Photographer Photoshops deployed husband into maternity photo
INSIDE EDITION - The couple may be thousands of miles apart, but that didn't stop them from appearing side-by-side in a maternity photo.
Navy Corpsman Wesley Bedwell, 21, who has been overseas since November, has missed his wife’s entire pregnancy, but he’s been with her in spirit.
"A month after we found out I was pregnant, he deployed,” Nicole Bedwell, 19, told InsideEdition.com. "It’s our first baby. Luckily I had a really good pregnancy, but it definitely sucks."
Bedwell hired Traci Fugitt, owner of Traci Lynn Photography, to take photos of her during labor and delivery due to Wesley's absence. She also enlisted her to take her maternity pictures.
Together they came up with the idea to crop Wesley into the maternity photo from overseas.
“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," Bedwell said.
Fugitt said that when she showed the photos to Bedwell, she was speechless.
“I cried, both of our families cried," Bedwell 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. We will never be having our first child again. He's my family, so having him included touched my heart. It made me happy.”
In a twist of events, however, Bedwell developed hypertension and because the pregnancy is high-risk Bedwell will be induced, allowing Wesley to return for his daughter’s birth on April 12.
“He gets to come home so that takes a lot of the pressure off," Bedwell said.