Violet May Demetrescu

Happy birthday and welcome to the beautiful Violet May Demetrescu, who was born yesterday (ha!). Here's the data, for the statistically oriented:

Time: 1:54PM
Weight: 8lbs, 9oz
Length: 18"
Head: 13 3/4"
Labor time: About 11 hours

Nicole's water broke about 12:30 in the morning so we knew at that time that May 28th was likely to be the day. The first part of labor went very smoothly, with some intense contractions but up to twenty minutes between. Nicole let me get a couple of hours of sleep and was even able to get a couple of minutes herself between contractions. Grandma Marylee came up to take Wilson; as we were still around at 7AM, however, we ended up putting him in daycare so she could go to her class. We got to the hospital about 9.

Nicole's contractions continued to be long and intense but with lengthy gaps. She was dilated to
8cm (out of 10) when we got here. The nurses were surprised at how smoothly things were going and that Nicole was so composed and calm; three people at different times bizarrely described her cervix as "like butter". One nurse suspected that only a couple of pushes would be needed to deliver. It was even sunny outside. Clearly, nothing was going to go wrong.

The problem was that Violet was posterior, which means that she was facing up rather than down. For whatever reason, this was not detectable until the pushing portion of the birth. That part lasted for a long, long time and took a lot out of Nicole. Our nurse, Jeanette, and our awesome doctor, Chris, were really wonderful and encouraging of her. There was some doubt among the medical professionals in the room--at one point there were five of them working--if she'd be able to deliver the baby unaided and a vacuum pump was readied. They told us later that Nicole had lost 1.5 liters of blood--about twice that lost in a normal delivery. Nicole had to reach down to the core of her being to push, and then was asked to give more and then more. She finally did it however, unaided by devices or painkillers. She said it was the hardest thing she'd ever done, physically. I am extremely proud of her.

Baby Violet had many visitors yesterday. Grandpa Mike, Grandma Karen and Uncle Ryan got in first and spent most of the day here. Aunt Beth, Uncle Jeff, Nono, Grandmother Louise, Grandpa Dan and Wilson soon followed. Wilson was interested in the baby and even more interested in the wooden train that Nicole got him as a hospital gift. He was very well-behaved and OK with not being the center of attention for once. Later on, Grandma Marylee, Aunt Nellie, Amy and Emily from daycare and Nicole's high school friends Jessica, Kelly and Rachel came to visit. It was a zoo and we were very happy that so many people were able to come by.

So now we have a wonderful little baby. Baby and Mommy and I all slept pretty soundly last night, as you can probably imagine.