So this was it...7:10 PM on Wednesday, February 2nd and Julian and I left our house to head to the hospital. We stopped at our front door, took a look back into our house, and realized that this was the last time we would leave our house as 2. The next time we would walk through that door, we would officially be a family of 3!
After 48 hours of labor (OK, really, active labor was only 10 hours, but hey, who's counting), Jillian Annalise was born! And though special guest blogger, Katy King, did a beautiful job of telling the story of how Jillian came into the world, I would be remiss if I did not take a second to pause and thank the amazing coaches that I had in the room with me when I gave birth to my daughter.
Katy, thanks for all your support, positivity, and expert photographer skills. You were able to catch so many special moments and they are memories that I will cherish forever. And your loving words and witty jokes helped me so much as I was bringing my daughter into the world. I am so grateful that you were there to share in this special moment, FNF!
And to my SAAHE Sister, Meredith, who was with me every step of the way, from labor the night before through delivery, and lots of support after Jilly was already here. I seriously could not have done this without you. I was so sad that my mom was not able to be here, but you were a huge comfort to me in my time of need! And your words of support and encouragement carried me through a lot of hard moments. I could have never predicted that you would be there, in the room, when I gave birth to my first child (not like how I predicted that one of my SAAHE sisters would be in my wedding)! Words can never express how grateful I am, Mere!
And to the best coach and husband that a woman could ask for, my husband, Julian. I enjoyed every minute of this experience with you by my side. From your constant positivity, calm and prayers when things got rough, love through the hard moments, and all the little special memories where it was just you and me, like reading the letters, I will never forget any of it. We did this TOGETHER and just look at the beautiful, amazing life that we created and brought into the world. Jillian is the luckiest baby in the world to have you as her Daddy and here is our first picture as a family of 3!
The weather outside was wintry and bad, but our room was filled with nothing but love. Our time in the hospital went really smoothly, with lots of help from the St. Joseph staff and lots of visitors to occupy our time. We were visited by family, like Grandma Julie, Uncle Joseph, and Auntie Shell...
And friends, like the Hayes, Franco and Adriana, Blake, the Kings, and more. We even got a visit from the Malnars, including baby Jackson. This was a momentous occasion as we have waited for a long time to see the meeting of Jack and Jill...
And we were even visited by my students, like Leakyn, Kyle, Tim, Allison, and Melina!
We were so grateful to be surrounded by love!
But alas, the time had come for us to go home. So we got Jillian ready by putting her in her special bring home outfit (and a jacket, because it was so cold outside).
And I put her in her car seat (a gift from Mami Mari and Papi Papo) while Julian went to go get the car.
Here we are heading out, being wheeled by the nurse.
And here's daddy putting the baby into mommy's car.
*A quick note...although we have daddy's brand new truck, I really wanted to bring Jillian home in my car. I know it sounds weird, but when mommy bought her car in 2004 (even before she was dating daddy), I remember test driving this car and looking into the rear view mirror, thinking "Wow, this is the car I will use to bring home my first-born baby"
Daddy drove us home ever so carefully, and we were so excited that Mami Mari, Papi Papo, and Auntie Andy made it in time to greet us at our house.
...And so we finally came back through that door, as a family of 3!
Welcome Home Jillian Annalise Acosta!
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