Meet our baby girl, Vivienne Michael, weighing in at 6lb. 10.8oz (3030g) and 19 3/4 (50.2cm) long, born on 12/12/09 at 5:02 AM.
Vivienne was born 3 1/2 weeks early, but is completely healthy and is an average sized weight and length, thanks in large part to our high protein diet and exercise regime outlined in the Bradley Method. We had hoped to have a natural birth but realized our chances were not very good at 34 weeks.
On Thanksgiving day, Pokerwifey was experiencing a lot of discomfort, some minor contractions, and had a general feeling that something was just "off." We had our regular 34 week checkup the next day, however, and because we were still 6 weeks away from our due date of Jan 5, we decided to wait until morning to ask the doctor if anything was abnormal. At the appointment, my wife explains what's going on, so the OB does a cervix check and nonchalantly says, "Well, you're 3cm dilated and 70% effaced. So yeah, get to the hospital and don't stop along the way." PANIC TIME. The shower was just on Sunday, the nursery was still a mess, the car seat wasn't in the car yet, the blinds and curtains weren't up yet, etc. etc. We (I) simply weren't ready yet! But being the rational one in the relationship (ldo), I had to try to stay calm and get us to the hospital. Of course, I take a wrong turn and drive 10 minutes out of the way, and my wife is comforting me the entire drive, telling me everything is going to be ok
.
At the hospital, my wife is immediately given some meds to relax her uterus and stop the labor, because getting the baby to 36 weeks is a big milestone for development of the lungs and other major organs. After being hooked up for awhile to the monitor, labor slows and the doc is confident that the meds will work and we'll be able to keep the baby inside for a little while longer. However, during all of this, they do an ultrasound and find out that the baby is breech
. There are some exercises we can do to get the baby flipped, but she won't be able to do them for awhile because we are then told she will be on partial bed rest until she hits the 36 week mark. The doc also tells us that we'll need to schedule a C-section for 39 weeks, but he'd be shocked if we make it that far.
Bed rest was tough for her to keep from going stir crazy, but luckily she's stay at home so didn't have to take off work and I'm a self-employed degen, so I could work from home and take care of her and be there if something happened. After about 11 days of bed rest, we went in for our 36 week appointment on the 7th, scheduled an ECV procedure for the 16th to try to flip the baby, and an ultrasound on 11th to verify that the baby was still breech. At the ultrasound, it looked like the baby was running out of fluid on one side of the uterus, and my wife said she simply felt like there was no room for the baby to move. She told the baby to let us know if she needed to come out soon, and let us know she did.
I woke up to my wife saying, "Babe, I think my water broke" at 1am on Saturday morning. ("woke up" probably a poor choice of words. Perhaps "jumped up ten feet in the air" is more appropriate.) So, we call the doc and let her know we are coming in to have this baby. We gather our belongings, get in the car, and back straight into the sidewall of the driveway when pulling out of the garage. Again, Pokerwifey has to comfort me and tell me to calm down.
The cervix check at the hospital confirmed breech. The baby actually kicked the doctor during the check and we were told that the baby's foot kicked the bag of waters and caused the break. She was trying to break out! So, we get all prepped for the C-section and wait a bit. Apparently, this was a popular time and day for women to have their babies, as 3 others were delivered (3 at once is a lot at our hospital) within the past couple of hours. All 3 were baby girls. We went with the surprise route, so still don't know at this point what we are having and are trying to decide if the fact that the last 3 were girls would have any bearing on what we were having. Would we continue the trend of the night and have a girl? Things like this usually wave in threes, so does that mean we'll have a boy? Being a professional poker player, of course I should know that the results of the previous 3 births have no bearing whatsoever on us, but when you're dressed in scrubs and getting ready to enter the operating room to watch your wife get cut open to reveal your firstborn, math skills, common sense, and ev calcs kinda go out the window.
The operation itself wasn't too bad. My wife was awake and alert the entire time and i was able to hold her hand and sit next to her. I didn't watch any of the incision and didn't see anything until the doc said "there's the feet", followed by "chubby legs" (to which my wife yelled "just like Lincoln!" her nephew), and then, "And there's the girl parts," which brought tears to my wife's eyes. The anticipation buildup by going the surprise route was awesome and gets my full recommendation to anyone who is undecided and having their first child.
Pokerwifey is recovering nicely. She still has some soreness from the incision, but that's about it. Vivienne is in great health, is so beautiful, and is such a joy already to our life.
I probably left out a ton of stuff, but this was already way longer than I expected. Pokerwifey will stop by later to fill in everything I forgot.