Baby was best Mother's Day gift of all

Jodie Tienvieri with her husband, Marc, and Hannah Grace, who was born just days before Mother's Day in 2000.

Jodie Tienvieri almost missed receiving the most special of Mother's Day presents.

Last year, she went into labor about one week before her due date, which resulted in her daughter, Hannah Grace, arriving just a few days before Mother's Day.

"I kept telling my husband, 'I'm going to miss [giving birth by] Mother's Day, and I just made it," said Mrs. Tienvieri, laughing.

"She was 8 pounds, 6 ounces, and 211/2 inches," she added proudly.

Like many couples, the Tienvieris gave great thought to having a baby. Mrs. Tienvieri, 29, is a part-time communications director for the Area Office on Aging of Northwest Ohio, Inc. Her husband, Marc, 29, is a self-employed information technology administrator.

"Actually, it would have been my plan to have a child about four years ago, but there were money concerns, and time concerns, and my husband was in the middle of going to school, but God knew the ultimate plan," Mrs. Tienvieri said. Mr. Tienvieri was then attending Bowling Green State University.

"It also just got to the point where we were ready to start a family."

Mrs. Tienvieri said her pregnancy was ideal.

"I didn't have any problems, just about two weeks of morning sickness," she said.

Moreover, the experience of being pregnant and delivering a baby is one she said she will cherish forever.

"I had always heard the stories of what it was like and people are quick to give you advice, but as a first-time mom you really don't know what it's like until you experience it for yourself," said Mrs. Tienvieri. "Toward the end of the pregnancy was when it actually hit me and reality set in, that I was going to be a mother."

And what an experience.

"The actual day Hannah was born was hectic. It was the time when all those tornadoes hit Wood County and there had been bad thunderstorms in Toledo the night before," recalled Mrs. Tienvieri, who lives in Toledo.

"All that pressure - I started labor around 9 p.m. the night before, around midnight [the pains] were getting stronger, and she was born right after 9 a.m. the next day," she said.

Mrs. Tienvieri said motherhood is truly a remarkable journey, and that she and Marc want to have more children.