"I understood finally that this was the child that was meant for me to hold in my arms and to raise. I understood that my sweet, deep and internal relationship with the baby who I held only briefly inside me had had its own purpose - and that we had lived a lifetime together in those nine short weeks."
They are the beautiful words of actress Eva Amurri Martino describing how the joy surrounding the birth of her son helped her accept the miscarriage she experienced 18 months ago.
Eva, who is also mother to two-year-old daughter Marlowe, shared her son's beautiful birth story and photos on her lifestyle blog Happily Eva After.
"Finally, finally, finally, I trusted the journey and the process and the Universe. I was healed," she wrote.
"For the first time in a year and a half, it felt ok to just be deliriously happy. And so I was."
Baby Major was born on October 19 in the bedroom of the Connecticut home Eva shares with her daughter and husband Kyle Martino.
Eva's second labour was very different to the 36-hour one she experienced with Marlowe. With her husband and midwives by her side for support, Eva welcomed Major into the world after just five hours of labour.
"I've found childbirth to be so unique in its ability to completely humble you while also completely empowering you," Eva wrote.
"It reduces you to your essence and strips you of every pretense. It reminds you that you are no better than all the women who have come before you, but also no worse. You are just one of them, doing something that women have done since the beginning of everything, and just like them you will somehow get through it.
"I looked down at Major. His eyes were open and he was staring up at me.
"I thought about my miscarriage and the child we had lost, the pain we had endured as a family. In that moment, as our son gazed at me, I realised that everything - all the pain and the heartache - had brought us to this moment and had brought us him."
The worries and concerns that had plagued Eva since her miscarriage last year faded away the moment Major was born.
"The very thing I had feared turned out to be one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had – so perfect in all the ways I needed it to be. I'm forever grateful to everyone around me who pushed me up the hill these past 10 months, encouraging me, loving me, listening to me, and assuring me that everything would work out in the end," she wrote.
"I am so grateful to them, and to my body, for sticking with me and by me – for being enough in all ways to bring my son to me. Finally. Finally. Finally."
Eva says life with a newborn second time around is proving to be a very different experience for her and Kyle.
"It's so interesting how different newborn life has been for both of us this time around - much more second nature and no more tiny baby nerves," she said.
"I am taking each day as it comes right now. I'm feeling so fortunate to be exactly where I am, with my people, and with such a strong community around us. It's a great feeling."
See more photos and read the full story at happilyevaafter.com.