How to take great belly photos (a.k.a. the opposite of what we've been taking!)

A compilation of crazy: Me and Baby P at weeks 4, 8, 12, and 16. Different distances? Different positions? We've done it all!

As soon as Dan and I found out we were expecting, we decided to take the weekly belly photos. We wanted to document this awesome, crazy, growing-like-crazy time. What I should have done was to look for tips online before we started taking the photos. But, now, here we are at almost 18 weeks of pregnancy, and we've pretty much done it all wrong! 

Ugh. We really were trying so hard! In no particular order, here are just a few things we did sort of wrong:

I started the pictures wearing jeans. I should have thought ahead and realized that perhaps something more, umm, forgiving, like, yoga pants would have been a better option. The jeans (especially lately) have been sitting funny, and it's hard to tell in those first picture what's belly and what's fabric. 

We've skipped weeks. And truly, we have no excuse for this, because the day we're supposed to take pictures every week is SATURDAY! What's my excuse for not getting a picture in when we're both home?! I don't know, but we've missed some! 

We didn't label the photos in any way. In hindsight, I wish I was holding a sign or did something with the date of the photo in each one. I've been trying to transfer them to my computer and label them on there right away, but I literally can't see a difference from week 6 to week, say, 13, so it's hard to tell what's what (I did get a haircut in there, so that helped a bit!). 

Our background is ugly. We started the pictures, well, out of the country, but when we returned home, we just started using our bedroom wall. Sometimes you can see into the hallway. Sometimes you can see into the guest room. Sometimes you can see the clothes bag on the floor that I've been meaning to take to Goodwill. It's not pretty, people. 

What we've done right: 

I'm always wearing a black top. So, yay! I mean, it's not always the same black top, but at least that comparison will exist!

Up to this point, there hasn't been a huge change. I hit the 18 week mark on Saturday, and just this week do I really notice a big difference in the way I look. So, I suppose it's not too late to find a better backdrop and switch to the comfier pants! 

PicStitch can be used to salvage the photos. PicStitch is my favorite phone app right now, mostly because it allows me to edit out all the junk in the photos and just focus on the profile in each picture. (Thank goodness!) The above photo was compiled through PicStitch, and it sorta makes the pictures look okay! 

It's never too late to make a change. We're hoping to get the baby's bedroom painted in the next few weeks, and at that point, I think we'll switch gears and take the remainder of the pictures in there. I can't wait to make some progress on baby P's nursery!