
Pregnancy Style: Chelsea Petaja
Written by James Kicinski-McCoy
Photography by Photographed by Tec Petaja
Meet Nashville-based artist Chelsea Petaja. Here, the radiantly glowing, bump-toting, hand letterer and illustrator (and brand new mama—she welcomed her baby girl Pax just days after wrapping our shoot) invites us into her charming, 1905, southern home to talk about the joys of pregnancy, her thoughts on becoming a mother, and she shows off her daughter’s simple, yet beautifully designed, light-filled nursery.
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"Comfy and easy."
Chelsea wears a vintage purple dress that belonged to her Mother.
- "The only thing that I've changed since becoming pregnant is wearing clothes that actually touch my body. Ha! I've loved wearing snug fitting dresses that show the bump. It's probably the only time in my life I've felt comfortable with body-hugging clothing."
- "I love the idea of falling more in love with my man as I watch him become a father to a daughter. He's already incredibly tender and nurturing, and I know our girl Pax will be the luckiest to have him as her papa."
- "I'm anxious about plenty, but the thought of raising a girl in our culture's climate scares me. I pray she finds her confidence in the fact that she's 'fearfully and wonderfully made' instead of what the world tells her."
- "Yes! I only have one sister, so I feel like I know girls better than boys. But I have to believe that if I was having a boy, I'd feel like I'd won the lottery, too."
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"My mom's maiden name is Paxton, so we got Pax from that, which means peace in Latin. She's already been our light and our peace. I can't wait to see how she manifests that in the world."
Chelsea wear a knit dress by Daisy Street.
- "Pretty easy. Like most women, the first few months were a little hairy, but I've felt great the second and third trimesters. I count myself as super, super lucky."
- "Yes, to have a healthy baby and self. I am totally open to whatever that looks like when our time comes."
- "All the mamas with grown babies have told me to trust my instincts, so that's my favorite and most encouraging piece of advice. I keep going back to it when I have my mini-meltdowns about the newness we're about to be thrust into."
- "Her nursery has taken so long to put together! I didn't grow up playing with dolls or dreaming of a nursery, so as my sister said, 'So you're basically decorating this nursery like it's another room in your house, except that it has a crib in it.' In the end, I love how it came together. It's a little bit feminine, but mostly just comfy and cozy and familiar."
- "The crib is special because my parents and Tec's parents surprised us by purchasing it for us. The crib transitions into a toddler bed, so whether another baby joins us down the line or Pax uses it for several years, there was a lot of love that put it into our home."
- "Yes. I'm so lucky. My sister and brother-in-law live within walking distance from us and my folks live less than a 20-minute-drive away. Not to mention all the other mamas that have done this before me that I get to call friends."
- "Well since I've craved sweets this whole pregnancy, I'd say Jeni's Ice Cream, Five Daughter's Bakery, Fox's Donut Den, and Las Paletas."
- "Having immediate family so close by. I grew up with all of our family living hours away, so I love the idea of Pax being able to go over to her Honey and Pop's house for dinner."
- "I can't think of anything pregnancy related. I feel like people tell you all about being pregnant and their birth stories, but leave out the nitty gritty of the realness after birth. Like, I just found out that you bleed for weeks after giving birth! And that running a hairdryer on low down there feels good when you're recovering. Hello! These are the things we need to be talking about! We can have all the plans in the world when it comes to birthing the baby, but the reality is that so much of that is out of our control. But, we can be prepared with Depends, so that we're not sending someone to the grocery store to pick up diapers for us and the baby."
- "I'm very similar to my mom in so many ways, but any goodness I can claim in myself, she has double. We see life and justice and beauty very similarly, which makes crying and laughing and getting wound up together pretty satisfying."
- "We bought our 1905 home back in '09 in an up-and-coming neighborhood in Nashville. It was a two bed, one bath house and at the time it was perfect for just the two of us. Since then, we've made lots of changes to make it work best for us—we've lowered ceilings to add a second story (where there used to just be a coal filled attic), bumped out the galley kitchen and added a studio in the back yard. We were married eight years before getting pregnant, so our home was our project, our money pit, and our baby."
- "My husband really hates 'stuff', so we've tried to keep what we've registered and bought to a minimum. I've had to remind him plenty of times that we don't live in a model home and that it can look like people actually live here. So now, the plan is to keep her few things designated to her room, but you know how well the best-laid plans go."
- "I hope so!"
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"The extent of my wellness routine these days looks like making sure I get 80+ ounces of water and lots of veggies, fruits, and protein. I've done a sub-par job of exercising, since carving self-care time out of work has never been a strong suit of mine."
Chelsea wears a dress that she found at TJ Maxx.
- "I'm a hand letterer and illustrator. I do a lot of wedding-world work with the occasional print or branding job."
- "I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta and went to a small, liberal arts college in northwest Georgia. After graduating with a BA in Studio Art, I moved to Nashville where I began working as an assistant and then the Art Guide at a Montessori school. After several years of teaching and moonlighting as a designer, I quit teaching and pursued my design work full-time."
- "I love words, so marrying my love of reading and learning with hand lettering is the perfect fit for me. Inspiration looks like a great book, a good conversation, or a podcast."
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"Who knows? My husband and I both have flexibility with our work schedules, so I'm sure there will be a lot of tag-teaming. My mother also lives in town and the plan is to eventually have her stay with Pax on some sort of schedule, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there."
Chelsea wears a dress by Raquel Allegra.
- To follow along with Chelsea and her family, check out her Instagram.
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