A Year in the Life of Motherhood Project: Part 1

18 weeks - 24 weeks

As I sit here about to go on call for this little one's birth I am astounded by the story we have created so far. I started this project as a way to cleanse myself creatively, try new things and tell 1 story all the way through. I put this odd dream out into the universe at the End of 2017 with very little expectations or even plans. Just a handful of photos I wanted to take. It then took me months to actually narrow the different moms down and decide finally on working with L. She is the mother of 4 boys, pregnant with her fifth. I've gotten to watch and photograph so many different moments of her motherhood journey since this year began and gotten to learn so many things about who she is.

She is organized, giving and confident in so many ways.

She listens to her children but takes time for herself.

She rarely wears makeup and slays in a bikini. 

She laughs the most at knock, knock jokes and her sweet husband.

She is quiet sometimes but fills the award space with so much warmth.

I'm sure once we finish this series I'll know so many more things. And I'm excited to get to tell all of these stories that add together to create such a complex and strong person. I've had this thought so many times since we started, how awesome it will be for her children to know her in this way when they are older? Know her beyond the caretaker or the nurturer to the raw parts of who she is as she experiences pregnancy then birth and all the months that follow. I also think about how incredible it will be for her to get to know herself one day. When all the kids are grown up and she enters the new season of woman hood. I've had this conversation with my own mother, her pain looking through old videos and old photos because she just can't remember the woman in them. The energy she once had and the purpose. I'm excited for L to have this series as a way to know herself as a mother and a woman and for all who have followed along to get to know her too. I get approached constantly from all different people, they always know about L and her journey, they all make votes about boy or girl and I honestly can not wait to share once, this little one arrives. (seriously any day now)

For Part one I'm sharing the first two sessions we did this year one of vulnerability the other of the motherhood routine. 

18 Weeks

Throughout the last months there have been days of celebration and days of vulnerability and I think once this little one arrives those days will explode even more. I started the series with L's pregnancy journey at the 18 weeks mark. It was scary to ask someone to be so vulnerable after just meeting but L was incredible. She wanted to celebrate her growing body, acknowledge the joy and stress of mothering not just this little one growing inside but the carrying of her whole family in so many ways. 

24 Weeks

For this session I just wanted to get to know L in her element. See her day to day and meet the whole family. From an afternoon with just her youngest playing legos, to picking up the older boys, the library, cooking dinner and sharing a meal all together. It was purely documentary and truly set the stage for getting to know L as a mother.