She's one.

One! Can you believe it?!

A year ago on Monday, after a rushed, slightly scary and drug fuelled induction (pre-eclampsia. Ugh) and a short bout of pushing,  she was born. Actually, she was dragged out of me, unexpectedly quickly, in a bit of a mad, worrying hurry. When I heard her cry, an explosion of relief washed over me, followed shortly after by waves of sobs as my husband and I held her and babbled ' my baby, baby, baby' over and over. The worry evaporated instantly: She was here!

3 weeks

3 months

6 months

8 months

1 year!*

I don't feel like anything I could say here could do justice to the depth of feeling I have inside. It's almost tangible, resting like a solid husk of love in the pit of my chest.  I keep repeating in my mind that I can't believe she's one, and thinking about how much I love her. That it is so much better than expected, that it was futile for the pregnant me to try to comprehend how I would feel about her, because it is millions of times better, and totally different.

Since Frankie's 6 month update, there has been more of the same. Vociferous eating. Episodes of not eating a jot. Sleep improving. Sleep regressing. Teeth sprouting. Steps taken. Many many words uttered. Many more adventures around London together. Hysterical laughter; both hers and ours, often at the point we needed it most. In short, even in the midst of continued sleep deprivation, I have nothing but cheesy mush and obnoxiously gushing love. Sorry about that.

Happy birthday, (not so!) baby girl!

* This is our unintentional photo series, nowhere near the more popular photo a week I've seen on other blogs (who has that much time?!) but more like 1 every few months.