🎀SHE's Here!

Our baby GIRL joined the crew a few weeks ago!

I’m beyond excited to share that our sweet baby GIRL arrived on September 8th! We felt every single one of your prayers and appreciate them so much.

Content warning: Birth story below… there’s nothing graphic, but it was a scary situation; scroll to the next heading if you’d like to skip it!

After an uneventful labor, she arrived on the scene with a bang in a very scary set of circumstances. As she was about to be born, the doctor discovered that the umbilical cord was wrapped tightly around her neck twice. She had to intervene quickly and literally cut the cord off of her neck before she could be delivered.

Once that was done, baby was delivered quickly and came out blue and completely silent. That was probably one of the scariest moments of my life. I asked my husband to pass me my rosary and began praying as the team worked to support her breathing. She was out on oxygen and then CPAP, but by the grace of God, she came off of both successfully after only a short time!

Mama and baby safe and healthy at the end of the whole fiasco!

While that was happening, my doctor also worried that my previous c-section scar on my uterus ruptured due to the amount of blood loss, and she started preparing to take me to the operating room. Thanks to a quick bedside ultrasound, we found out the scar was intact and some medicine stopped my bleeding.

Throughout my entire pregnancy, the surrender prayer was my go-to in every moment of uncertainty, and I repeated it over and over during those terrifying first moments after her birth. I truly felt like God showed me just how much He was watching out for us because any one of those problems could have turned out much, much differently without His divine intervention!

It’s taken me three weeks to be able to write about what happened, and this is the short/to the point version. Birth is such a miracle but also such a vulnerable and emotional experience. I’d love to hear your birth stories if you feel comfortable sharing, the comments section and my inbox are always open!

What We’ve Been Up To Lately

I’ll be the first to say that I absolutely love the newborn phase. Those sweet baby snuggles, the scrunchy legs when you lift them out of the car seat, the smell of their little milky breath… I can’t get enough!

Sure, the nursing struggles and sleep deprivation aren’t the greatest, but I’d honestly do it over and over again to get to snuggle with a newborn. We’re still struggling a bit with weight gain (for her, definitely not me 🙃), but overall, she’s doing great.

Being the fourth baby, though, she’s done a lot more in her short 3 weeks than the others did. We’ve been to soccer games, birthday parties, MomCo meetings, doctor appointments, and done school drop off and pick-up daily since my husband went back to work. I keep saying she’s such a “go with the flow” baby, but really, what other choice does she have?!

What’s Coming Up? (Come join me!)

First of all, am I the only one taken completely by surprise that it’s October already?! I thought I had way more time, but it’s here and that leads to my little hang-out invitation. If you live in Michigan, I’d love to meet you at the Michigan Catholic Women’s Conference in Lansing on October 11th!

I’ll be at a booth for Fiat Wellness, my health and wellness coaching business with my newborn and we’d love to say hi! You do have to register for the event, so I’ll drop a button with the link here in case you’re interested (it’s not an affiliate link, I’m just genuinely excited to promote it!).

The other thing I’m excited to announce is that the Fall Fiat Reset will be running again later this month! After the haze of the last few weeks and eating all the cookies and ice cream, I’m ready for a reset. If you’d like to join me and other Catholic women for a 5-day grace-filled health reset, I’d love for you to join the waitlist!

October is the Month of the Rosary!

October is one of my favorite months for many reasons, not the least of which is that it’s the month of the rosary! If you’d like to commit to praying a daily rosary with me, I made you this cool rosary tracker that you can print or download to your phone to keep track of your progress!

I’ll do a giveaway on Instagram at the end of the month for everyone doing this challenge with me. To enter, just take a picture of your rosary tracker and tag me @fiatwellness.co in it! (It can be posted to your stories or your feed, as long as you tag me it counts!)

Everything can be achieved with the Rosary. According to a graceful comparison, it is a long chain that unites Heaven and earth, one end of which is in our hands and the other in those of the Blessed Virgin. As long as the Rosary is prayed, God cannot abandon the world, for this prayer is very powerful over His Heart.

- Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

(⬆️today is also her feast day!)

I hope you have a wonderful October and know that you’re in my prayers!

xoxo,

Andrea