This picture was taken on August 9th, 2004, just a little over a month before Ava was born. It was taken either right before or right after we got back from a brisk walk, a regular measure we took to help keep Leah’s blood sugar numbers down. What a pain that was. Measuring all her food, counting grapes. Bah. It’s not like Ava ended up being huge, after all that.
This is one of my favorite pictures of Leah, pregnant or otherwise. They say that women take on a special glow when they’re with child, and my experience around pregnant women the last couple years confirms the old saw. But Leah looks especially cute in this picture, I think. Maybe it’s the playful pucker. Or the hair. That jaunty pose? Maybe that little bundle tucked away there under her shirt. A result of Leah’s bout with gestational diabetes was a fairly small weight gain during pregnancy. You can see here that she was pretty much all tummy.
From a technical standpoint, I love the light in this shot. If I’d had a camera with a better sensor at the time, I might have even been to tighten up the focus a bit. I suppose that’s why God created Photoshop.