Time Lapse Video Beautifully Shows How a Woman Transforms Into a Mom

The way a woman’s body changes during pregnancy to accommodate baby is nothing short of amazing. The human body does some amazing things like move around organs and bones during labor to account for baby. Even the human brain helps women prepare for motherhood. But one mom believes that while it may seem like the main transformation during pregnancy is happening physically, it’s actually happening inside the heart, particularly for first-time moms—and she documented her journey.

Kelly Greenheart and her husband are both documentary filmmakers and wanted to document one of their biggest adventures yet. “I don’t know of a way to document how much the heart expands through having a child… but here’s a beautiful documentation of how my body transformed to hold our little love nugget (of whom we nicknamed Gummy Bear while in the womb),” she wrote in the caption of the video.

Together, they documented how her body changed with a time lapse starting at 9 weeks and going through 42 weeks. They took over 100 photos every week for 33 weeks in their living room home studio. The almost minute-long video shows Greenheart at each week of pregnancy and ends with a sweet shot of her newborn in her arms where her bump used to be.

“Being pregnant is such a transformative experience, literally for the body as well as for the heart and mind,” she tells The Bump. “This video is an expression of that expansion. We wanted to capture the transformation from pre-baby to post baby for curiosity, fun, and remembrance.”

She explains that she was scared to become a mom for a long time, afraid that having a baby would sidetrack her own selfcare, career, goals, creativity and time. “It took me 10-years with my partner before I was ready to take that leap into the unknown next chapter of growing a family,” she shared. “But the beautiful thing about the prenatal months is that you don’t just become a mom overnight. One is granted 9ish months to prepare. So as my body grew, my anticipation and excitement grew. My acceptance of the journey ahead and trust in the process overcame the fear. What I had been physically preparing for was nothing compared to what my heart was silently preparing for. The love that overtook me the months following the birth were overwhelming to say the least.”

While Greenheart prepared for the logistics, challenges and possible setbacks of having a child during her first pregnancy, she hadn’t really considered all the positives that she would experience along the way—including the immeasurable love she would feel for her child.

“I remember crying while holding my 3-day-old baby about how he was going to go off to college so soon and leave me. It was such a silly sentiment but a testament to the bond and connection I now felt towards this little living being,” she explained. “Like the explosion of love and my delight in witnessing all the tiny moments—from their smiles, giggles, kisses, and endless developmental milestones. I experience far more joy now witnessing my child daily than by any of those other experiences I feared losing.”

In a true testament to her transformation as a mom, Greenheart is currently 39 weeks pregnant with her second child, but she and her husband haven’t taken a single shot of her growing bump. She explained that her living room studio has been converted into a “full on play zone” where her now toddler keeps the pair preoccupied.