My Pregnant Belly - The Maternity Shoot That Didn't Happen

My Pregnant Belly – The Maternity Shoot That Didn’t Happen

Before I got pregnant I wondered what my pregnant body would look like. I would google plus size pregnant and search the #PlusSizePregnant and #PlusSizePregnancy on Instagram and look at all of the beautiful plus sized pregnant ladies and imagine what my body would look like. Wistfully, I pictured myself fully embracing the roundness of my pregnant belly and happily posing close to nude or even completely nude. I would share some of those photos here and write about my experience like I did back when I had boudoir photos taken.

If you have followed my pregnancy you know that Baby Joy Chaser is here. I’m no longer pregnant and there have been no posts or social shares of my pregnant belly. That’s because the photo shoot never happened. I had my photographer friend all lined up. We agreed on the price for the shoot and I just never scheduled it.

Since I had looked at so many images of plus sized pregnant women I knew that I’d likely have a B Belly instead of the more traditional D Belly that we are all used to seeing. If you are not familiar with the terms B Belly and D Belly here is my explanation

D Belly – the perfectly round belly we typically see on TV and in advertisements. That does not mean the D Belly is fake or photo shopped it is just more common. Many women who are not overweight have D Bellies
B Belly – a pregnant belly that is round at the top and then has a bit of an indent at the waist and then a smaller round area at the bottom. This Belly is more common in plus sized women who have fat on their tummies prior to pregnancy. Basically the pregnant belly is shaped more like a B than a perfectly rounded D.

So, like I was saying, I expected to have a B Belly. However, I secretly hoped it would turn into a D Belly as I approached 40 weeks. I figured I’d wait until my pregnant belly rounded out to more of a D from a B and then I’d be ready to take my maternity photo. As time went on my belly did get rounder. But I still just didn’t feel ready.

As my due date got closer I tried to prepare for my maternity photo shoot. As the weeks went by I just could not do it. After a lot of self reflection I realized why. While I was proud of what my body was able to do in terms of carrying my son I was having a hard time loving the way my pregnant belly looked. Because of that I was having a hard time exposing it and being vulnerable with a photographer.

Despite my reservations I knew I’d want to capture what my plus size pregnant body looked like. So one afternoon I set up my tripod, adjusted the lighting as best as I could, and took several selfies of me and my pregnant belly. After playing around with the filters on my phone I finally got an image that I felt comfortable sharing. So here I am at 37 weeks pregnant. B Belly and all!!!

Now I am so happy I have this photo. Sometimes you have to think outside of the box to capture special moments when you are feeling insecure or just not yourself.