Brooke's birth story

My pregnancy with Brooke, though it was physically an easy one, was not marked by the "glowing" memories that the other two were. We'd just lost my grandmother the year before, Jeff still wasn't recovered fully from his surgery and still suffering from Crohn's, we were experiencing so much financial difficulty, I absolutely HATED my job and I was depressed A LOT. So much so, that my doctor put me back on my prozac at 5 months. She was not a planned pregnancy but I guess God knew better and in a lot of ways, I was thrilled to know I was going to have another little girl. How great it would be to have sisters so close in age (even though age doesn't matter much. My sisters and I are far apart in age but pretty close still)

Brooke's birth experience was very similar to Kayti's. She was VERY easy. The day before I had a doctor's appointment and he said I was 2 cms. He told me the exact same thing that he'd told me with Kayti--if I hadn't gone by morning, they were going to induce. But you know my kids--they don't let anyone tell them what to do or when so she decided she'd go ahead and get started on being born herself! My contractions started that night. I stayed home though since they had already scheduled an induction for the next morning and just waited to go in until then. I wanted to do most of my labor at home not strapped to all that mess! (this is what makes me think I could pretty much do a home birth!)

When we got to the hospital the next morning, I was dialated 3 cms. A few hours later they came in and did the epi and maybe an hour or so after that, she was on her way out! I remember feeling like she was coming and the doctor taking his sweet time just standing there fussing that his stuff wasn't set up right! I remember fussing at him telling him he better not let my baby fall onto the floor!

He told me to "calm down" in typical man-fashion so I reached down there and pretty much got her myself. I remember holding her and seeing her big blue eyes and thinking she looks just like Jeff (and she still does!) and that she was so tiny (so much for babies getting bigger the more you have, mine got smaller!) I nursed her in the delivery room and then we went up to the post-partum room.

Dylan and Kayti came up to the room a few hours later to see their new baby sister. I think they were more excited about the presents the new baby "brought" them though! But Kayti was so cute asking about "Book-a-win" and then when she saw her she just said, "Baby, oh!" (of course, the day we came home from the hospital though, she slapped her! *sigh* she had a horrible case of terrible twos!) Dylan was an old pro at 5 years of age by then. He knew exactly how to hold her and everything. Yep, Brooke is a living testimony of how God laughs when you tell him about your plans! I cannot imagine one day without her making me laugh when nothing else can.