The Parent Trip: Sara and Fabian Lima, of Mount Airy

His family was from Porto Alegre, Brazil, while hers was rooted in the Philly suburbs, but their life plans aligned: high school to college to law school - Temple University, where they met at a party in their second year - to the bar exam to work.

When Sara first visited Fabian in Fairmount - she was friends with his roommate at the time - and found her law school buddy cooking gnocchi in a house crammed floor-to-ceiling with bookcases, she felt instantly at home.

Fabian had a girlfriend, but the day after that relationship ended, he called Sara and invited her to a play. "We were inseparable after that," she says.

Sara insisted Fabian upgrade from floor-bound futon to a proper, adult bed. He spent two months planning a wedding proposal that included a chocolate buffet at the Ritz-Carlton and a surprise overnight stay in a suite filled with roses, strawberries, and champagne.

They wanted a comfortable suburban house and a "socially responsible" number of children (they'd agreed on two). They weren't interested in luxury cars or designer handbags; instead, they would invest in their kids' education.

Then, after a year of trying to conceive, a drugstore test stick grinned at them.

"A smiley face? Who markets that?" Fabian wondered. Moments later, they realized that Sara had run out of pregnancy tests and had grabbed an ovulation-predictor kit by accident. It was 6 a.m. on a Sunday, but Fabian dashed out to a 24-hour pharmacy for the right kind of test. "We were superexcited," Sara remembers. "We were ready".

She recalls a pregnancy that was a "magical time" with no morning sickness, a birth eased by both an epidural and the soundtrack from the movie Garden State. Fabian snapped a cellphone picture of the "first handshake" - Sofia coiling her tiny fingers around his pinkie - and Sara worked to get the hang of breast-feeding. "They brought her in at 3 o'clock in the morning; I remember looking at her like, 'Do you know how to do this? Because I don't.' "

Then, when the baby was just 12 days old, she spiked a 101-degree fever and slept for long, lethargic stretches. Sara and Fabian rushed her to Bryn Mawr Hospital, where a spinal tap showed she was septic, with an infection of E. coli. "They gave her the 'nuclear bomb' of antibiotics, and we stayed at Bryn Mawr for 10 days," Sara recalls. "It took a while to descend on me what it meant and how scary it was."

Sara's terror didn't fully sink in until after they were home from the hospital. One night, she accidentally locked herself in the baby's room and found herself shrieking out a window to summon Fabian. Another time, she locked herself out of the house in a thunderstorm with a sobbing, hungry Sofia; Fabian drove from Center City to Wynnewood on his blue Vespa to rescue them.

"I definitely had issues with anxiety," she says. "It was a really hard thing to realize that everything wasn't perfect. I was a mess."

Still, the plan was for two children, and they conceived Hallie easily when Sofia was nearly 2. Perhaps this pregnancy was a bit harder - Sara recalls some back pain, and the juggle of work and parenthood - but again, it was an easy delivery. "With Hallie, I felt more prepared," she says. "I felt a little more maternal. We had our two. And that was supposed to be it."

For 51/2 years, it was. The girls were different - Sofia, dark-haired and brown-eyed, was also a finicky eater and sleeper, while her blond, blue-eyed sister would chug a bottle and drop off to sleep. Still, they were intimate and close, kids who were happy to wake up Saturday mornings and tiptoe downstairs for TV and chocolate milk while their parents slept in.

The family hummed ahead. They moved to Mount Airy in early 2014 - a house with a pool, a nanny suite, and a modern, open staircase - to be closer to the girls' private school. Fabian left a large law firm to build his own practice; Sara, a tax lawyer, was in her "make-or-break" year for becoming partner.

"And then there was one random night of irresponsible intimacy," Fabian says. Sara missed a period. "I thought, 'Something's wrong with me. I must have cancer.' " This time, a digital test stick was unambiguous. "Pregnant!" it announced.

"I remember thinking, 'This is not real,' " Sara says. When they told the girls, Sofia wailed, counting the seats in the car, the chairs at the breakfast table. "We're a family of four, not five!" she lamented.

Her parents, too, struggled to embrace the unexpected. "I was much more whiny. I felt more tired. Everything hurt more. It took me a long time to get my head around it," Sara says. "I was very focused on career stuff. I'm a planner, and this was not part of the plan."

After a gradual, attenuated labor - "I was having strong, close contractions for five weeks," Sara says - and a brisk trip down City Avenue to Lankenau Medical Center, the reality of a third child flooded her the moment the OB said, "You can reach down and touch her head."

In some ways, Sara and Fabian say, they're more relaxed this time. When hospital nurses wanted them to write down how many diapers Daniela had soaked, they just made up a number. At the same time, they cling to each unscripted, fleeting moment.

"With Sofia, I was so anxious. With Hallie, I also had a 2-year-old. Now, we have time to really enjoy the good stuff," Sara says. After the older girls hug their sister and leave for school, she'll let Dani play on her activity mat, bopping the dangly animals with her fists and feet. "She's a blessing . . . teaching me that I have to let go and go where life takes me. It was definitely a wake-up call."

If you've become a parent - for the first, second or fifth time - within the last six months, e-mail us why we should feature your story: parents@phillynews.com. Giving birth, adopting, or becoming a stepparent or guardian all count. Unfortunately, we can't respond individually to all submissions. If your story is chosen, you will be contacted.