Happy Due Date to our son, Gatlin!  If you would have told me when I got pregnant, that he would be born 10 weeks early, I wouldn’t have believed you.  My due date was August 8th, 2020 and he ended up being born on May 29th!

I can say without hesitation that our journey to start a family did not go as planned.  If you would like to read more about our story and struggles with infertility, you can view that, here.  Fast forward a few months to April 17th when I was admitted to the hospital at 23+6 weeks pregnant due to severe IUGR.  We weren’t allowed to leave our hospital room due to COVID-19, so we had to get a little creative if we wanted maternity photos. Being a wedding photographer, documenting important milestones is very important to me and I always dreamed of what our maternity session would look like one day.  I had to think fast because I was told our baby could come at any point, so I had my family drop off my film gear and a tripod, I bought a dress online hoping it would fit, and we decided to make it work in our hospital room.  Luckily our room had a large window and a large neutral colored wall, which made things a little easier. We set up the tripod and took these film images to document our crazy lives at the moment.  We ended up gaining 6 more weeks gestation before our son was delivered at 29+6.  This was a huge feat for us and the team of doctors working with us.  These photos mean so, so much to us and I will cherish them forever. It was such a scary time in our lives, but we did our very best to look at the positives and find the beauty in our situation.

We love you more than you’ll ever know baby Gatlin. Love, Mommy & Daddy

Scanned by Goodman Film Lab