Celebrity News May 04, 2020
Surprise! Melissa Rauch Welcomes Baby #2
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“Big Bang Theory” actress Melissa Rauch, 39, is a mom again!
Rauch and husband Winston Rauch welcomed their second child, a baby boy who they named Brooks. On Monday, she wrote on Instagram, “I am incredibly thankful and overjoyed to announce the birth of our son, Brooks Rauch, who we just welcomed into the world and directly into our hearts. His arrival was made possible, in no small part, by the front line heroes - the nurses and doctors who show up each day to make sure that life keeps marching forward, regardless of the circumstances.”
“Words can't describe how grateful I am to have this baby boy join our family, but to say that it is a surreal time to be bringing life into the world is an understatement. Given that, I wanted to share some thoughts with other expectant mothers or 'Pandemamamas' - as I like to call us - who are navigating these uncharted waters,” Melissa continued while referencing the COVID-19 pandemic.
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In an essay for Glamour, Rauch opened up about giving birth without Winston being by her side at the hospital. She said, “Although the hospital I was delivering at did allow birth partners, my husband had to stay home with our daughter since our original plan of having family come to town—as well as our backup plans—were no longer options due to COVID-19.”
She admitted, “In the weeks leading up to my due date, I had been so fearful of how this would all go down. I'd had good days where I'd felt optimistic—'I can do this!'—and other days of complete 'What kind of fresh hell are we living in?!' panic. The anxiety over giving birth without an advocate and support system in tow, compounded with the exposure concerns of walking into a hospital during a pandemic, were a lot to process. So I tried my best to prepare for a scenario I never thought I'd face: filling my hospital bag with disinfecting wipes and practicing labor breathing in a mask like I was training for a dystopian marathon.”
Despite it all, Rauch pushed through, explaining, “No matter what is going down, when one human is coming out of another human it becomes the main focus—there's no other choice. No pandemic, or fear of being alone, or anger over not having a partner there to bitch-slap through the whole hellish gauntlet of labor gets airtime. I had a job to do. The nurses, the doctor, and my husband (who joined on FaceTime to see the birth of our son) ultimately made me feel safe and protected.”
The news comes as a surprise since Rauch never announced that she was pregnant.
Melissa and Winston are also the parents of daughter Sadie, who was born in December 2017. At the time, she wrote on Instagram, “I am beyond over the moon to share that our beautiful baby girl, Sadie Rauch, has arrived and our hearts are bursting at the seams with love for her. I will never take for granted the difficult road it took to get here. To those on that road: I'm sending you so much love today and always. 💕💕💕💕💕💕.”
Rauch has been open about her pregnancy struggles over the years. While expecting Sadie, she wrote on Glamour, “Here is the only statement regarding my pregnancy that doesn't make me feel like a complete fraud. 'Melissa is expecting her first child. She is extremely overjoyed, but if she's being honest, due to the fact that she had a miscarriage the last time she was pregnant, she's pretty much terrified at the moment that it will happen again. She feels weird even announcing this at all, and would rather wait until her child heads off to college to tell anyone, but she figures she should probably share this news before someone sees her waddling around with her midsection protruding and announces it first.'"
