Jade Roper Tolbert is celebrating her body and taking things easy one week after giving birth to son Brooks Easton unexpectedly in her closet at home. The Bachelor in Paradise alum, 32, took to Instagram with a photo of her holding her newborn while in black underwear and a sports bra.
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“Women’s bodies are seriously phenomenal!” she wrote. “It’s taking my uterus more time to return to its normal state this time around, but honestly I have never loved my body more than I have this postpartum.”
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“A lot of you have asked about my recovery, and I received several stitches and am slowly healing physically — the mental and emotional healing is hard to put a finger on, but I am giving myself grace to process everything,” she continued. “But after such an overwhelming labor and delivery, I have so much respect for my body and the journey it’s been on this year to grow and bring this perfect little joy into my life. So in love, so thankful.”
Roper and husband Tanner Tolbert welcomed their second child at home last week after the pregnant reality personality went into labor a little quicker than planned. (The two are also parents to daughter Emmy, 11 months).
“I thought I was going to get in the bath and then we’d go,” Roper told PEOPLE. “We were waiting for Tanner’s mom because she was coming to watch Emerson. But then I got out of the tub and my contractions were so intense I couldn’t even keep on top of them.”
“I started pacing in the bathroom and found myself in the closet trying to think about getting clothes on. Then I yelled for Tanner and I was like, ‘Tanner it’s happening now!’” she recalled. “He came in and tried to get me dressed. He put me in a T-shirt and his gym shorts. I was just in a pain and labor fog.”
Calling the paramedics, Roper was forced to give birth in her home with the speed of labor.
“One of the main paramedics caught the baby and I cut the cord right there in our closet,” Tolbert said. “But we didn’t waste a lot of time because we wanted to get mom and baby on the gurney to the hospital.”
“I’m really grateful,” Roper said of the unconventional birth experience. “I mentally kind of lost it at one point. But luckily, I had a really great team behind me. They were my strength in the moment. And it just feels so right to have our son here. It feels like he’s been a part of our family forever.”
Roper’s honest portrayal of motherhood in her 1-week update earned her some serious praise from her fellow Bachelor Nation moms, including Jamie Otis and Ali Fedotowsky.
“Thanks for normalizing what post pregnancy *really* looks like!” Otis wrote. “Hollywood makes it seem like women ‘bounce back’ so quickly but that just isn’t the case. Heck, between the Hemorrhoids and the stitches I could barely walk. Thanks for always keeping it real. Love you girl! Can’t wait to meet that sweet Emmy-clone.”
Fedotowsky added, “I’ve never seen you look more beautiful!”
Photo credit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for WE tv
