Welcome to the world, Eliza Grace

To my beautiful friend, Kirsty

Welcome to motherhood, my darling.

Today is the beginning of the most wonderful, most exhilarating, most challenging thing you will ever do, as long as you live. I can clearly remember the night you phoned me to say there was a tiny little heartbeat in your belly. We were both giddy with excitement.

Throughout your pregnancy, you glowed. From external appearances, being pregnant agreed with you - I had never seen you so grounded, so calm, so content in your own skin.

At your twenty week scan, you discovered that the little 'minnow' swimming around in your womb was a girl. From that day on, the excitement to meet your baby just grew and grew. It never mattered what gender your baby was, but watching you bond with your unborn daughter was incredible. This was a baby doctors told you was nigh on impossible to conceive. This was the baby you were destined to have.

For twenty years, you have been an amazing friend - loyal, honest and true. Since my own children were born, you have been a favourite 'aunty'. Jack, Phoebalina and the Mouse absolutely adore their funny Aunty Kirst, who never forgets a birthday and smothers them in attention and love. You have been a wonderful aunty, and now you are about embark on the role you were born for - an amazing mama.

Yesterday morning I received a very calm text message informing me that your waters had broken. You were staying at home, reading the papers, and waiting to see what happened next. When I phoned you at 5pm, you were walking around the local shops in the pouring rain, having only had two contractions in two hours. At that point, you sounded as though you were going into the zone. So I was not at all surprised to hear that the contractions were coming hard and fast at 9pm.

You arrived at the hospital just after 10pm. At 10.55pm, on Saturday, August 6th, 2011, Eliza Grace came into the world and made you a mama. She weighed a perfect 7 pounds, 5 ounces, with blue eyes and blonde hair. I am so, so pleased for you that your labour was relatively short (and when I say I have labour-and-birth envy, obviously I know all labours and births are hard work - I am just so glad it all went so much more smoothly than my own!!)

From this day forward, you will never be the same. Your body is changed forever, since it has completed the most amazing job it will ever do. Your mind will never return to the way it was, because you now have a brand new life to learn. Your heart is now beating in the hands of a tiny little girl, who will hold it forever. And your soul is now etched with the face of your daughter.

In a few days or so, you may begin to wonder if anything will ever be the same. If you will ever feel completely rested. If you will ever know all of the answers in this parenting caper. If you will ever tire of gazing at your perfect new daughter.

If you are the like the majority of mothers, the answer is, no. The arrival of your daughter heralds sleepless nights, unanswered questions, messes beyond your wildest dreams....and endless, endless love.

This little girl, your baby daughter, has chosen you to be her mother. She has grown in your belly, thriving on the goodness from your body. She has listened to your voice. She knows your scent in an instant. Her eyes will follow you around the room for months to come.

For this tiny baby, you are not the centre of the universe - you ARE the universe. Nobody is more important to her, than you. She already loves you beyond comprehension. Being your first child, she has already taught you more about love than anybody else you have ever met. And all in her first day of life.

So welcome, my beautiful friend, to the world of mothering. Nothing can prepare you for it. Nothing will ever surpass it. And you will wonder, every day, what you ever did without her.

Love always and forever,

Aunty Sal xxx