While I became an aunt to two awesome girls this past October when Michael and I got married, there was something magical that I got to experience this month.

My sister giving birth to my nephew, Maverick.

You see, we didn’t always get along, Veronica and me. But now that we’re both out of school and have our lives, we’ve started to talk more and more. And then over the course of her pregnancy we started talking even more, almost every day.

She let me pick her brain, and ask her everything I wanted to know about pregnancy and her experience with this and that.

She put up with my obsessiveness to say the least.

Then she asked me to make a video from his birth, and said I could be in the room.

How freakin’ exciting!

I left town when she was 38 weeks, and told her to hold him in at least until I got back.

The following weekend at 39 weeks I got a phone call from her as I was setting up for the last kid’s triathlon of the season. She had been told by the doctors to hang out in Des Moines for the afternoon because she was feeling crampy, etc.

Then I got a text from my brother-in-law as I was finishing up dinner with the team. “We’re in triage waiting for a room.”

Once I figured out what exactly that meant I made a joke to everyone about how I had to go catch a baby, and left to go grab my things from home.

Michael found someone to replace me in the morning just in case I didn’t make it back to the race and I headed up to the hospital.

She was progressing along nicely, bouncing on her ball, walking laps in the halls, keeping a really cheerful mood throughout it all.

Then around 1:30 a.m. the nurse told her to try and get some rest so we all tucked in for the night.

After getting her water broken in the morning, being hooked up to Pitocin and crying through the pain as they kicked up the dosage of Pitocin she was well on her way to pushing.

Watching her handle the contractions and the pain was impressive, but nothing could compare to what followed.

Her sheer determination to push that little guy out. And she did it in what seems like record time, not even an hour. If you’ve never watched someone give birth I highly recommend it. It was incredible, magical, inspiring. My sister is a bad ass.

And then he was there.

To finally see this tiny little human that you’ve been thinking about and waiting months for is such a surreal moment.

I haven’t been able to look away since. Analyzing every detail possible of his little body. The way he holds his hands up near his face. The way he sucks in his lower lip when he sleeps. His teeny tiny fingernails. The way he cried when he was born.

As I write this he’s just a few days old. I’m in awe and hopelessly in love.

To have this human come into your life that you know will be there until you die is a crazy thought to wrap your mind around.

I cannot wait for all the moments and memories to come with this little guy. Not to mention copious amounts of snuggles and kisses.

And then I can’t wait to experience it all again.