Our Blessing, Audriana Marie Pelfini

She’s here! Arriving via c-section on 1/31/18 at 7 pounds, 7 ounces, 20″ long, Audriana Marie Pelfini (formerly Baby Girl A and LBP) made her appearance known with the sweetest loud cry we ever could have imagined, indicating she was our healthy little baby girl. Setting the scene of the day she was born, Audriana’s Welcome playlist crooned in the background in shuffle-mode and happened to land appropriately on “Everything I Have is Yours” by Billie Holiday. Each time we watch the video of when we first meet her, we can’t help but shed a tear.

Unbeknownst to us when we chose her birth date for the first day of week 39 of my pregnancy, she was destined to be born on a once in a 155-year occurrence of a Super Blue Blood Moon. Michael latched onto this excitement and is able to share the story for years to come, with an article to be framed in her nursery for her to tell it, accurately of course! Our 5-day hospital stay was incredible. We could write a blog posting on just the birth experience/first days alone. But suffice to say it was nice to have a beautiful reason to go to the hospital for once, and we enjoyed the personal time together as a family.

Audriana’s the A in our JaM, a long-awaited dream that has been fulfilled for the two of us. At just about 6 weeks (where is the time going?) she’s had some fun adventures and has met many of her fans via visits to our home, being out and about and FaceTime chats for those that are not nearby.

Our home has been adorned with precious cards of welcome and gifts, of which we are extremely grateful for, and our dining table quickly transformed into her processing head quarters for gifts, announcements and baby projects. We’ve been fortunate with friends stopping by with a homemade dish to eat or freeze for us to enjoy which has been a huge time saver for us when bleary-eyed sleepless nights result in grabbing whatever is around to inhale easily! It’s true what they say, our home is primarily hers now. There’s no area in the house that hasn’t been christened with Audriana gear. Her dresser is full of clothes from those that love her. She’s well-dressed and fully stocked until around 9months of age. Everyone loves clothing this sweet child!

Our lives have changed for the better with her. A transformation we never could quite imagine until it became our every day life.

Michael took paternity leave so we could all be together to adjust and enjoy our transition as a family. He has some more time to use we are saving for throughout the year. It was a sad day for myself and her when he returned to work after caring for us both, but never fear he’s a super involved participating dad, we miss when at work. As parents we are taking a crash course in real-life stop and smell the roses, as her scent, her sweet faces, cries and coos all make us stop and wonder, what is she thinking, what is she looking at or seeing, what does she need? We Just Stop. It’s an incredible feeling to learn more each day about her and to experience her “firsts”.

She’s alert, a great sleeper, fantastic snuggler and is making all kinds of progress in her development everyday. We have adjusted to working around her schedule of eating and sleeping, but we have already created structure of our own. We start our mornings with lots of light, playing that birth playlist until we can’t hear “You’ve Got a Friend” anymore. She enjoys bathtime 3-4 times a week (plus those “blowout” bonus days) and sometimes we play the Italian Mambo station and dance around with her, which is definitely more fun for us! Our evenings are quiet with dim lights as “Ocean Waves” tracks mesmerize all of us in whatever room she is in until she wakes. Part of her sleep ritual includes Tippy the turtle, with sparkling blue sea lights reflecting on the ceiling and that nameless song we can hum in our sleep. Nights were tough at first, but now she sleeps more.

Without further bragging (yeah, I guess we have become those parents that can’t stop talking about their kid), here’s a very special set of pics taken during her 5th week by our cousin visiting who is both a photographer and a nanny (double score!).

Thank you for all your good wishes, prayers, cards and gifts as we went through the journey to get here and after her arrival.

We keep saying we are blessed. We are. That’s the only way we know how to be grateful for this precious angel from God.

We hope to see you soon via visit or FaceTime, if you haven’t met her yet! While she’s alert and awake more now, she’s still on a heavy sleep schedule… so you might meet her “eyes wide shut”… often just as entertaining as when they are very wide open.

Photography credit below to Emily Bucholz @tellthebeesphoto