Thanks to a photographer’s creativity, a Navy corpsman from Texas was able to be by his wife’s side in a touching maternity picture.
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Wesley Bedwell, 21, discovered in December that he was being deployed overseas, one month after his wife Nicole announced she was pregnant with their child, Inside Edition reported.
“It’s our first baby. Luckily I had a really good pregnancy, but it definitely sucks,” 19-year-old Nicole Bedwell said.
Nicole Bedwell hired Traci Fugitt, the owner of Traci Lynn Photography, to take photos of her during labor and delivery due to Wesley's absence. She also hired her to take her maternity pictures.
Fugitt came up with the idea of a split photograph after Nicole wanted to include her husband in the photographs during the maternity shoot.
“She had seen the pictures where the spouse was faded into the picture, and asked if we could do something similar,” Fugitt told Inside Edition.
The result was Nicole standing in a field of Texas bluebonnets, with Wesley in the left side of the photo, kneeling in dry grass in Japan while reaching toward her.
“It was just something we talked about. I just wanted him in the picture because he wasn’t able to be here during the whole pregnancy so she cropped him in,” Nicole Bedwell said.
The photo, which has since been shared widely online, left Nicole speechless, she said.
“It’s been really emotional for me to have my husband gone my whole pregnancy, so the fact that Traci was able to include him in my maternity session was very emotional,” she told Inside Edition. “We will never be having our first child again. He’s my family, so having him included touched my heart. It made me happy.”
When Nicole developed hypertensions, and because her pregnancy was high-risk, her labor was induced early. Wesley was given leave by the Navy to be there for the child’s birth. He arrived in time for daughter Pyper’s birth at 6 a.m. on April 12, Fugitt told Inside Edition.