The Messy Coffee Table

This is the story of how our daughter, Luna Camila, came into the world. *Disclaimer: If you're not someone who enjoys birth stories or hospital stories, or gets triggered/anxious from hearing the details of these, this post may not be for you. Photos by Adriana Brito In The Home Stretch It was a warm, balmy Friday night in Miami. October 6th, to be precise. I was at a restaurant celebrating a friend's birthday, and I was as pregnant as it gets. It felt good to be out, and I sensed this feeling as I drove to the restaurant that this would be my last hurrah before our daughter arrived.  I was still about a week out from our due date, and I was feeling it. Sleep was a gamble thanks to heartburn and incurable hip pain that no amount of pillow-propping could manage. Earlier that week, the Braxton-Hicks contractions were all over the place...in fact, just the day prior, they increased to an intensity for a few hours in the morning that made me think, is today the day??  But alas, a...

Hey there friends! I can't believe we are already celebrating one month with Jackson James. I said I would share our birth story, so without further ado, here it is! *Disclaimer: If you're not someone who enjoys birth stories or gets triggered by hearing all the details, this post may not be for you. But I hope our story helps someone else as they prepare for their first baby, as many other stories helped me prepare for the arrival our little boy (and by prepare, I really mean surrender - to God's plan, to the pain, to the timing, all of it). Still Waiting... As I sat there on my couch on my 40th week of pregnancy, I stared at the little devotional book sitting on our coffee table: Waiting in Wonder by Catherine Claire Larson. "Waiting in wonder?" I thought to myself. "More like waiting in weariness." I was so tired. I was still working full time and it was becoming hard to focus. Financially I was feeling overwhelmed. I was also growing anxious because...

Maternity photos by Adriana Brito I'm the kind of girl who likes to document everything. Pregnancy is no exception. I have a first-time mom's journal I've been using for the past 7 or so months to track everything about this pregnancy, as well as a devotional dedicated to engaging with God as pregnancy progresses.  I'm also the kind of girl who likes to learn from other people's stories. Shocker...pregnancy is no exception here either! One of my biggest goals in preparing for the birth has been the elimination of fear, and I've learned that for me, hearing ALL the stories helps me in that journey. There's a lot of horror stories out there...I'm not talking about getting caught up and dwelling on these. But it has helped me to hear and read real stories of real moms who had healthy babies and all the different methods they've been able to do so.  Something about knowing the depths and heights of what it can be like to deliver a baby brings me comfort....