Happy Birthday BrookeBrooke turned 1 on September 23! It's hard to believe it has been a whole year. I went to look back at my blog to see what I wrote about the day she was born....and it wasn't much. I now remember that I was going to go back and tell her "birth story" and never got around to posting it.
Well, a year later here it is...
(if you don't want to read it, you can skip down to cute cake pictures below!)
I was due September 22 (which is my birthday) and wouldn't you know it, at 3:20am on the 22nd, I had my first contraction. One of my fears about labor, and I had more than a few, was that I would not know whether I was having "false labor" or real labor. Well as soon as I had my first contraction, I knew. I waited to wake Tim up until 5am and we both tried to sleep a little bit more, but we were too excited! At 6am we decided to take a walk and we were making sure to time the contractions. We came back and just had a relaxing morning.
(this was 3 days before...as swollen as can be!)
My contractions weren't that bad so we had breakfast, I took a shower and got ready, I finished packing the last minute stuff for the hospital and by 12pm I was getting anxious. We took another walk to try to speed up the process and then by 2pm they started getting more intense. I was excited, nervous, and anxious to get to the hospital. I remember thinking that this was taking longer than I expected. We called the hospital (which was a 45 minute drive) and they told us to wait until my contractions were a little closer together before we came in... So we waited until 5:15pm, which I specifically remember because the Chargers were playing Monday night football and kickoff was 5:15...of course. That drive to the hospital could not have gone any slower. My contractions were definitely in full swing by this point and I could feel every little bump and rocks that were on the road. I remember looking over at the speedometer and telling Tim that he was going to have to go faster than what he was going because I was in pain. We finally got to the hospital and I forgot about my pain for a minute because I was so excited to be parking in the "labor parking"! We finally made it inside and found out that I was 3-4cm dialated 90% effaced and at -1 station. So they admitted me and gave me some water and juice and moved me to my room by 7pm.
Tim and I had decided that we wanted to attempt to give birth naturally so we told our nurse when we got into the room that I did not want an epidural. At this point my contractions were really painful and I tried taking a warm shower and wanted to walk, but had a tough time just walking from my bed to the shower and back. When I got back to my bed they told me that my contractions were under "duress" which means that my contractions would peak and then only go back down a quarter of the way or half way at the most...all that to mean that I never got a break from the pain...it was just bad pain then REALLY bad pain. So at 11pm I asked the nurse to check me again and I was only 6cm...so I asked for an epidural. In my mind all I could think was I only went 2-3 cm in the most painful 4 hours of my life?!? There is no way I am going to make it...bring on the epidural!
after the epidural! :)
They gave me the test dose and no joke by the time they were done, I was a different person. I was able to relax and talk to Tim for the first time in 4 hours. When they finished the epidural they checked me again and I had gone from 6cm to 9cm in 30 minutes! So we rested for a little while and at 2am I started pushing and she was in my arms at 2:49am. She was perfect, she didn't scream, just just let out a little noise to let us know she was ok. She was 8lbs. 3 oz. and 19in. long. Perfect.
The time that we had together after they measured her and washed her up, just the 3 of us, was the most precious time I have ever had in my life. It is a feeling an experience that is indescribable. I thought, "how could it get better than this..." I never wanted that time to end...but it did and somehow 1 year later I am still thinking, "how could it get any better than this..."
We are going to have a birthday party with friends in a week, but we decided to spend Brooke's actual birthday, just the 3 of us. Here is what we did...
Brooke's favorite breakfast...pancakes!
eating like a big girl
eating one more with daddy
some play time
hanging out with daddy
lunchtime!
Brooke's first time at spaghetti
loving it!
Time for Daddy's favorite food...PIZZA!
Happy Birthday my little Brookie
So funny...she freaked out!
not havin it
oh, wait... she likes it! 
REALLY liked it!
she definitely needed a bath after that!
Tim had to teach at youth that night so we went and all Brooke wanted was the mic...I wonder where she gets that from?
I actually think she just wanted to eat it
The next day we went over to my parent's to celebrate with my family. Auntie Courtney was able to come home from Biola!
opening presents from Grammy and Papa
She got a little piano from Auntie Lele (with the promise of piano lessons later!)
I think she is ready for them now Auntie Lele
She loves her bear from Auntie Courtney
Brookie workin' her new baby uggs
Spaghetti take 2
The birthday girls!
Brookie workin' her new baby uggs
Brooke got a rocking horse, which is what my parents got me for my 1st birthday!
Spaghetti take 2
The birthday girls! I am so thankful that God gave Brooke to us and for this wonderful year!
daddy kisses
We had GREAT seats and Brooke even watched some of the game
Then she fell asleep...that is her under the blanket
On September 11th, Brooke and I went down to Biola to surprise Auntie Courtney and Cady
We had lunch at Northwood's Inn....SO good!
This is one of my favoite pictures! Hayley took this and so many other GREAT ones at the shower. To see more of the Hofschroer shower on Hayley's blog click 
For my birthday on Tuesday Tim took me out to sushi in San Francisco, then surprised me with tickets to go see WICKED!
Now if you read my blog I am sure you saw that we went to see WICKED when we were in 
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