The Harding Family Adventures: Welcome Baby Bridget Elizabeth "Broccoli" Harding

Hi All,

We've had some requests for some more photos of Baby B, so I thought I'd update everyone with a quick blog post.

Officially, Broccoli was due on the 21st (or 23rd depending who you asked) so we were not anticipating her arrival on Friday the 19th. Perhaps naive, but Abby was two weeks late and Christy hadn't had any labour so we were not on high alert yet. (For those who don't know, the nickname Broccoli was initiated by Abby -- with some silly baby suggestions from Christy & Papa -- and has really stuck with her, for MONTHS. We are all having trouble switching names.)

As you may know, Broccoli had been breech (bum down instead of head down) since her 20 week ultrasound. We had a procedure called an ECV (basically pushing on the outside of Christy's stomach to manually push the baby to a head's down position) at 37 weeks. The procedure was a success - for all of a day. Baby B was stubbornly breech. So, Friday started very normally; we had a quick appointment with the OB to talk about the possibility of a breech delivery (vs a C-section). At the appointment it was recommended Christy get a few more tests then we'd reassess on Tuesday. While waiting to hear back about times for another ultrasound, we went to Ikea, and back home for lunch and snowman building (the first and only snowman of the season!). While Abby and I napped, Christy went back to the hospital for her ultrasound - to check amniotic fluid levels and head position -- two critical criteria for breech delivery.

After the ultrasound, Christy was sent to get a Non-stress test (basically monitoring baby's movement and heart rate, another test to let us know everything was normal and good for delivery). After these tests, Christy remained in the hospital to discuss the results with the OB, for 4h without food or water (as a precaution pending test results). While we were all pretty certain we'd get an "all's good, go home" result, that was not the case. As it turned out, the fluid was low (5th percentile) and the baby's head was extended (think 'looking up') and breech delivery was ruled out. Christy and the OB consulted, and decided that it would be prudent to go ahead with a C section right away, as opposed to waiting for labour to start naturally (natural labour was not a good idea due to the low fluids, which would then lead to an emergency C-section vs a scheduled one, which was what we could have if we went right then).

Saying goodbye to the bump

Last photo as a family of three

So, our friend Amie dropped me off at the hospital with Abby, and then took A home until Mom and Dad Harding came in to relieve her that evening. The OR was booked for 10pm but we waited around for what seemed like forever until an anesthesiologist was available.

Dad all prepped and ready for surgery time

Bridget Elizabeth was born at 23:23 on the Friday the 19th. She weighed 8lbs even.

--- Surgery Photos BELOW ---

Still delivered bum first

Abby was super excited to meet her baby sister, and can't wait for her to grow up big so they can play together.

Big sis meets little sis for the first time

Christy is doing really well -- She was even able to go for a short walk on the Sunday. It will be a slow healing process, but she's a tough cookie. Bridget is sleeping really well during the day, but not so much during the night. She is a little jaundice, but not enough that the midwives are concerned. We're leaving her out in the sun as much as we can to help with that.

Thanks to Amie, Mom and Dad Harding, and Mom Cole for all your help over the weekend -- we couldn't have done it without you. Thanks to everyone who's sent well wishes and congrats as well -- much appreciated!

As requested, here are some more photos we took over the course of the day and the couple days that followed.

Love,

Abby, Bridget, Christy and Dustin