there’s a lump in my throat as it gets closer and closer to 7:45…the moment she was born. like it’s not real until then…like she’s not one. i’ve closed my eyes a hundred times today and visualized these exact moments…on this very day…one year ago. there is no way to describe what it feels like to sit in that hospital room looking at a tiny bed, the warmer light already on, ready for the baby you haven’t even met yet…hearing the bu-bu-dum, bu-bu-dum of that little heartbeat, knowing at any time…she will be in your arms.
…and then that very moment…through the cheers of nurses, the encouragement of birth coaches, the doctor smiling and telling you “just one more push”… it happens… watching as our baby…OUR baby…enters the world…seeing the face I could only dream of for so long…hearing her cries…and then the real moment of truth …that first touch. feeling her tiny body in mine, pulling her up to my face, kissing her new skin, feeling like i can’t breathe her in enough…knowing…she is mine. i have replayed the moment they handed her to me a million times over this year…there’s nothing like it…nothing i’ve ever experienced. suddenly, my heart just ached…literally ached with love for this new, perfect, heavenly baby.
…one year ago.
This photo is the most precious photo ever to me…more than any photo I’ve ever seen in my enitre life…this one…is my favorite. 
This picture couldn’t be more true…the heart charm Brett gave me…she just reached up and grabbed it. Yup…she has my heart.
I am sitting her with bug on my lap drooling with a highlighter in mouth (bug not me) and I just ache with what you are expressing. Bug is five months old today and I replay my birth experience nearly daily. I definitely stare at her and feel amazed that she is mine nearly hourly. Congrats on being a mom for one year!
love the hospital pictures! those are truly the moments to cherish. i wish i had those wonderful memories of holding my babies as soon as they were born, but i had c-sections for both. it was still a memorable experience the first time i got to hold both of them! those were the two best days of my life! (oh! and the day i got married too hehe)
Picturing you and Brett praying over her crib — chills! Loving you.
Love the fresh baby pics of LL with her overjoyed love filled parents. Makes me want another one!
Weeping…loving…my keyboard is dripping!!
LOVE her mussed up cuddly hair in the last photo. What a little cuddlekins!!