Announcing. . . Brooke Kathleen Veater!!!

Brooke Kathleen Veater
Born October 29'th at 5:41 pm
7 pounds 9 ounces
19 inches long

She's here!!! One of my babies finally decided to be born right on time, one day before her due date!

I wasn't expecting to go into labor on October 29'th. In fact, I was in my pumpkin costume, getting the kids ready to go to the annual Microsoft Trick-Or-Treating party! I had just put my costume on around noon when I started feeling strong contractions that sent me to my knees. I've never gone into labor on my own before (always been induced), so I wasn't sure if they were real. But I soon realized the contractions were 4 minutes apart, and really strong. I didn't even have my hospital bag packed! So I took my costume off, threw some things into a bag, and my mom drove me and my kids (still in their costumes!) to the hospital. Stephen met us there, and Kirsten was really sad that she couldn't go to the costume party. I felt bad for her. . . I wanted to go to the party too! But the new baby had other plans!

October 29'th was a beautiful day for a Halloween party. . .

And Brooke thought it would also be a beautiful day to be born!

When I got to the hospital I was in a lot of pain, and they wheeled me into triage in a wheelchair and discovered I was already dilated to a 7! Whoa! So they got me to a room and it seemed to take forever for the anesthesiologist to get there. My biggest fear was that the baby was going to come too fast and I wouldn't get the epidural. But he got to the room in time, and after the sweet relief of the epidural my labor and delivery were so great! Everything went really well. At about 5:30 pm I was fully dilated, so the doctor broke my water and I pushed just a couple times, and then out came Brooke! Here's her first photo:

My contractions started around noon, and she was born by 5:41 pm that same day.

There's just nothing like the feeling of holding a brand new baby in your arms, only a minute or two old. It's incredible!

Brooke is my smallest baby I've ever had, at 7 pounds 9 ounces! Kirsten was 8 pounds 15 ounces (one week late) and Natalie was 8 pounds 3 ounces. Brooke is also the smallest in length.

She does have a lot of dark hair! But not as much as my first baby, Kirsten had!

So happy she's here with us!

Here's Brooke's first picture with her Daddy.

Right after her first bath from the nurse!

We had a couple of visitors that first night!
Brooke with Uncle Chancee:

And here's Brooke with Stacy. I ate my pizza we ordered (Pizza Hut never tastes so good as it does right after giving birth!), and we all chatted and played a card game while Brooke slept and recovered from her delivery.

It's so wonderful to feel loved by visitors! Here's Brooke with Rozemary:

It's a pink explosion!

Newborn babies always sleep SO well in the hospital! (If only it would continue after you take them home!)

Cutest little yawn!

I love these pictures I took of Brooke, on the morning of her first new day in the world!

I also love these pictures of Brooke meeting her Grandpa!

It was such a great experience and I'm so happy Brooke decided to come on her own instead of being induced out! I didn't know if I'd ever know what it was like to go into labor on my own, and now I do. Now I understand that the drive to the hospital really does seem to take forever, being stuck behind every light and every slow driver. But we made it there in time and everything went well!

By 5:30 pm the next day, we were ready to take Brooke home!

We are SO blessed to have our beautiful new baby girl!