Surprise! Baby Finuf Coming February 2020

Chris and I are SO excited to share the news – we are having a baby!

We are so excited to be parents!! Part of me has been dying to share the news as soon as possible, but another part of me has cherished having this little secret. It’s been special to have this time with Chris, as the realization that we are going to have a little one joining our family slowly sinks in.

However, now we are in our 14th week, and we are so so excited to share the exciting news!

About our Journey

Chris and I always knew we wanted to have a family. We never wanted to rush into becoming parents, and I’ve loved having him all to myself for a while! But around two years ago we started talking about what it would be like if we had a baby.

Due to some medical conditions I have, I knew that we would likely have difficulties getting pregnant. Around 2.5 years ago we decided to start trying, just to see what happens. Doctors usually recommend seeing a specialist if nothing happens after a year. So a year later, we went in to the clinic! There, the doctors told us that we would most likely need to try some various medication treatments. They also said we might need to try doing IUI’s or IVF.

If you’re familiar with infertility, you’ll most likely know that those treatments are freaking expensive! So we decided at that point to wait to take those steps until Chris graduates with his Masters degree.

After that, we continued with our lives. I finished my last semester of college, and found a full time job as a product photographer while also building my freelance business on the side. Chris became a full time Master’s student, and has been excelling in his program becoming an Occupational Therapist!

We didn’t go back on birth control because we would love to have a kid, and we knew it would probably take some extra help for us to get pregnant. So we didn’t worry too much about it!

Well, a year and a half later, something big changed!

How We Found Out

In May, I started having HORRIBLE cramps. Way, way worse cramps than I’ve ever had before! I thought it was unusual, but just thought it would be my period or something. Well, then my boobs start to hurt. Like, bump into something and it’s agonizing hurt. Then I knew something was up!

Chris and I walked over to our local grocery store in our cute little neighborhood, and bought a pregnancy test. We came home, I took it, and the beautiful pink line appeared within like 5 seconds!

We were pregnant!!

I immediately came out and told Chris, and honestly, we just sat on the couch and couldn’t believe it. We’d been off birth control for almost three years, and we were totally expecting to have to do treatments, so it was a bit unexpected. At the same time, it was the most amazing feeling ever 🙂

So far pregnancy has treated me REALLY well. Honestly, I feel so so lucky that it’s been pretty easy! Because I’m type 1 diabetic it’s a high risk pregnancy, which brings some extra lifestyle changes and a LOT of doctor’s appointments. (I’ll talk more about this in future blog posts!) But overall, I had pretty minor nausea for the most part, and have mostly just been tired all the time. This is a huge part of why I haven’t been blogging, posting, and creating new imagery as much recently – I’ve literally been falling asleep around 8:30 at night and doing everything I can to take care of my body and this little baby!

What it Means for My Business

I’m so excited to become a mom! As small business owners, we often talk about wearing many hats – that of creator, marketing director, content writer, etc. Well, I see this change as adding another hat – or another beautiful dimension – to who I am as an individual. I hope that I can serve and grow in this role as mother, in beautiful and unique ways that I’ve never experienced before. It doesn’t take away from who I am as an individual, or my other roles as my hopes and dreams that I have for my career and my life – it just adds another whole dimension to it.

The plan is to continue growing and developing my craft and my business while being a mom! I’m anticipating a lot of challenges in this process, so if you’re a business owner and mother, I want to hear all your tips and advice! I’ll be taking clients on a more limited basis while pregnant, in order to prioritize my health. During this time, instead of taking on lots of clients, I’ll be focusing my efforts on batch-working to prepare for my maternity leave, and preparing my marketing efforts for next year. That way, after my maternity leave, things will be set up and in motion so I can get back in the swing of things, sharing helpful content, working with clients, and creating personal work. I’ll be taking an official maternity leave with no client work between January and April 2020 to transition into this new role!

I am also planning on personalizing my brand a little bit! My focus will still be primarily commercial + fashion photography, because that’s how I best serve my clients. I’ll continue sharing my findings in research on marketing, photography, and entrepreneurship. However, in my personal posts I’ll definitely start mixing in posts that talk about being a parent, our family, and being a small business owner. I am always inspired by women who work hard to chase their dreams while also being amazing moms, and I think it’s important to talk about that experience! I’m sure it’s an incredible, difficult, beautiful ride, and I can’t wait to embark on that journey.