Vivian Lucille

We recently welcomed Vivian Lucille Butt into the world. She is a darling and sweet girl. She is hardly fussy and very adorable with the one unfortunate problem that I am unable to get her burps out and so Kyle has to do it.

At this point I can honestly say Vivian has the most exciting birth story in my family. My contractions started early in the morning. Meghan and Adelaide took a couple of days of slow, irregular contractions so I prepared myself for a long haul. I ate well, took a nap and spent most of the day trying to relax. By evening my contractions hurt a lot, but I wasn't going to rush to the hospital for several reasons:

a) the sooner you go to the hospital, the more likely you are to get medical intervention you don't really want like pitocin and c-sections

a-i) I wanted minimal intervention

a-ii) I REALLY wanted a VBAC

b) I dislike hospitals and they make me tense,

b-i) if you're tense things can take a lot longer

b-ii) the longer you're there the greater your chance of intervention

c) My contractions are always irregular and this freaks the nurses out. Their solution is to pump up the pitocin

c-i) Pitocin hurts A LOT

c-1) I hate pitocin with a passion

c-a) No, really, I HATE the stuff.

d) I didn't think my contractions hurt all that badly yet.

d-i) Sure I was unhappy and groaning and telling Kyle that I never wanted any more kids, but they weren't as bad as the contractions I had with Adelaide

d-1) It didn't occur to me that those contractions were with Pitocin

d-a) Oops.

I have had several reports that many people thought it was time for me to go to the hospital at least by 10:00 that night. I have other reports that more people thought I would wait too long. By 11:00 I was having inklings of it too, but I thought I'd hang on a little longer. By that point I was very tired and I'm pretty sure my brain wasn't working too well. You know, when you get into that living moment to moment experience and acting on instinct.

12:30-ish I woke up Kyle who was trying to make sure he was rested for the hospital (ha ha ha). By 12:45 it was too late. Vivian was born in the bathroom into her Nana's hands. Two irresistible pushes and out she popped. The paramedics arrived shortly after and rushed me to the hospital. I hear that it was quite the scene outside with a firetruck, patrol car, ambulance and a big crowd but I was unaware of most of it. I had lost a bit of blood and things were going fuzzy as the paramedics carried me down the stairs. After the baby came out that was about the only thing I could focus on.

At the hospital after stitching and putting me on pitocin (AAARGH - I thought I had escaped the nasty stuff by birthing at home!) they tried to move me from Labor and Delivery to the Maternity ward. I passed out in the wheelchair. Consequently, I spent most of the day in Labor and Delivery with really painful cramps thanks to the pitocin. Like make me cry painful cramps. I blessed the kind nurse who had mercy on me and turned the stuff down to practically off once it was clear that my body was doing just fine with the bleeding and shrinking down. My blood counts were low and I didn't pass their blood pressure test so they gave me a blood transfusion. I couldn't even nurse the baby because they were concerned about me being too weak. Kyle really stepped up to the plate and was the best dad and husband ever - he changed every diaper, held her every time she cried and nursed her - just kidding. He fed her formula until I was given permission to nurse. After the blood transfusion they got me to Maternity ward where I spent a long time resting in bed and Kyle was able to get some sleep after all that hard work he did.

I don't think I was ever so tired after having a baby. Even after the C-section I was more perky and capable of movement. But I guess blood loss will do that to you. So I spent a lot of time in bed and boy does that make you sore. Here is me in the misery of my confinement.

OK, it wasn't that bad. I had a beautiful baby girl and suddenly all that hard work and exhaustion was worth it. I promised Kyle that I would consider having another baby. After all, this one was so cute.

I consider myself fortunate that the doctor released me Monday evening instead of waiting until Tuesday morning. My girls were needing me at home and, like I said, I don't like hospitals that much although it was fun getting to watch TV all day and have Jello with every meal.

Meghan has fallen in love with Vivian. She wants to hold her and take care of her and have her be HER baby. Adelaide couldn't really care less. I ended up throwing away my favorite old, comfy pajamas, at least one towel and my quilt is going to end up as a dog blanket at best.

I am still spending most of my time resting but I am getting stronger. I even cooked breakfast this morning! I will be forever grateful that Kyle's mom was here before, during and after the event. She has helped me so much and more than she ever really intended to. And I am so happy to have such a beautiful and sweet spirit join my family.

So now I've had a c-section from a failed home-birth, a hospital birth with an epidural and an all-natural unplanned home-birth so I've had quite a variety of experiences. I know there is a lot of to do about how wonderful a natural birth is but having done it I'm not sure I really see the charm in it. Its just as messy and still pretty painful. Modern medicine is a useful tool for those of us with strange and unusual birthing patterns. My hope is that next time I'll get to the hospital at just the right time. At least I have a better idea of when that time might be thanks to Vivian's Whirlwind Adventure.

And now for some more cute pictures.