the same age gap between Sophie and the baby as I have between Astrid and Søren.  I'm sure Sophie will be a great big sister too! She was quite keen to tell me about the baby in there, although she did thin her new brother or sister should be called 'Blue'.

Some of my favourite photos though were of Sophie and Jade together. I think we got some crackers, and I really hope some of them end up printed and framed! So much cuteness.........

Astrid and the bump........

I decided I wanted some cute photos of Astrid and the bump before it becomes a huge pile of flubby belly. I asked Anto to take a few photos for us, since he is also pretty handy with the camera. Astrid is a big fan of patting my bump and saying hello to the baby so she was pretty happy to show us what she thought of my not so small belly and it's hyperactive contents!

These photos were taken at just over 38 weeks pregnant....... Photos by Anto, edits and bump by me and cuteness by Astrid (as always)!

Getting ready for her photo shoot - not exactly shy!

 "You want me to do what, dad?"

 

 ".......ah sit here and be, cute! Got it covered...."

 

I posted some of Astrid and the bump here and here but while I'm waiting for the baby to arrive I've edited a batch more and thought I should post them.  We ended up with quite a few cute shots! They aren't all perfect but they made me smile and you can see how happy Astrid is, she loves the bump..... lets just hope she loves the baby just as much when it's on the outside!


I love these ones, great lighting effort by Anto! You can also clearly see my belly button has well and truly popped..... when I was pregnant with Astrid it never did (although my bump was much bigger I think I definitely had more padding last time around). I was quite excited when it popped but now I'm over it. I bump it on everything and it's really painful!!! I do think it's a bit like a turkey timer, now it's popped out it means I'm cooked, right?

Astrid also likes to kiss the bump!

...... and talk to the baby! Our GP had lent us a pinnard so we could listen to the babies heartbeat since it was generally in a good position to do so these last couple of weeks. Astrid loved to try and listen and often used it like a megaphone to try and communicate with her younger sibling. I'm not sure whether the baby appreciated it but at least it will recognise her voice when it's born :)

She is also very fond of cuddling the baby. I hope she is just as gentle when the baby is on the outside! I've edited some of these in colour and some in black and white. I'm not sure which I like better, too many cute ones to pick from (this is only a few of them, I don't think Miss Astrid is camera shy).......

then Astrid had to show us what was in her tummy......... she does freely admit that it's food in her tummy, and she is particularly proud when that includes icecream!

I also got Anto to take a few photos of me (without the cute and distracting toddler) but I'm far less photogenic so I may not post too many for fear of breaking computer screens, but maybe if I'm feeling brave I'll put some up later in the week....... unless I get distracted by getting the baby to the outside!