It was both Nikki’s and my first – Nikki’s first maternity session and my first lifestyle fitness theme maternity photoshoot.

Nikki and her husband Justin have always been a fan of lifestyle portraits. I photographed both their older kids’ newborn photos in their home. Now they are expecting their 3rd baby – a baby girl.

This is likely my third and final pregnancy. I never did a maternity session with my first two, so figured I should do one now. I thought it would be really cool to capture me in my happy place – our home gym. We built our home gym in March 2020 when the gyms originally closed and have never looked back. It’s awesome to be able to workout at home on our own time, and I love that our kids are frequently involved during our sessions. It’s challenging and chaotic at times, but I love that we are encouraging them to be active daily. With two daughters especially, I never want them to feel intimidated by walking into a gym. Girls and women belong in the weightroom. – Nikki

The current programming Nikki follows is called Paragon Training Methods (Instagram: @paragontrainingmethods). During the photoshoot, she was doing some squats, deadlifts, lunges, reverse Nordics (modified using a band), dumbbell Romanian deadlifts, push-ups (modified/elevated on a box), and ring rows.

Since this is my third baby I am pretty well-versed in training while pregnant. I lift lighter weights, and in general lower the frequency and intensity during sessions. Everyone always says “listen to your body” when pregnant, but a quote that I find even more helpful is, “just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” – Nikki

Nikki was 31 weeks pregnant at the time of the photoshoot. She is always super tired for several weeks during the first trimester, but other than that this has been a pretty smooth pregnancy! She walks every day, lifts weights four days a week, and tries to do 10 minutes of prenatal yoga most nights. Justin massages her feet every night. It is exhausting being pregnant with two toddlers. But she is happy that they will all be pretty close in age.

Nikki shared with me later that it was a little awkward at first during the photoshoot. But since they have known me since 2017 she was completely comfortable later on. During the post-editing style discussions, Nikki prefers “less is more”. She loved the black and white “mood” of the solo pictures of herself but picked the color version if her family were in them.

I like the metaphor since they add color to my life…and I definitely don’t want my stretch marks edited out. They are my “pretty lines” and I’m proud of them. – Nikki

The baby is due on Valentine’s Day! They are so excited to be having another baby girl. The name hasn’t been picked out yet.

Visit JJ’s newborn session blog here.

Visit Mimi’s newborn session blog here.

Photography by MuSen, LLC is an East Brunswick, NJ based baby & family photographer. All sessions are customized to meet clients’ needs. Contact us if you wish to book a similar session to tell your family’s stories.