Tuesday, September 25, 2012 at 2:15pm

Boston, Massachusetts

Alice Olivia was an early birthday gift to her mama, arriving just two days before her 30th birthday. This little girl's arrival was long-awaited and much-celebrated. From an early conversation shared in a coffee shop last January to a hazy February afternoon in the city when Arlene and Chris shared their news with friends, and all the moments in between when baby Alice accompanied her mom on her own labor of love (her doctoral dissertation!), this little girl's arrival has been eagerly anticipated by everyone involved.

For weeks, friends and family anxiously kept their phones nearby waiting for news. Every lapse in response time we got from Alice's parents we figured surely meant that they were in the hospital delivering the baby. Just days before Alice arrived, I joked with Arlene that she should have her baby on Tuesday to coincide with my day off. And wouldn't you know, Alice decided to make her grand entrance into the world just in time for her mama's grad school friends to visit on their free day last week. Isabel and I rushed off to the hospital on Wednesday, knowing that a 22-hour old baby was waiting for us in her bassinet. We had a tradition to uphold of celebrating the newest baby's first day of life! With our cameras, a toddler, a birthday cake, elephant plates, a pink bundle of tissue paper, and a candle in tow we found our way to room 663.

It was magical.

First glimpse...

Watching three-year old Nico with Alice Olivia was like déjà vu. It felt like only yesterday Arlene and I were rushing to the hospital to celebrate his arrival into the world with a birthday cake and blowing out a candle, and here he was with his blonde curls looking into the crib and giving the little baby girl sweet kisses covered in his goldfish crumbs.

Alice's parents kept everyone guessing about her name right up until the end, giving little hints here and there but nothing concrete. But here's the thing -- they didn't give "normal" hints. Oh, no. They told us that her middle name was bilingual and was 4 syllables in English but 3 in Spanish. That her first name was a family name but was a little hard to pronounce in Spanish. That her initials were "very cool". That there were two A's in her names, and many letters from her middle name were in her first and last names, too. Ooooh, the hints kept getting more and more complicated and as much as we all guessed and analyzed, compared and discarded, we also didn't really want to know the name and wanted the surprise factor, too. In the end, Alice Olivia is a beautiful name for a beautiful little girl.

A huge congratulations to Arlene and Chris. Alice is lucky to have such amazing parents. I can't wait to run over to their house and cuddle up with that little baby girl. And I'm really looking forward to capturing her on camera. :o) This was my first experience with hospital photos, and I'm quite excited with how they turned out. What do you think?

These last two photos just kill me. She's just so sweet and new. Don't you just melt looking at them?