xx

Luna

I knew our baby girl Francis was going to come early. Ryan-Kate was and somehow I just felt like Francis was going to be the same way. She is such dream and these past few days our whole family has been all heart eyes for her. She is peaceful, sweet, beautiful, and so so perfect. Even though I knew she was coming early and had ben anticipated her birth for months, Andrew and I were still both surprised when she made her arrival. 

 On Thursday morning, September 27, I went in for my 38 week appointment. My doctor said I was already 4 cm dilated and 70% effaced. I thought that was encouraging but knew that women can sit there for a while too, so I tried to take it with a grain of salt. On Friday, we went on with our normal routine: getting Rk to school, grocery shopping, and spending some family time. We even started planning out our weekend and work commitments. It's such a strange place to be: in-between expectancy and waiting, knowing that things could change in an instant.

 That night, around 11am I woke up with contractions. At this point, I'm not sure if I am ready to call them contractions. Like once I say it I can't take it back and we are really doing this. I even debated on waiting until morning to tell Andrew. Once I woke up Andrew, we start to track my contractions. 7 minutes apart. So we start making arrangements for someone to sleep over with Rk so we can go to the hospital. On the way to the hospital I feel nauseous and I have Andrew pull over so I can throw up. Not pretty and it was miserable.

 At the hospital, we get set up in the triage room where I am monitored for an hour to confirm that I indeed am in labor. It is now 1:30am and I am 5cm now each contraction only getting stronger. I get transferred to the delivery room, answer questions, get iv's, and request an epidural. My body was shaking so bad because of the contractions and I've about had my limit. At 2:30am and I get an epidural and it works almost instantly. I am now at 7cm and my water still has not yet broken.

 After the epidural, things start progressing a lot slower but I don't mind. I just let me body rest and both Andrew and I try to get some sleep. I wake up around 5am and I remember the room feeling so peaceful and I am overwhelmed with such much joy. I begin to bless my labor, my new baby girl, and the new life that is about to enter this world. Birth is such a beautiful, spiritual experience.   

 At 7am I can start feeling pain despite having the epidural and still pressing to delivery more pain relief. I am 9cm and my water still hasn't broken. My delivery doctor tells me that she wants to wait a little longer then she will break my water and I can deliver. My pain level is increasing and I start to feel so much pressure and I am pretty sure I need to push soon. Around 8am, I ring my nurses and tell them I feel like its time and that I need to start pushing. They seemed surprise but start preparing everything. The epidural is only sort of working and I can feel everything. People are coaching me and encouraging me and I am sure that I won't be able to do it. But then she was here and she was perfect.

 Andrew and I were both so happy and overwhelmed. I remember him being so emotional and I being  so happy. Francis Promise Nemeth was born at 8:26am. I cannot wait to see who she will become. She carries so much peace and joy already and I am honored to be her mother. 

I got this crazy idea where I wanted to do an Easter egg craft with Ryan-Kate. It mainly consisted of my doing all the work while she played with her friend. She is responsible for two eggs the brighter blue one and a pink one, which are ironically not the "natural" dye method and the most vibrant of the bunch ( **insert cry laugh emoji**). Here's the conclusion I came to: natural dye is tedious longer process that my child did not care for. Luckily, I had an store bought dye for Ryan-Kate and her friend to participate, resulting in the most successful attempts of Easter Dye. Although the pastels are quite beautiful in my opinion, so I'm not complaining. 

Here's what I did:

When your grandmother turns 90, you do everything you can to celebrate her. These photos are a little late to the blog, so forgive me. And as it turns out, when you add a bunch of people and a few kids, getting a photo where everyone is smiling is more difficult than you think. Isn't that just like family- a bunch of complicated, beautiful people loving each other. I'm so grateful that these are my people. Happy birthday, grandma! You legacy is a powerful one. Your gentle spirit speaks volumes. I love you!

I cannot believe that it has been a little over a year! It seems like yesterday I was leaving the hospital with a brand new baby in my arms. Her birthday was so beautiful, I, of course, had to share! Out of the many photos to choose from it was hard to narrow it to the very few that I am about to show you. They will all be up on Facebook soon. So until then, I hope you enjoy looking through these taken by the very talent Maribel Morales Photography.