I remember the moment I took the pregnancy test like it was yesterday. We’d been trying for a few months, and then I just knew I wasn’t feeling quite right. You know, that groggy, exhausted, want to crawl in a hole and disappear forever feeling? Yeah, that was me. But when that little test popped up with two lines versus one, I suddenly had enough energy to run straight into my bedroom and jump on top of my sleeping husband and throw that pee stick in his face, (ew, I know). We were going to make Ava a big sister!

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Although I had successfully (even though it was a difficult delivery) given birth to one healthy and beautiful child, the lingering worry of having another miscarriage was daunting.

From the get-go, this pregnancy was ROUGH. While I had similar symptoms as I did with Ava, this pregnancy was SO much harder. I think chasing around a toddler will just make life harder in general, and then when you add growing a baby as well, man, it’s rough.

While I couldn’t control how I felt, I could control how I took care of myself. I was determined to make this pregnancy go way different than the last. This time, I refused to gain a whopping 75 pounds, (yeah I was bad with Ava). Prior to conceiving, I completely changed my lifestyle, eating habits and fitness level. I became a Beachbody Coach and changed my whole life around.

This pregnancy, with prior approval from my doctor, I continued my dense nutrition shake and stayed active with my prenatal fitness program. Throughout the duration of my pregnancy, it really made all the difference in not only how I felt, but my mentality towards pregnancy.

I was able to find out the gender of the baby fairly early in pregnancy, right at 9 weeks. Everyone asked if we were trying for a boy this time since we already had a girl, but both Matt and I just wanted another happy, healthy, beautiful little baby to add to our family, despite the sex.

I took a blood test called SneakPeek Gender Test (click here to read more) to find out as soon as possible. I wanted to give this baby a name and an identity, and I just couldn’t wait any longer!

I remember the moment I got the results via email just a week after completing the test, (I opted for the regular turnaround time versus the expedited). The animated card opened up to reveal we were having another little girl! We were elated! We already had one perfection and now we were getting two!

Picking out Ava’s name was super easy. No issues whatsoever. We were both in complete agreement. Determining Mia’s name was a different story. I wanted Alayna and he disagreed; he wanted Mila, I disagreed. And then in the end, we compromised on Mia Nicole, which now that I’ve met her, it couldn’t be anymore perfect. We revealed in the Christmas season that we were being blessed, yet again, with an excessive amount of pinks and bows, (yay!).

My pregnancy was going pretty smoothly through the second trimester. I had a little hiccup with a subchorionic hemorrhage that sent me to the hospital a few days prior to Christmas, but I was sent home with a clean bill of health and Mia was as comfortable as ever in there.

Fast-forward to March: I had just entered my third trimester. This was a horrible time for my family. It was a time filled with heartache as we lost my grandpa. I had also started to get some pretty strong Braxton Hicks contractions, but didn’t think too much about them. An ultrasound revealed that I had a condition called polyhydramnios, (click here to find out more). No wonder I felt like I was carrying a swimming pool everywhere I went, I literally was! The condition was causing me to consistently contract from all the pressure, 2 to 3 minutes apart to be exact.

From 28 weeks on, I had to undergo weekly NSTs (nonstress tests) in order to make sure Mia was okay in there. Each week, I was being sent to the hospital from the doctor’s office because of one reason or another, fearing she was under stress.

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Sadly, I even spent Easter in the hospital, because they thought she was trying to “escape me.” I was given multiple medications to keep from going into preterm labor.

Every week seemed more grueling than the last. My doctor even said she didn’t know why I had so many pregnancy issues (I have now come to realize I just suck at being pregnant, honestly). Everyone thought each week that this would be the one she’d arrive.

Well, I waddled right along into May. I was just a few short weeks from my delivery date of May 30th. Every day, I was feeling worse and worse and worse. My contractions were on top of each other at 2 to 3 minutes apart, pretty much 24/7. I kept asking my doctor how I’d know when to go into the hospital, because I’m not the average case, and she told me that I’d just know.

The morning of my brother and sister-in-law’s graduations, I woke feeling not right at all. I had gotten so used to the contractions, but this felt different. Maybe this is what my doctor was talking about?! Well, I went to my brother’s graduation, I got to see him walk through and receive his degree and then suddenly, I looked over at Matt and gave him the look like, “We have to go NOW.” Luckily the hospital was only a few minutes away, (it’s almost an hour away from our home, so I was glad we were so close).

The nurse in triage confirmed I was indeed in labor, and I’d made it 37 weeks and 2 days (yay!). Sadly, I wasn’t dilating much at all and they didn’t even have a room to put me in because every other woman also decided to give birth that day.

So, I stood pacing in triage for hours and hours and hours, about 8 hours, in fact. Things started to progress, and then suddenly I felt Mia flip inside of me followed by intense pain in my incision.

Up until this point, I was trying to TOLACS (Trial of Labor After Cesarean) with the hope of having a successful VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). That was my rough birth plan. I wanted to try to deliver vaginally this time. One I felt her flip face up (just like Ava had done) inside me, and the incision pain started, I told the nurse. We did every move to try to get her to flip back, but she wasn’t budging. The nurse phoned the on-call doctor and once he was informed my incision was hurting, he told the nurse to prep me for the OR, and that I would be having another c-section.

I remember feeling bummed, but I knew that another c-section was a possibility. Also, I really didn’t want there to be a horrible outcome just because I didn’t want to get cut open again. At the end of the day, our health was the number one factor, and if my babies aren’t going to come out of me vaginally, then they just aren’t going to make their appearance in the world that way.

Surgery scares me, like really bad. Even knowing what was coming this time still scared me. I remember laying in the brightly lit OR room and kind of panicking, wondering if I should tell them I wanted to try the vaginal route just a little longer. Then Matt came in and grabbed my hand and grounded me. He told me I was doing the right thing and I knew to trust him.

I knew the minute Mia was born. I heard an adorable, (and LOUD), little scream. Everyone in the OR was going on about what strong lungs she had. They laid her on my chest, and I just couldn’t help but stare at this little purple screaming ball of perfection.

I captured that moment, because I knew how quickly it passed by. And then I knew I needed to get a diary for her and start capturing moments for her so they could also last a lifetime. Moments that we shared with our newest daughter, Mia.

I hope you enjoyed this journey of Mia’s birth with me. I have so much more to tell, so I hope that you will join me weekly. For now, scroll down and subscribe to the blog to stay up-to-date on each new release!