This is it! We are in the final stretch of this pregnancy and I truly cannot believe it! Our first born fur child will soon be getting a little sister and these two halves with soon become whole with a part of our lives we never knew we needed to be complete!

I’m so thrilled our dear friend Elias Tahan was able to capture these amazing final moments with Baby Beech in my belly so beautifully. Elias is an incredible photographer (eliastahan.com) and as my friend for a decade, he has shot me many times since I was 18 so this was kind of a surreal and magical shoot for us. This was also the only maternity shoot I’ve done with my gorgeous husband because he’s been the one behind the lens the whole way along. If you haven’t checked out his photography yet, make sure you do (photosbybeech.com) because he’s beautiful AND insanely talented at capturing the beauty of others, too!

As we wrap this pregnancy up, I want to once again thank everyone who has supported me throughout this journey. I started it totally overwhelmed, more often than not freaked out and feeling a lack of female kinship to turn to in this most womanly time in my life. I quickly learned through the power of networking and social media that there was web of strong women in the world for me to tap into and I had more shoulders to lean on than I can count. Every comment and YouTube view and text and word of encouragement has meant the world to me. I’ve always struggled with social media and thought of it as more harmful than good but throughout this journey, I’ve come to understand its power and beauty and that’s all thanks to people like you guys, reading this post!

I also want to say a preemptive thank you to this beautiful, magical, miraculous creature inside my tummy whom I’ve come to know over the past 9 months and cannot wait to meet in the flesh. Baby Girl Beech, you’ve changed me in more ways this baby brain can process just yet. I’ve realized a purpose in life that is so far greater than any I’ve had before and it’s a purpose I’ve always needed and never knew how to find. They say the best things in life come when you aren’t looking for them and least expect it. That has never rang more true than falling pregnant with you. I have never been more proud to be a woman, I have never been more confident in this skin, I have never felt more calm and at peace in this mind and I have never felt more whole in this heart. I am thrilled to get to spend the rest of my life loving you, nurturing you, supporting you, celebrating you, caring for you, guiding you, encouraging you and just doing everything I possibly can to thank you for the magic you’ve stirred within me just by existing. Becoming your mom will forever be the greatest role I’ve ever taken on and for that Baby Girl, I am eternally grateful.

Now for the biggest thank you of all, to my incredible husband, my world, my rock, Josh. Words can’t possibly do my gratitude for you justice but here’s an attempt at scratching the surface… You changed my life that day you opened the door to me in NYC and I could not have possibly imagined we’d find ourselves here now over six years later but I knew in my heart that the universe as I’d known it had suddenly flipped upside down. You have been the most incredible support to me every step down this winding road of life that we almost instantly committed to walking together for the rest of forever. I cannot and don’t want to imagine how I would’ve struggled through it all without you. You are absolutely everything to me and I know we are what they mean when they talk about soulmates. You are my one in 7.4 billion and I can’t believe how fucking lucky I am to have met you so early in life, although forever with you isn’t nearly long enough. This pregnancy has been a rollercoaster but looking back on it all now, I see that it’s been another amazing chapter to add to our story. That’s all thanks to you and your blindingly bright spirit, impenetrable strength and insurmountable compassion and love for me and our soon to be little one. I know I may sound biased but our baby girl is genuinely the luckiest kid in the world to have you as a dad. Every single person who meets you knows you are going to be THE BEST father there ever was and I feel so blessed to get to share my parental duties with you. I know I’m going to learn so much from you throughout this new part of our journey together and fall even more in love with you every day watching you father our daughter. I really can’t thank you and my lucky stars enough!

Now… let’s do this, baby girl!

SHENAE GRIMES-BEECH

Shenae Grimes-Beech is an actor and YouTuber with a highly engaged community of like-minded women who are here to stand up for what they believe in and lean into discomfort, especially when it means doing the right thing.