Maternity portraits with Rob and Micah

If you’re going to have a baby, you want it to be with the right person. That Micah and Rob have found this in each other is obviously true.

“Rob’s wonderful,” Micah told me, “He’s kind, generous and really looks after me. Some days during the pregnancy have been tougher than others, and he’s helped me through all of them, but particularly the tough ones. He’ll run me a bath, get me a drink or nip out to the store to buy something I’m craving. He even organised an egg chair for the garden, somewhere I can read and relax on warmer days.”

The feeling is mutual.

“Micah is amazing,” Rob said, “she’s really caring and I love how she looks after me.”

When you’ve got a relatively common name like mine (Sarah), you’re forever in awe of women with more unusual and exotic names, like Micah. My suspicion that more unique names do in fact lead to good things seems to prove true: it was Micah’s name that helped start a conversation on a local bus 12 and a half years ago.

Since then they’ve been on a range of international adventures, from mud masks in Iceland’s Blue Lagoon through to cookery school in Thailand, where they learned how to cook pad Thai, tom yums and mango with sticky rice.

They don’t know whether they’re expecting a boy or a girl, but they are expecting one thing: tears all round. Rob’s only cried a couple of times in his life so far and the most recent was when he and Micah broke their good news to his mum.

It was 7am on Christmas Day and they’d wrapped up a special present for Rob’s mum to open. She had no idea they were trying for a baby, and was still waking up when she unwrapped the gift.

“Oh, a T-shirt,” she said, putting it to one side, “thank you.”

“Open it up!” Rob and Micah urged.

She picked it back up and unfolded it. Printed across the front was, ‘World’s best granny’. She stared at it for a few seconds while the text sank in.

“No!” She said, studying their faces for verification.

Rob and Micah confirmed the good news, and his mum burst into happy tears, quickly followed by the parents-to-be. There were guests arriving to share in the celebrations later that day, and Rob’s mum was bursting to have the house back to themselves again so she could talk about their news with them.

She’s not the only one who is getting excited. Rob’s brother and sister-in-law have decided not to have children themselves, but are besides themselves with joy about becoming an aunt and uncle. I don’t blame them – being auntie is the best thing ever!

In the meantime, they have 42 days (and counting) to wait until the due date, with an intensive NCT course booked in for the weekend (via Zoom) to help them negotiate those first few months of parenthood.

Until then, these beautiful maternity portraits capture some of the excitement and anticipation, so that when their little one is older, he or she can see how much their mum and dad already loved them, and couldn’t wait to meet them.

After our shoot, Micah said:

“My partner had booked a bump to baby shoot for me as a birthday present. We have been together for a long time and have never had a photo shoot before. Once we met Sarah our nerves went away as we didn’t know what to expect. Sarah took her time to get to know us and understand what we want to get out of the shoot. On the day of the shoot we were still slightly nervous. Once getting dressed and following instructions we completely forgot where we were . We could of been at home , this is how relaxed we both were. We had so much fun. Sarah made us so relaxed during the shoot. I’d highly recommend her as if you are as nervous as we were then she will make you feel at ease straight away. The photos look absolutely amazing, she managed to capture what we were looking for. We can’t wait to show these off to everyone. Now we are waiting for our little one to arrive over then next few weeks and then we get to have some newborn pictures taken.”

Micah, Bump to Baby Maternity and Newborn Photography Client

If you’re interested in newborn portraits or maternity photography in and around Bicester, Oxfordshire, please get in contact.

Sarah Plater LMPA is an award-winning qualified, certified professional newborn and family portrait photographer based in Bicester, Oxfordshire. She is the Master Photographers Association Newborn Photographer of the Year 2019 for the Central Region (covering Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire).