Journalism: Photography Columns: Ready for the arrival

When making the decision to have a baby, Anna Mafchir thought about going on hikes as a family and all the other fun stuff they would do. 

What she didn’t think about is how long she would be pregnant. 

“Obviously, I knew there was going to be that nine months,” she says. “All I visualized was Andrew and I reading to the baby.” 

Now she knows life changes well before the birth. 

Always active and health conscious, she has changed her daily routine to accommodate her changing body. 

“I had to let go and just accept that I had to take a nap,” she says. “I can eat ice cream. I hadn’t had it in 10 years.” 

Her nesting instincts have kicked in. She has been given bags full of clothes for the baby who will join husband Andrew and dog, Niko, in their southeast home. 

“Where am I gonna put all this?” she wonders while sorting laundry recently. 

“I don’t even know what all of it is,” she says, showing a padded cloth item that turned out to be for a car seat. 

The 31-year-old Eldorado High School teacher, normally organized and process-oriented, has embraced all the new experiences, no matter how unpredictable they may have been. 

“I’m just appreciative that I can feel it,” she says. “It’s something that I have wanted for so long.” 

Due on Nov. 20, she can look back on her pregnancy fondly but adds, “I'm ready to be the mamma.”