Baby Brooke

The blog post you've been waiting for is finally here! We are so happy to introduce the newest member of our family, Brooke Elizabeth Harding. She was born on November 17 at 4:09 a.m. She was 7 lbs 2 oz. , 20 inches long. And here's the story of when she came!

Here's me (yes it's Monica writing this post) at 38 weeks and 2 days, the day she decided it was time to come!

A few weeks before, I had found out that she was breach and unless she flipped over I would have to have a c-section. I wasn't thrilled about that, but there was only so much I could do! So I had a c-section scheduled for the 23rd and didn't think she was going to come before that. I was wrong! On the night of the 16th, we were just chillin at home, falling asleep on the couch watching some college basketball when suddenly I had to "pee"....turns out I didn't have to pee, my water broke! So we packed up and headed to the hospital in the blizzard! Good thing we live close!

We got there at about 10 p.m. and I got all checked in. They did an ultrasound to make sure she was still breach, but I knew she hadn't budged. Sure enough, there she was with her stubborn head up! I wasn't having contractions yet, so they told me to just try and sleep (funny joke!) and they'd schedule my c-section for around 6 a.m. the next morning.

Around 1 a.m. I started having contractions, so they called my doctor and she headed on over. It was a good thing they called then because it took her over an hour to get there because of the weather! By the time she got there I was having contractions pretty steadily so we just got everything ready and headed on over to the operating room. Before we knew it, we were looking at our beautiful baby girl! I couldn't believe how perfect she was and that she was really here after so long waiting to meet her! They brought her over to be by me almost immediately after she was born.

She was the sweetest baby I had ever seen! They took her over to get measured and checked while they finished up my surgery and then we met up again in the recovery room where I got to hold her at last.

They gave her her first bath while we were there and it seems like she wasn't too big of a fan.

We spent the next few days cuddling, feeding and trying to sleep whenever we could. It was a little overwhelming the first day, especially because I had gotten zero sleep the night before! But all in all, she was a great baby, very mellow and content and we were so happy to have her here.

She was so tiny!

Alex did such a great job taking care of her, while I couldn't really do much since I'd just had a c-section. He changed all the diapers, held her when she cried, and got everything I needed. He's the best.

After a few days in the hospital, we were so ready to go home. On Friday, we got everything taken care of and we went home. It was so nice to be home again!