A Baby Story

Photo Challenge No. 18 is Makes You Happy. It makes me very happy to introduce Vivian Caroline Edwards.  She entered our lives and our hearts on May 5, 2012 at 4:29pm.  She weighed 9lbs, 9oz and was 21 1/2 inches long.  She beat both of her brothers in terms of length and weight, but was also the latest of the three arriving at 40 weeks and 4 days. May 5th this year was Cinco De Mayo (as it always is), but was also Kentucky Derby Day, and the super moon made an appearance, allegedly the largest full moon in twenty years.  It was a special day by all accounts.

Friday night we went to Chilis for dinner, Nick went to see his girlfriend perform in a play at school, and we stopped at the casino to place very small bets on horses racing in the Kentucky Derby.  I never look at the stats and pick only by horses names.  I picked "Went the Day Well," since that was my hope for Saturday.  Bernie ended up picking, "I'll Have Another" which went on to be the winner of both the Derby and the Preakness, and now has a chance to win at Belmont and become a triple crown winner.   

I had mixed feelings about being induced.  I was extremely uncomfortable and ready for the pregnancy to be over, but on the same token, I wanted her to come on her own timetable.  I was having almost constant contractions which were making some change to my cervix but not enough to be considered "active labor."  We scheduled the induction for May 5th, but I hoped she would come on her own before that.  My doctors were not comfortable with me going much past forty weeks given my history of big babies and my blood pressure which seemed to keep creeping up during this pregnancy.

We called labor and delivery at Middlesex Hospital at 6:30am on Saturday, May 5th and they indicated that they had room for us.  If it had been too busy, we would have had to postpone the induction.  We arrived at the hospital at 7:30am, and we were running late, so I skipped breakfast (very bad idea).  I understand that by noon, they were having to put patients on other floors because it had gotten so busy. Joan was my first nurse.  She lives in the same town we do, and her daughter went to school with Nick when he was in the public school system.  She was a great nurse!  She hooked me up to the monitor and I was contracting so much, it was almost too much to start the pitocin.  My cervix was soft and starting to dilate (more than it previously had) and we started the pitocin on very low.  I thought we would have a baby by noon but the hours dragged on.  I was so bored at one point that I sent Bernie out to the Redbox to get DVDs.  We watched "Crazy, Stupid, Love" while we waited for things to get going.

It took until almost 2pm to get to 4.5 - 5cm. I knew that I wanted an epidural but at that point, I wasn't in enough pain to warrrant one.  We decided to go ahead and put it in before Dr. Bony broke my water.  Dr. Bony also delivered Jack, and is part of the practice I have been with since I was pregnant with Nick, Crescent Street OBGYN.  I highly recommend them if you are looking for a doctor.

My epidurals with my previous two children did not go that well.  They both left a window of pain in my stomach.  With Nick, I did not know that they could fix it, so I was in a lot of pain through his delivery.  With Jack, as soon as I realized it was happening, we called the anesthesiologist back three times before it was finally right.  The epidural this time went in like a dream and I didn't feel anything until it was time to push. My blood pressure did drop pretty significantly with the epidural and I did need some medication to bring it back up, but it leveled off pretty quickly.  With the previous epidurals, it was several hours after delivery before I was allowed to get out of bed.  With this one, I was up within an hour or so.

The epidural went in, Dr. Bony broke my water, and the pitocin was increased.  I was resting pretty comfortably until I felt the need to push.  When they checked my cervix, they realized I had gone from 5cm to 9 1/2cm in less than an hour.  It was a bit of mad dash to get the room set up for delivery.  At Middlesex you deliver in the same room that you labor in, recover in, and stay in for the duration of your hospital visit.  It's nice because you don't have to be moved at all unless you need to Caesarean section. Everyone got into place and I pushed for less than ten minutes before we got to meet little Vivian.  There was a bit of a scare that her shoulders might be stuck but I changed positions a little bit and she came out without incident.

My mom had been in the area to sample food offerings at The Society Room, where my brother, Brian and his fiancee', Gina are getting married in November.  Mom stopped at the hospital on her way home and saw Vivian within twenty minutes of being born.  Nick and Jack came to the hospital with Bernie's parents very shortly after that.  We were discharged after the standard two day hospital stay, she has been doing great at nursing although we are a little concerned about fluctuations in weight (she would rather sleep than eat).  Both of her big brothers adore her.  Jack is definitely feeling a little jealous of all the time I spend with her, but he has been nothing but sweet and caring towards her.

I know many of you might be wondering how we ended up with the middle name Caroline after Bernie didn't want to use it due to the Neil Diamond song and the affiliation with the Red Sox.  I think I explained in a previous blog that Caroline is my aunt's name (although she pronounces it like Carolyn), and that the meaning is "happy song."  Bernie's Aunt Millie and Uncle Vernon lived in South Carolina and he spent many happy summer vacations at their home.  So, Caroline for Bernie is reminiscent of South Carolina.  Also, while I was in labor, the South Carolina Game Cocks, the team Uncle Vernon followed, was playing on ESPN in the College World Series.  It is very rare that the Game Cocks are broadcast in Connecticut, so he took that as a sign that Vivian's middle name should in fact be Caroline. 

Brian Regan is a comedian that Bernie, Nick and I enjoy and have seen live.  He does a skit about names and whether the name Caroline is prounounced Carolyn or Caroline.  I think Bernie envisions calling her Vivian Carolyn when she is about seven and her correcting him, "no daddy, its Vivian CaroLINE!"

Here are some pictures from shortly after birth and from the photo shoot we did on May 18th.