A big hello to you all! I missed you! I've been away from the blogging scene for several weeks now but with good reason. It's with great excitement that I share the news with you of the birth of our daughter! If you follow along on Facebook then you might have already read last Friday that our sweet pea had arrived, she is now 11 days old! So many of you have left sweet comments here as I've posted about my journey into motherhood and shared pregnancy progress pics and and I'm so glad I can finally share our joy with you all.
Without further ado, my hubby and I are thrilled to announce the birth of our sweet daughter, Lily Evangeline Davis!! We are already so in love with her. She was born on August. 30th at 11:00am weighing 6 lbs 15 oz and measuring 20.5" long. She entered the world during a peaceful, gentle water birth surrounded by my amazing Midwife, Doula and Birth Assistant. It was really important to us that no drugs be used for pain or to induce labor and to avoid all interventions as much as possible, which I'm thankful to have achieved. I got to hold her immediately and daddy cut the cord. We could not have asked for a more perfect natural arrival of our little girl or more loving motherly care from the team at the Birth Center, we are beyond blessed and thankful. XO.
She is the love of our lives and while bringing her into the world was some of the hardest work I've had to do as a woman, it was the most rewarding. It was by far the best day of my life! I also have a renewed sense of how powerful and intuitive our bodies are and the strength that we as women have. We are stronger than we know! My favorite moment was when we both stared into each other's eyes for the first time-it was magical!
Many of you have been sending messages wondering if she had arrived, thank you for your patience these last few weeks as I prepared our home, tied up loose ends before her birth and now am adjusting to becoming a new mom with a very different schedule that includes limited sleep as I know all you mamas can relate to.
Here is our little princess yawning below! I tried to snap a photo on her so you could see her face but she insisted on laying on her side. Surprise, she was born with a full head of dark hair! We never saw that coming, we were expecting a bald little blondie. LOL. Perhaps all this hair explains all the heartburn I experienced. We were both born with light hair, mine was white blonde and our families have fair hair with the exception of my husband's father who had dark hair in his younger years. We're curious to see how she changes and grows over the coming months and whose features she takes on. This picture below marks her 1st week of life as I begin a weekly photo project for her over the next 52 weeks, inspired by my favorite blogging duo at Young House Love.
Near the end of my pregnancy I was starting to get really hot, a bit uncomfortable and my focus was on purchasing last minute needed items for baby and enjoying the last few nights as well as dinners out just us two (including my birthday which was just 3 days before her own birthday) before she made her appearance. I didn't get a chance to post the remaining bump update photos as I had planned.
Daddy's little girl. He's one proud papa!
Here are the last 2 sets of pregnancy progress photos taken at both 38 week and 40 weeks, just days before she was born. It's funny to look back at these photos now and see how much my body had grown during that time and how just 10 days post-delivery, my body miraculously remembers how it was shaped before and everything has pretty much fallen back into place thanks to healthy lifestyle throughout pregnancy and some good genes on my mom's side of the family-thanks mom! ;) I'm still moving a bit slower though as my body heals itself and am looking forward to taking our little bambina out for walks very soon!
{38 Weeks}
{Swollen feet in full effect!}
{40 Weeks}
{Taken before heading out for my birthday dinner at 40 weeks + 2 days}
For all the moms reading...what fun ways did you use photos or other creative ideas to document the first year of your baby's life? What was your favorite moment from your little one's birth?
If you're new here and missed the previous pregnancy bump updates, you can find them all here:
Pregnancy Announcement
16 Weeks
20 Weeks
24 Weeks Gender Reveal
28 Weeks
34 Weeks
XO
