Friday, May 30, 2008
Seattle Parents
And the best thing about having your baby in Seattle? Is it having eight top-notch medical facilities within 30 minutes of your house? Is it the modern, natural approach to childbirth practiced here? Is it the wireless technology in every room that lets you spend all day doing worthless blog posts? No, it's the fact that you can get excellent take out pho about 2 minutes from your hospital bed!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
You Born Today
Some famous people born on May 28th:
William Pitt the Younger (English prime minister), 1759
Edvard Benes (Czech politician), 1884
Jim Thorpe (Olympic athlete), 1888
Ian Fleming (Creator of James Bond), 1908
T-Bone Walker (Musician), 1910
Dionne quintuplets (Canadian fivesome), 1934
Rudy Guiliani (Lazy campaigner), 1944
Gladys Knight (Chief Pip), 1944
John Fogerty (Member of Credence Clearwater Revival), 1945
Wendy O. Williams (Punk), 1949
Kirk Gibson (Baseball player), 1957
Chris Ballew (President of the USA), 1965
Kylie Minogue (Australian entertainer), 1968
Violet Demetrescu (Tiny baby), 2008
Famous events on May 28th:
1588 - The Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon
1754 - Start of French & Indian/Seven Years War
1930 - Chrysler Building opens in New York City
1937 - The Golden Gate Bridge is opened
1987 - German teenager Mathias Rust lands a plane in Red Square, ruining the careers of several Soviet generals (some permanently).
Also, several organizations were founded (Sierra Club, Amnesty International and the PLO) and battles fought (Tsushima in the sea of Japan, Narvik in Norway and Goose Green in the Falklands) on this day.
You born today:
You cannot read yet, but you will want someone to clip out this item and save it for when you are old enough. (I didn't write that, but wish I had)
William Pitt the Younger (English prime minister), 1759
Edvard Benes (Czech politician), 1884
Jim Thorpe (Olympic athlete), 1888
Ian Fleming (Creator of James Bond), 1908
T-Bone Walker (Musician), 1910
Dionne quintuplets (Canadian fivesome), 1934
Rudy Guiliani (Lazy campaigner), 1944
Gladys Knight (Chief Pip), 1944
John Fogerty (Member of Credence Clearwater Revival), 1945
Wendy O. Williams (Punk), 1949
Kirk Gibson (Baseball player), 1957
Chris Ballew (President of the USA), 1965
Kylie Minogue (Australian entertainer), 1968
Violet Demetrescu (Tiny baby), 2008
Famous events on May 28th:
1588 - The Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon
1754 - Start of French & Indian/Seven Years War
1930 - Chrysler Building opens in New York City
1937 - The Golden Gate Bridge is opened
1987 - German teenager Mathias Rust lands a plane in Red Square, ruining the careers of several Soviet generals (some permanently).
Also, several organizations were founded (Sierra Club, Amnesty International and the PLO) and battles fought (Tsushima in the sea of Japan, Narvik in Norway and Goose Green in the Falklands) on this day.
You born today:
You cannot read yet, but you will want someone to clip out this item and save it for when you are old enough. (I didn't write that, but wish I had)
The Great Debate
As people who were at the hospital last night know, while the baby's middle name was never in question, the spelling was. Part of the problem, I think, is that neither of us had really strong feelings on the topic. Then we both had inclinations, just different ones. Now, however, I can announce that the Y's have it: It's "May".
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Water Broke!
Yup, around 12:30am on Wednesday, May 28th, my water broke. I got a full hour of sleep before it happened, courtesy of Dr. Chris and his magical painkillers.Contractions began shortly thereafter. Things are going pretty slowly, much to my chagrin, but that might be more a result of the magical painkillers than anything. God forbid she have a huge head or something.
I'm pleased to report that the contractions hurt much more than the pelvic pain, so we're probably still go for our original delivery plans.
Anyway, we'll probably have a baby today. Yay!
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