The Truth Behind Bump Dates

So, yet again, I'm going to be a day behind on my weekly pregnancy update/bump date.

I'm not going to lie, I've always loved reading other people weekly updates about their pregnancies. I feel like there are so many things about pregnancy that women who are not pregnant just don't know and only find out after it happens to them. These updates give you a small glimpse into this somewhat secret world. (Plus it shows you that EVERY pregnancy is very different, but you probably aren't alone in whatever you are going through.)

I was excited to start my own updates once we got pregnant and honestly I'm so excited to have all those thoughts and feelings recorded. I've already enjoyed looking back at them and know I'll cherish them later. That being said, there were a couple things/difficulties that I didn't expect. I have no idea if other women/couples went through this, but figured it might be good for others to know.

1) While Andy and I usually wake up and leave the house about the same time, it always seemed like one of us was rushing to get out the door on Wednesday morning when we needed to take the picture. I feel like I've got a weird smile on my face in some of the pictures because we are rushing through it.

2) In the last couple of months when your wardrobe is painfully limited it's hard figuring out what to wear. You don't want to wear the same thing each week, unless you started doing that from the beginning. I must confess that on one or two occasions I've had Andy take the picture, looked at them on the screen, then turned around and changed clothes.

 

I should have followed Elise's example and worn the same thing. Check her out at Cheers Y'all!

3) It's hard to change up the picture, but still give the same vantage point every week. You can move the placement of your hands, but really that's about it.

4) I have no artistic ability whatsoever so I didn't even entertain the idea of doing a handwritten board announcing the week and stage of pregnancy. I highly recommend editing your pictures through PicMonkey and adding a label if you are in the same boat.

5) If you have pets, they will end up in a couple outtakes. Camden rarely cooperates when we actually want him in pictures, but leave it to the weekly update picture to get him in front of the camera. 

6) One thing I did really like about taking these pictures is that it gave Andy and I a chance to read the weekly write up from my What To Expect app together. We could focus on where we were in the pregnancy and made us feel connected to the baby. Also it helps since everyone always asks "What week are you?" and "How big is the baby now?" that we both had a weekly refresher.

Again, everyone's experience with weekly updates could be different, but I thought I would share my thoughts. I would highly recommend doing the updates and would probably do them again if we had more children. I might think of doing the selfie version next time though, since it's a little more flexible.

Did you do weekly updates? Did you enjoy them? Do you like reading them?