Aria Isabella
After a few months, I'm very excited to formally introduce our newest member of the family - Aria Isabella!
Aria was born on March 27th at 6:18pm weighing 9lbs 3oz and 22 inches long.
Birth
My husband and I were admitted to the hospital the night before and welcomed Aria almost 24 hours later. Labor in itself didn’t take that entire time but the process of getting dilated was extensive. The beauty of giving birth to her was that since she was my second child everything felt easier, quicker and less painful. I pushed for about 10 minutes and she was out! Girlfriend was ready to join us on the other side! And yes, I most definitely got an epidural!
Seeing as she was born at the beginning of quarantine, the hospital had started the “no visitors” rule. But luckily, I still had my husband and had the fortune of not being asked to wear a mask during labor. I heard that a lot of women in the past few months had to and I honestly couldn’t imagine how hard that must have been. Those are definitely some tough mamas.
As sad as I was that our families, especially the moms, couldn’t be there in the hospital, I will say there was a silver lining. I actually got to rest more, and both Brian and I got to spend quality time with just Aria. When Luca was born we had an overwhelming amount of visitors which was great but also was a lot to handle, especially as first time parents. With Aria we were able to get ourselves together at our pace, we were able to allow ourselves the time to get used to everything without any distractions. Not sure if it’s related but Aria got to her birth weight quicker, my milk came in faster and she slept longer shortly after.
Back Home
Luca was so excited to meet his little sister! He was about 19 months and I didn't expect him to understand who I was bringing home, but he was ecstatic! He really seemed to know this little person would be his new best friend for life! Honestly, I've never seen my son so excited to see any other kid or person as much as he did when he saw Aria. He didn't leave her side that whole day. It was such a great moment that I'll remember forever.
Postpartum
Due to quarantine, my mom stayed a few days to help us get adjusted and to help with Luca. After she left we didn't see any friends or family for weeks, like most people did. We were blessed to have a few friends and family drop off food, coffee and presents for Aria. It was nice to feel that support and care from our loved ones. My advice to anyone reading this is that if you have a friend or relative in your life having a baby, especially during covid, to make sure you let them know you are there for them. Bring them a coffee, drop off some soup or even call to see if they're ok. It goes a long way. I didn't have postpartum depression with Luca but with Aria I did. Quarantine really made me feel even more isolated than normal. Luckily, I had a few friends I could count on to talk it through with and that would check on me. I can't say how much that helped me. Even a 20 minute text exchange to talk made a difference.
Aria's Newborn Photoshoot
Unfortunately, I was too afraid to get Aria's newborn photos taken by a professional due to covid so I opened my windows up on a bright day and tried to take a few pictures myself. The apps I used to edit these are VSCO and Snapseed. I highly recommend them, they are pretty user friendly. Also the veil in the picture below is from my wedding day, that's one of my favorite photos.
Now Now my little girl is 7 months old and has only met of a few relatives and friends due to the pandemic which had been a huge bummer, but on the bright-side we’ve gotten so much more quality time with her and I feel like I’ve been able to enjoy this baby stage so much more. We are excited to keep watching this peanut grow.
Maternity Shoot
Here are also some very delayed maternity shoot pictures! We kept it simple in her room. I've got my dress linked below too.
(Photo Credit: Courtney Perakis - www.cmperakis.carbonmade.com)
