Meet Bailey Grace Picucci: Our Beautiful Daughter

Funny story, last Wednesday I wrote up a Pregnancy Update Blog post for you, which was all set to go out today, at 37 weeks and 3 days.

But today, I sit here with my daughter here next to me. Not in my belly, but out in the world and home with Steve and I.

Not exactly what we expected, but we had always said, when she was ready, we were ready, and apparently she was!

But before that, thought it would be funny to share what I had intended to share with you. I removed all the general questions, as they are no longer relevant, but the intro is pretty funny.

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36 weeks!?! Are you kidding me!? How did we get here!

She could join us literally any day now, and we are very excited. (EDIT: and that she did!)

It is funny, when you are in that early to middle part, you are excited, you know what is coming out the other end of pregancy, but you are very nervous. Am I ready? Will I be a good mother? How will I handle the sleep?

I know there are other more pressing concerns for some mums, but as you probably saw last week, that is not a fear for me. I am absolutely confident in my hypnobabies birthing that I feel only excitement for that day.

Whatever your fears are, towards the end, you become at peace with things.

Do I know I will be a good mother? No.

Do I know how I will handle it? No.

Do I know if I will even be able to give her the love she deserves? No.

But I am gonna do my best, and now I have reached the point where I am just excited to meet her. I feel like I have gotten to know her a little over these past few months, and I cant wait to get to know her more when she joins us in the world.

So whenever she is ready, be it in 6 hours, 6 days, or 6 weeks, I will be ready for her…although preferably little love, you could try to avoid the time daddy will be away at a track meet for a few days this month. (EDIT: Her solution to this was to come before the meet, so he didnt go! Smart thinking! :p)

I have worked really hard with my business over these past few months to make sure I do actually step away, completely, and I can fully embrace and appreciate this precious time with her. As of last Monday, the Running for Real podcast series launched on the following topics;

• Beginners
• Mental Toughness Training
• Marathon Training
• Coming Back From Injuries
• Running Nutrition
• Running Through and After Pregnancy

And these are what I have been spending most of my time working on over the past few months, but they are finally complete, and I am so proud of them.

Now I can take a deep breath, and as of today, the 22nd Jan, I plan to step away completely…hold me to that!

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I had no idea that on the 18th January, at 4:21am she would be joining us in the world. I was actually only in my birthing time (still using my Hypnobabies words!) for 5 hours total, and we only arrived at Central Baptist hospital at 2:45am, at which point they measured me at 5cm. Just over 90 mins later, she was on my chest!

My birth did not go exactly as I had intended, but a big part of that was how quickly it happened, and because she was early, I did not want to start my hypnobabies birthing day materials until I was completely sure it was the day.

However, I am absolutely positive that Hypnobabies played a big part in the reason I was able to bring her into the world so quickly once I began, and also that I was able to stay comfortable and relaxed most of the way, meaning I had the strength to push her out quickly and efficiently (with no tearing or any real damage!), completely natural.

I may share the full story sometime, but I am really proud of my body for how it handled the birthing process, and how it is feeling now.

Bailey Grace is healthy, happy, and home with us. For being born at 36 weeks and 5 days (although I am absolutely CONVINCED my date was wrong, have had that gut feeling all along…you know me and gut feelings!), she weighed 6lbs 2oz, and is absolutely perfect.

I am besotted with her, and although Instagram or Facebook are the best ways to see my updates, I thought I would share a little update for you too 🙂

So welcome to our gorgeous little girl, who has been very good to us so far.

I am tired, but I feel good. I feel so content and peaceful, and I am cherishing every second with our little family in this bubble.

On that note, back to them I go. I am staying away from social media and the internet as much as physically possible, and not even really speaking to many people. This time goes by too quickly, so there will be updates, but the last thing I want to do is spend my time looking at others lives when I have this precious brand new one right here in front of me. This is something that is really important to me, and I have been loving living in our little bubble.

I hope you understand, I have prepared for you ahead of time (more on that next Monday), everything is scheduled out, including podcasts every Friday morning, so you shouldn’t notice too much of a difference, and I will be “back” end of March.

Thank you to everyone who has reached out to me. I may not have responded, but your words truly mean so much that you took the time to celebrate with us. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!