On Saturday night, a miracle happened to our household. We now have a baby daughter called Brooke Catherine. She was born at 9:04 pm, weighed 7lb, 14oz, and was 19in long. Megan ended up being in labor for 13 1/2 hours, and I’m only counting the time after they broke her water. We were in the hospital for 12 1/2 hours prior to that while they induced her. Brooke was due 3 days prior, and the doctor thought she wasn’t going to progress much for a while, so we decided to induce.
Just a few minutes old
Brooke came out healthy, but faced up, so Momma was really sore afterward. She’s recovering now though, and we’re finally starting to get a routine put back in place. My mother in law has been staying with us for the past week, and she’s been a tremendous help. I don’t know what we would have done without her.
Holding onto the blanket her great grandma made for her
So far, she’s been a really good baby. She has her days and nights mixed up, but she finally slept through most of last night. She doesn’t cry much, and she’s really alert at times, trying to figure things out.
She's a little butterfly
Obviously, she was crying right after she was born, and all the tests were done. Since my wife was in a lot of pain, and the doctor had to sew her back up, they gave me our new baby. She was crying hard when they gave her to me, and I started talking to her. As soon as I said something, she quit crying because she recognized my voice. She looked me in the eyes like she knew who I was. Since then, I can always get her to calm down when she’s crying.
Staring into my eyes, realizing I'm her father
Once we got her home, we thought she’d be startled by the dogs, but she recognized their voices as well. They’re both really good with her too. Abby keeps going up and smelling her, and Bella just runs the other way (like she does with everything). I think Abby’s realizing that she needs to protect Brooke too, like she protects us. When she was sleeping the first day, the dogs started barking really loud about 5 feet away from her. They were really loud, running right by her while they were barking for about 5-10 minutes. She didn’t even get phased by it. She slept right through it, like she’s done it for 9 months.
Isn't she the most beatiful thing?
As far as the name goes, we both got what we wanted. Megan wanted something different (Brooke), and I wanted something that was more traditional with meaning (Catherine was my grandmother’s name). We had a list of names that neither of us could agree on, but we made the decision to name her in just a few minutes once we saw her. She just looked like a Brooke to us.
