And I’m back to blogging! Quarantine and mentally working through not being able to photograph clients, has taught me while I can make lists upon lists of things to do to accomplish during this time, there are days I just can’t. So I’m leaning into the ebbs and flows of this time, and learning more and more about listening to what my body needs — something I needed to get better at in general, not just during a global pandemic.

If you’ve been following along with my sister’s maternity series, than you know today’s the day for the final post!

If you have no idea what I’m talking about you can view them here:
Wyoming Announcement
Woodland Fairytale Baby Shower
Winter Oklahoma Maternity Session

Without further ado, meet our niece!! Mila Molinee Smith.

My sister kept the first name a secret, we only knew her middle name was Molinee (pronounced Mall-lyn-nay) because it is a family name on our french side and also my sister’s middle name. We’d just been referring to her as Baby Molly for months, so when we found out her name was Mila it took a bit for our brains to adjust to the new M name.

Mila was actually due in February, and was happily baking away, but at an appointment in January my sister casually mentioned she had extreme itching, which led to her doctor doing additional tests and learning she had developed a complication that would exponentially increase the risk of her perfectly healthy baby to be born a stillborn if she waited until her due date.

She went in thinking it was a regular check up and a trip to Tulsa and left frantically running errands to prepare for her scheduled induction a few days later.

An induction and 36+ hours of labor later… Mila entered the world.

Since Daniel and I are a solid 9 hours from Tulsa, Oklahoma and we had meetings we couldn’t make it to town before Mila’s arrival like my sister wanted, but we drove in late, late the day she was born, crashed at a friend’s house in Muskogee and made it to the hospital the next day.

Which honestly… I’ve never had a baby, so what do I know, but I feel like I’d want some space the day of giving birth anyway. Like, let me lay here and look at my new baby for a day or so and then come visit.

My sister, on the other hand, was bouncy—and honestly, knowing her, I probably should’ve expected that. Instead of laying in her hospital bed, she was up and at ’em, greeting visitors with hugs, new mommin’ like a boss.

My mom and dad, and then more family with Mila. We got there after Levi’s family had visited.

Osiyo (oh-see-o) means “Hello” in Cherokee. Mila is/will be an enrolled member of the Cherokee nation, so we thought it was important to have a little nod towards that.

One of Dan’s family member’s quickly made these for me the day I found out my sister was going to be induced, she even tracked down the plain premie onesies in Owensboro for me before making them because I was scrambling around trying to get everything ready for us to head to Oklahoma.

So thankful to her for her help with this, because my sister loved it so much she changed Mila into one while I was there.

And then finally, here’s us, in front of the camera with mighty and tiny Mila.