Skip to main content

Welcome, Mary Brooke!

Our sweet daughter made her grand entrance into the world early Saturday morning, November 16. I went to bed around 11 pm and woke up just after 12:15 am when my water broke. We quickly packed bags and got Olivia ready to drop off at a friends house on our way to the hospital. It was so surreal! We made it to the hospital a little after 1 am and things moved pretty quickly from there. Mary Brooke was born at 2:34 am via c-section, weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and was 19 1/4 inches long. She's a pretty good size baby for being born at 36w2d. She has done amazingly well and we are so grateful!

Two big things about her birth I want to share. Both point to the goodness of God and the fact that He is in control of all things. I had prayed from very early on in this pregnancy that my water would break in the weeks leading up to my scheduled c-section. Reid and I both talked often about how we would love to have that experience and it be exciting, not terrifying like last time. In the grand scheme of pregnancy that was really a small detail, but God can do anything. It was just one more way He has used Mary Brooke's arrival to bring beauty from ashes. The second thing is that when the doctor delivered Mary Brooke the cord was wrapped around her neck three times, basically forming a noose. He told us today how dangerous that could have been. I really was surprised she came as early as she did. But, now thinking about it, clearly God knew what we didn't, was in control once again, and allowed her early delivery to keep us from what could have been a very devastating situation. Today I am in awe of the many ways God has shown His character to us through Mary Brooke. She is such a treasure, our precious gift, and we love her dearly!




















Comments

  1. AllisonNovember 17, 2013 at 5:49 PM

    Congratulations, she is beautiful! What a sweet story!

    ReplyDelete
  2. CharityNovember 17, 2013 at 6:45 PM

    So, SO happy for you!!! What does Olivia think of her little sister?

    ReplyDelete
  3. quadmomNovember 17, 2013 at 9:27 PM

    Many congratulations on your fifth little girl! :) :)

    She is gorgeous and a true miracle.

    ReplyDelete
  4. LindaNovember 17, 2013 at 9:35 PM

    Praise GOD!!! I have prayed many a prayer for you and yours and am so happy to be able to share in this glorious celebration!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. LaurenNovember 18, 2013 at 12:07 AM

    Congratulations! She is beautiful and I love how the Lord was in every single detail!

    ReplyDelete
  6. michelleNovember 18, 2013 at 12:45 AM

    Congratulations!!!!! I'm so happy that I checked your blog tonight on a whim. And I'm so happy Mary Brooke arrived safely & soundly! What an amazing story. My own son was born about 10 days before his due date and had his cord double-wrapped around his neck. I never stopped to think about how his "early" arrival could've spared us from something worse. God is always is in control. And I'm sure that it must bring a smile to your face to see your last post titled T-3 weeks, when God knew it was actually T-3 days. :) Again, I'm so very, very happy for you!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousNovember 18, 2013 at 4:26 AM

    Congratulations, I'm glad it worked out well.

    ReplyDelete
  8. JennNovember 18, 2013 at 8:24 AM

    What a beautiful baby! Congratulations to you and your family!

    ReplyDelete
  9. EKellyNovember 18, 2013 at 8:47 AM

    Congratulations! So happy for a wonderful experience. Sounds like God's hand was all over your family

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousNovember 18, 2013 at 9:12 AM

    Mare- congratulations to your precious family!! So thankful that all went well and that your experience was one of beauty and grace. Thinking of you always- Mary Jo Wilmot Thicksten

    ReplyDelete
  11. LisaNovember 22, 2013 at 11:30 AM

    Congratulations!! Glad everything went well. Such a beautiful addition to your family :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Past Posts

Mary Grace

At 2:00 am this morning, our sweet Mary Grace was welcomed to Heaven. We found out this afternoon that she had a large brain hemorrhage. Reid and I spent three precious hours holding our daughter tonight. The nurses wrapped a pink bow around her little head and we swaddled her in a soft pink elephant blanket. During those hours, we told Mary Grace how proud we were of her fight, how she fulfilled our dreams of one day having a daughter to call "Gracie," and we even took a little nap, snuggled together as a family. If we told her we loved her once, we told her a thousand times. We prayed over her and gave her back to the Lord. We miss her more than words can say. I feel like we were punched in the stomach today and left with the wind knocked out of our lungs. Its so hard to understand "why?" in all of this. Tonight when we left the hospital, Reid turned on this song by David Crowder Band and we listened to it on repeat the whole way home. Its the exact state of our...
42 comments
Read more

One day at a time

For the first time in my life I feel like I'm truly living one day at a time. Reid and I had a pretty good day yesterday. We were able to sleep in which was wonderful. Reid made us lunch and we sat outside in the backyard. It was a beautiful day and being outside did a lot of good for my mental health. :) There were still a lot of hard moments as memories from the night before would come rushing back to mind. We miss our sweet babies so much. Olivia had a good day yesterday. It was uneventful (which is a very good thing in the NICU) and they were able to turn down some of her medicine. We call every morning to check on our sweet girl and her nurse was quick to tell us how feisty our daughter is. We picked up on that in her first day of life, but it was funny to hear that someone else had observed the same. We are so in love with our feisty little Olivia. After we left the hospital, Reid and I went on a dinner date. It was so good for us to get out and feel like we...
32 comments
Read more

Family of Four

If all continues to go well we will be headed home from the hospital tomorrow. I got a little stir crazy this afternoon and walking the halls just wasn't going to cut it so I went down to the gift shop to browse a bit. It feels so good to actually feel good after surgery. I also feel pretty rested and I'm very ready to settle into our new normal at home. My dad and Ann have been taking care of Olivia and have been such a tremendous help to us. Reid's parents were in town until this afternoon and Olivia got to spend some time with them yesterday. She's been very well taken care of by all her grandparents and I'm pretty sure she hasn't thought twice about us. Out of sight, out of mind. She has had a cough for a few days so Reid took her to the doctor this morning. Sure enough the cough is just allergy related but sweet girl has her first ear infection. The good news is that she hasn't run a fever and was able to get antibiotics to treat it. For all the change ...
2 comments
Read more

Madelyn Barrett

I really don't even know where to begin or how to write this post. I've put it off for several days hoping that maybe if I let things sink in a little more it would be easy. This will never be easy. As you know, we welcomed three beautiful little girls into the world on Friday afternoon. We had hoped to continue to "buy time" and hold off on delivery for several more weeks. God has always had a plan much bigger than either Reid or I could ever imagine. I have to chose to believe, everyday, that somehow this all fits perfectly into that plan. We knew from the time of her delivery that Madelyn was struggling the most. The circumstances surrounding her birth caused a lot of trauma to her tiny body. After a day of fighting for a positive outcome, the neonatologist came to visit with us and told us it was time to let her go. Late Saturday night we went to the NICU to hold our precious baby for the first and last time. She was absolutely perfect and looked just like h...
23 comments
Read more

Surprise!

God has blessed our family with quite a surprise! Olivia is getting a little brother or sister in early December. We are thrilled! As of today I am nine weeks along. We went to the doctor several weeks ago and were able to see the tiny bundle and hear the heartbeat. Everything looks great and we are so thankful! I'll share more details in the next few weeks. :)
21 comments
Read more