Georgia Hilmer + Baby
Georgia Hilmer + Baby for Misha & Puff Spring 23.
Georgia Hilmer is a writer and photographer based in upstate New York, where she lives in an old school with her husband and tends to a sprawling flower garden. Last year she published FLORA-Z, a book of botanical illustrations by 26 different artists that forms a floral alphabet. The sequel, FLORA-Z 2, features a new set of artists and flowers and will be released this summer.
I’m having my first child in May (if he sticks to schedule!) I think of him as my last-frost baby: he’s set to arrive just around the time it’s safe to put plants in the ground, once the danger of cold nights has passed. There’s a palpable parallel in my pregnancy between the seasons cycling from dormancy to life and my own changing body. I got pregnant as summer was winding down; I’ll give birth just as spring reaches its full expression. All the buds emerging now are as swollen and full of potential as I feel.
The first trimester slipped by like a secret only my husband and I knew. The second trimester was a kind of hibernation; I started telling friends about the pregnancy but was kept inside by the weather, where cozy clothes made my changing size less noticeable. My belly started to show just around the time I traded big jackets and bulky sweaters for lighter layers. There were several funny moments when I would turn around at the farmer’s market or coffee shop and someone who’d only seen me in a puffer for months would glimpse my rounded profile and gasp.
Once the little guy is finally here, we’ll be on the cusp of another summer. He’ll be on the outside, in the sun, after growing in the dark. It will be time to plant the seedlings I started under fluorescent lights back when dusk came before 5 PM and he was tiny inside of me. Maybe I’ll dig the delphinium and poppy starts into the dirt myself, or watch a friend do it while I hold the baby on the garden’s edge. Summer brings a sense of wild possibility. I’m just remembering the taste of it now, watching the tulips come in. There’s a part of that thrill I know from seasons past, and a whole new version I can’t quite imagine that the baby will bring.
