Maternity Mates Make Matching Outfit Photoshoots As They Both Carry Their Fourth Child

By Alyce Collins

 

THESE STUNNING best friends were both expecting their FOURTH children at the same time just two weeks apart, so they made the most of their uncanny position by posing for adorable pictures in matching maternity wear.

Photographer Lisa Schmidt (35) and her best friend, Skye Knijff (31) from Queensland, Australia, have known each other for over 15 years, but 2018 was a special year for the pair who both became pregnant for the fourth time, completely coincidentally.

Skye announced to Lisa that she was pregnant for a fourth time, all the while Lisa and her husband Nathan knew that she too was expecting but kept it secret until they reached the 12-week mark out of precaution.

Lisa and Skye met when they both worked part-time in retail over 15 years ago alongside their education. Back then, the pair would talk about their hopes of having large families of their own.

Given the coincidental and lucky situation the two women found themselves in, they wanted to cherish the entire journey. So, the duo staged their own maternity shoots which involved matching outfits and even continued once they each welcomed their children, as they coordinated the newborns’ outfits for the wonderfully symmetric photos.

Going through their final pregnancies together helped the pair manage their difficult pregnancy problems when they arose.

Lisa and Nathan welcomed their youngest son Aston on January 9, 2018 weighing 8lb 1oz, soon followed by Skye and Nick’s youngest, Hildie on January 26, 2018, weighing 8lb 8oz. Lisa and Skye continued taking their lovable maternity photos right until two days before Aston was born.

“I found out I was pregnant again pretty early on because by the fourth pregnancy you have a pretty good idea about all the signs,” said Lisa.

“My husband and I were over the moon when we found out. We decided to keep it quiet until we reached 12-weeks, but Skye announced her pregnancy earlier than I did.

“I was so excited, but it killed me to keep ours a secret for a few more weeks.

“We’ve been friends for at least 15 years now. We worked together in retail, at Trade Secret. I was at university studying a bachelor’s degree in primary education and Skye was completing sixth form in school at the time.

“I have the best memories from back then, and I still remember Skye telling me back then that she wanted a big family with lots of kids.

“It was by far the hardest out of the four pregnancies for me personally. I was so tired in the first trimester that I would fall asleep sitting up on the sofa and still holding my water with lemon – my weird craving.

“I was also so sore and had the worst sciatica pain throughout the pregnancy. Towards the end, I joked to my husband that I was so lucky because I’d never got those awful swollen ‘cankles’ some people get.

“I literally woke the next day and had the biggest ‘cankles’ I had ever seen. They stayed like that for the entire third trimester. It was as if anything I hadn’t experienced from my other pregnancies, I got with my fourth.

“Skye’s pregnancy was pretty much identical to mine, which made it so easy to chat to her throughout.

“We became a lot closer when we knew we were both pregnant with our fourth babies. We would often call or message each other to discuss weird things that might be happening in our pregnancies, or just to have a whinge about how tired, sore and uncomfortable we were.

“Not to mention how hot we were; we were both very pregnant through our scorching Queensland summer heat.

“When we did our first pregnancy shoot at 12-weeks, we thought it would be cool to wear similar colours.

“Then we got so many people loving our matching photos, so we kept it up and did another shoot whenever we could. It was kind of fun, planning what colour theme we would do next.”

Lisa and Skye were so excited to share their final pregnancies with each other, especially as they both found it to be the hardest of them all.

The pair have added to their collection of adorable photos as they now have photos of the pair holding their youngest children, also in coordinated attire.

“They are getting very cute now, as they explore and walk. They interact a lot more now and they play together,” said Lisa.

“We both found that our older children helped us out so much. It made a huge difference for me having grown up school-aged children who wanted to help and could.

“I want people to see that having babies doesn’t need to restrict or make your lives hard, but only enrich it.

“Being pregnant with a friend helps a lot. It made what could have been a tricky and hard pregnancy, a whole lot of fun.”

You can see more of Lisa’s incredible pregnancy shots by visiting @lisaschmidt84.