Introducing....The Love of Our Lives!

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}

Thanks so much for following along with me during my journey through pregnancy! I'll be sure to provide occasional updates with photos of Miss Lily as she grows. :) We have her newborn photo session scheduled for this Saturday and I'm looking forward to having some professional photos as neither hubby or I are great photographers. Our baby girl will also be meeting her grandma and grandpa (Paul's parents) for the first time too!

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

Baby Gender Reveal Time! It's a.....

Hi Everyone! Well, we finally did it. We shared the sex of our little one with our parents once I hit my 6 month mark and then revealed to the rest of our friends and family the next day via my personal Facebook page with some special photos we took specifically for the reveal.

Some of you may remember that I mentioned via Facebook a few weeks ago that I put the brakes on my plans for a fun gender reveal party (which was supposed to take place this coming weekend) even though I had all the details planned out, there was just too much going on and I was feeling too overwhelmed by life to prepare for this party and then clean up afterwards all on my own. I knew I could spend my time, energy and budget in a better way than a party that would last just a couple hours. We still wanted to do something creative and fun to document this time and decided to head to one of our favorite hotels which has a nice architectural backdrop for our photos that would mark the occasion and use the balloon color to announce our news.

Hubby and I are overjoyed to announce that we our expecting a baby GIRL!! We had both been praying for a healthy baby and would have been happy either way but the Lord is giving us both our true heart's desire, a daughter to love. :) Without further ado, here are a few photos from my 24-Week pregnancy belly shoot.

Over the weekend my in-laws hosted a family reunion get together of sorts to bring all of the extended family together since we hadn't seen each other in a while. We thought it was the perfect time to pull Paul's mom and dad aside privately and give them a special gift to open in another room together so they could learn the baby's gender first and then we let them share the news with everyone else at their party. It was such a fun evening and everyone was so sweet, supportive and excited for us. Since all of my husband's cousins began their families many years ago, we will be the only ones with a baby.

{Enchante Accessories Distressed Frame in antique white} It's 50% off right now!

For their gift, I took our favorite sonogram photo of the bunch (our little jellybean with her hands clasped and close to her mouth) and had a duplicate made of the photo then added a cute little pink bow on the head and slipped it into a pretty cream frame for them to keep. It was really easy to do and I plan to make one for each of my parents as well as a keepsake for us which will likely live in the nursery until she arrives!

My Mother-in-law has graciously offered to host my baby shower along with the help of my husband's two Aunts since my closest friends and family live miles away back home in Toronto. They asked for my ideas on a theme and the date, so we've penciled in the date of July.13th and the overall decor will be a color theme of pale pink, white and gold. I'm thinking soft, feminine, elegant and chic. I look forward to seeing what they come up with!


{Fun Facts}

What I craved the most this month:  Everything sweet! Fruit (still eating watermelon almost daily), smoothies, sweet tea, desserts, you name it and my baby wants it! I was already a bit of a sweet tooth beforehand so not too much has changed. What they say about girls craving sweets is true!

Something new I tried this month: My midwife recommended Hypnobirthing and I have read so many great personal experiences about how it can shorten the length of labor and delivery as well as make for such a peaceful birthing experience-some women experienced no pain at all! I have attended my first private class so far and since she is also a Doula, we have chosen her to be present and support me during the birth as well. Has anyone else used the hypnobirthing technique? I figure it's not only good for pregnancy but also beyond, it helps you use the pain in your life and transform it into a powerful tool with the right visualization tools.

Weight gain from 20-24 weeks: A whopping half of a pound although my bi-weekly photos would have you believe otherwise! I've gained 11 lbs total as of my 24-week check up and am feeling really good which is most important to me. 

When I started wearing maternity clothes: While I'm still in 95% regular clothes, I finally grabbed a couple pairs of maternity pants, a few tops and a pair of shorts and they are really comfortable! I'm trying to creatively work my own wardrobe and new pieces that are a size larger or my own size into my existing wardrobe for now so I can wear the items after the birth and beyond without investing a lot of money into a maternity-specific wardrobe. 

New Development this month: Itchy tummy! No matter how much cocoa butter, belly oil or natural lotions I use, my bump is stretching and letting me know about it. If someone has a good home remedy, please let me know!

Did you find out and share the gender of your first baby? If you did, what was the most memorable moment about revealing it to family and friends? Maybe you had a creative way of sharing the news? I'd love to hear about it!

As always, thanks for reading!

XO





*All other images my own, except these: (1), (2)