“This experience was so important to my husband and me. It captured a moment in my life that I will always remember. Being able to see these photos bring me back to all the emotions and feelings at that time. It’s the biggest gift to receive when life feels like it is moving so quickly. These photos are also important to me because they were not about how it felt to have my body changing so wildly after having a baby, or how it felt to put on a dress for the first time postpartum. It’s easy to be critical about the changes but then I knew it was more than that. The beauty in these images is the change, the raw, the new. Whether that is in my body, my baby, or family. It is so important to recognize the beautiful part of motherhood is just getting the chance to be in it. whatever it looks like that day…

Motherhood is so beautiful and looks and feels so differently to everyone. Motherhood to me means letting go, breathing a little deeper, and taking things not just day to day but sometimes hour to hour. I’ve learned so much from sharing motherhood with my close friends who have all had different stories. I think that’s hugely important, to know that motherhood isn’t something that can fit in any one box or that we are alone in it. When things are hard or challenging, odds are that many others have felt it too. Motherhood means having grace for the unexpected, leaning into my own intuition, and remembering that this journey can bring out all the emotions…

“What I just shared about motherhood being different for everyone has been shown to me in large part through how things started for my husband and me. I was on track to having a healthy baby and looking forward to hopefully having a natural birth with our wonderful midwife. The last month of my pregnancy we found out that my son, Milo, was measuring behind and then we were classified as IUGR. They wanted to induce me at 37 weeks, but thankfully, with a lot of monitoring I was able to carry to 39 weeks and then headed in to be induced. Once we were induced and time went by, things began to take a turn and I ended up having an emergency c-section. Those were some of the scariest moments of my life. So much was happening so quickly. I couldn’t stop thinking about our baby and my husband. Milo was born at 4lbs 9oz full term. His size, irregular breathing, and him not eating brought us into the NICU an hour after he was born and being given a feeding tube. Our world was turned upside down in a matter of minutes. All we could do was breathe and show up for our son. After time passed and still no answers as to why Milo was not improving, one of our nurses heard a heart murmur. The next day the doctors told us Milo was born with a small hole in the bottom chamber of his heart. As daunting as it was, it was an answer and a place to start our journey to healing and heading home…

“We were surviving those days and had to let go of everything we knew. We had to show up for our son in ways we didn’t expect. Milo came home a few weeks later; his heart is now doing well and showing signs of the hole closing on its own as he grows. After a lot of patience, help, and pumping; two months later he decided he wanted to breastfeed. I’m writing this today being completely humbled in what I knew or thought motherhood was and I’m simply grateful at the opportunity to get to be Milo’s mom; no matter what it looks like for us. These photos were taken as we were coming out of the hard and starting to see the light. They represent hope and the gift of stepping into Motherhood this year.” Taylor, Mother

VALENTINA GLIDDEN PHOTOGRAPHY