Gabriella's 1st Birthday

That's right! My daughter is officially a 1 year old!

Gabri is such a quiet laid back little girl. She's content just being held and carried around. She also enjoys trying to keep up with her busy brother.

I found out I was pregnant with Gabriella when Jayden was 5 months old. My pregnancy with her was so easy. I had morning sickness for about 2 weeks, which was nothing compared to the 2 long months when I was pregnant with Jayden. I craved fruit with Gabriella and only gained 30 pounds, compared to the 50 pounds I gained with Jayden. My pregnancy went by so fast with Gabriella, I remember at the end of it I told Jordan, if something happened and I wasn't able to get pregnant again, I would be so sad because I didn't take the chance to completely enjoy being pregnant with Gabri. In fact, I forgot I was pregnant on multiple occasions. I think chasing around a little toddler all day long had a lot to do with that.

Even my labor and delivery with Gabri was super easy. I was induced 1 week before my due date to prevent having a large baby (Jayden was 9lbs 8oz). We went in to the hospital at 8am and they started pitocin, at 11:45 I got an epidural (I wasn't in pain, but they were about to break my water and I didn't really care to experience hard contractions so I got the epidural early) at noon they broke my water, by 4pm I was fully dilated and I started pushing around 5:10 and she was born at 5:28pm. Gabriella Jael weighed 8lbs 7oz.... Gabri was still considered a large baby because she was born 1 week early.

While I was pregnant with Gabri I felt like she would grow up to be a preacher of the Gospel. It was the same feeling I got when I was pregnant with Jayden that he would be a worship leader. Gabriella means, "The Lord's messenger" and I think she will grow into the meaning of her name beautifully.

The week before she was born I was sitting in our living room playing with Jayden when I started to cry as I realized I would bring another child into this world and honestly, I didn't know if I would be able to truly love her like I love Jayden. There is such a special bond between a mother and her first born. The miracle of being a mother is that God expands our heart and we possess a deep love for our children.. no matter how many we have, 2 or 19. :)

24 hours after Gabri was born the nurse noticed a redness around her umbilical cord. The doctor was notified and before I knew it I had 2 NICU nurses sitting in my hospital room telling me that Gabriella would have to stay in the NICU on antibiotics for 72 hours to keep the infection from spreading into her blood system. I cried as I sat in the rocking chair holding her because I was so confused... I had already been discharged because I was anxious to get home to Jayden who I hadn't seen in over 36 hours, they offered to let me stay in my hospital room but Gabriella would have to stay in the NICU. I could only have 4 visitors, excluding Jordan. I wouldn't be able to see Jayden for another 3 days...

I left the hospital that night without my newborn in my arms. I cried uncontrollably all the way home. All I could think about was how I was failing at least one of my children. Gabri was only 24 hours old and I was already leaving her alone in a hospital over 20 miles from our house. Jayden was super sick with a sinus infection and he was getting his molars. Both my babies needed me but I couldn't be in 2 places at once.

Thankfully, the infection didn't spread to her blood stream and we were able to bring her home Monday morning. (She was born Thursday evening). Of course, I cried uncontrollably the first day she was home. Every time I saw both of my children together my heart would just overflow and I would cry... haha!!

One year later we celebrated this beautiful little girl. We had our families over for presents, chili and cake! My dad's birthday is 3 days after Gabri's so we celebrated his 57th birthday as well! It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed being able to spend this special day with the ones we love. I baked strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting (recipe by Sprinkles) for Gabriella and a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for my dad. I also made orange muffins and vegetarian chili. It was all very delicious!

Dad, Gabri and Mom :)

My handsome dad

I made Gabriella's tutu for her birthday

She got 7 baby dolls and LOTS of cute outfits!