Charity and Karl

Charity and I met about a year and a half ago and a semi-annual La Leche League workshop. She mentioned something about being from California, which instantly piqued my interest, as that's where I also hale from. It wasn't until we were both VERY pregnant about 10 months later, that she contacted me with a desire to have some maternity portraits done with her family. She'd seen several of my previous nursing photos on the website that the Salt Lake City LLL group had put together and it made her eager for some belly photos, with a desire to later have some nursing photos taken. So in this sense, I suppose my photo journey with Charity and her family have included "from belly to the breast." Her Karl was born just 15 days before my own little one, so the babies are changing at relatively the same pace these days. We did this nursing session around Karl's 7 month mark, it's fun to see how that little guy who was in her belly last year, is such an integrated new part of this wonderful family. One aspect of this particular shoot that I loved was how some of the nursing photos show the roles of different family members in the nursing relationship and how nursing is an obviousl "every day part of life."

Laurel and MJ

Like so many of the moms I have done nursing portraits for, I met Laurel through La Leche League. When she asked if I'd do a family photo shoot for their family, I was totally on board, plus she also wanted there to be some special nursing photos taken. We took the photos in her home and braved what seemed like a drab day, to head to Wheeler Farm for the family shoot. The sky was actually amazing for us for that later part. Laurel has since become a leader with La Leche League and we've spent many months getting to know one another. She's an amazing woman who supports her mom friends in wonderful ways, like making me manicotti when my second little girl came on scene. Something I love about Laurel's nursing stories is that she has a long term health issue of which the symptoms completely subsided for many many months of nursing. What an awesome benefit of breastfeeding!

These photos were taken last October, when Madeleine was 20 months, now she's 30 months and still going strong. As with many nursing tots, I created a HUGE distraction for a generally "easy" nurser. I loved this series where Maddie became engaged with her mama while playing with her hands and her ring (instead of the ones where she was twisting in every direction WHILE nursing, to look at me).