With a broken heart, I write this. This is the hardest thing I've ever wrote. On Thursday, we lost Brooke. At Hilary's weekly baby doctor's appointment, the doctor couldn't find her heartbeat and was directed to go to the hospital where they removed her by C-section. It appears Brooke got her umbilical cord swapped around her neck and had past away sometime Wed. night, less than 9 days from when she was scheduled to be delivered. Brooke Hope Nihei was 6.9 lbs. 19 inches and was a perfectly developed beautiful baby girl. While I only got to hold her lifeless body, I loved her as much as my other two girls. I thought she looked like Marissa as a newborn, while Hilary thought she looked like Lauren. We are all devastated and are still trying to make sense of everything. This nightmare of a year keeps getting worse and worse, and I am not sure how much more our hearts can take.

Meanwhile, Lauren is still in the hospital. Her blood counts are at zero, but her blood tests showed she is trending up and they think we'll be able to go home tomorrow.