Our Lily Lady

I just want to soak you in my darling girl. I know how quickly this time passes, that you won't be my newborn babe much longer and I don't want to forget just how tiny and precious your are with you soft pink lips and button nose. With your yawns and stretches, you tiny sighs and gurgles. You are just so beautiful and it has been the most lovely time just holding you in my arms and imprinting every part of you in my mind.

And Then There was Lily

From the minute her brothers and sisters laid eyes on her Lily has been adored. I think she is a very lucky little girl to have three big siblings in her life. They all race in to my room in the morning to say 'Hello Lily', in that high voice we all greet babies in and each wants their turn holding their new baby sister.

Lily Josephine

Lily Josephine Catton. I knew if we had a girl that I wanted her to have a flower name just like her sister. I think flower names are sweet and whimsical and I love them and I hope my girls do too. Levi and I probably spent the most time looking at names for this baby than ever before but our shortlist remained very flowery with Lily, Posie and Flora. Levi bought me a bouquet of flowers in the weeks leading up to the birth and the Lily's in the bunch lasted forever. We had them just at the entrance to our room and I could smell their beautiful scent when I passed them by. Maybe a little sign this baby in my belly was to be a girl and in the end Lily it was. We kept literary with Lily's middle name, Josephine for Little Women's Jo March, a dreamer, creative and independent, someone to look up to.

So here she is our 'Lily Josephine Catton' and I think it is just the perfect name for our girl.

Lily Blooms

I love birth, I think it's powerful and even magical that my body has been capable of it and brought four lives into the world. But I also think it's not all that magical when the contractions first hit and you know that it's game time. Experience has helped me recognise that's it's not all that long, it can be managed and it will end, with a baby in your arms. So this time around, my last time giving birth, I wanted to just ride the wave of the experience and get to that incredible last moment when my little baby comes into the world. Levi had a beautiful experience during my pregnancy where he had the impression that the baby would be a girl. My heart longed for another girl, especially for Primrose to have a sister but I couldn't be sure until they were in my arms. Surprises are the best and knowing I would find out who my little person was soon was such an exciting feeling that made the journey of labour all the more worthwhile.