Happy Birthday to our Girl

So, a year ago today, I was doing this.

Breathing through contractions on my living room floor. Tony was helping. 

I remember I woke up on the morning of Saturday, April 6, and immediately started to cry. Why, you ask? Because I was still pregnant. Despite everyone and their brother telling me, "oh, don't you worry! That second baby comes MUCH earlier than the first!" it was not to be. I was 41 weeks, cranky, and convinced I was going to be pregnant forever. I stomped downstairs, gave my mother the look of death when she made a snarky comment about me lying about being pregnant, and sat down at the computer with a cup of coffee and started browsing Pinterest.

Now, Will and I chose not to find out the sex of our baby, but we had boy and girl names all picked out. I remember pinning the story of St. Catherine de'Ricci to my Catholic board; I had never heard of her before, but I noticed that her birth name was Alessandra. I thought that was a funny coincidence, since that was the girl name we picked out a long time ago, but I didn't think too much of it at the time.

A few hours later, I was breathing my way through some pretty serious contractions, and I told Will this was The Real Deal, and he needed to call my midwives, stat. By 2:45 that afternoon, Will was driving faster and faster, and thank you Jesus there weren't any cops running radar calmly driving on the I-20 to the birth center in Marshall, TX. I remember very little about that drive, except I kept quietly praying the Hail Mary in between contractions, and squeezing Will's hand when I felt the pains coming. Once we got to the birth center, everything happened very quickly. I got into the tub, and within 20 minutes (and lots of screaming, cursing the ineffectiveness of Hypnobirthing and insisting that I was dying), my midwife placed my little girl in my arms.

I could go on all day about the joy of having a daughter, how having a baby sister has made Tony even sweeter and more gentle than he was before, or how my heart completely melted when I saw Will hold his little girl for the very first time. But I can't; there are no words that can ever describe these precious memories that are forever etched into my heart.

The proudest papa in the world.

Exhausted after nursing.

Our first night at home. That was probably the only time she slept.

It's been a year full of happiness, exhaustion, anxiety, but most of all, love. As tired as I may be every morning, my heart nearly bursts when I see Tony stop what he's doing, and gives his baby sister a hug and kiss. Even though I might have a million other things I could be doing, I live for the moments before nap time (such as it is), when Alessandra and I snuggle up on the glider and I nurse her before I put her to bed. Seeing her sweet little face every morning, hearing her adorable little belly laugh when I tickle her, and seeing my two sweet children play together has brought Will and I more joy than we ever thought possible. We have been so abundantly blessed with our little girl, and I can hardly wait to see what next year has in store for her. 

Happy first birthday, Alessandra Isabel. You are so very, very loved.