chris carroll

chris carroll

...Liz and Chris and Sophia are thrilled to announce the arrival of ...

LUCINDA JANE CARROLL

7 lbs even...

born 10:10 pm, 11/22/00

And sorry to disapoint those of you in search of a good story, but this delivery was smooth and easy:

Liz had a doctor's appointment at 3:45 on Wednesday. There hadn't been much progression since her last visit three days before. We had been holed up in the Church Street loft for almost two weeks; having been warned that second kids are usually early or on time, we'd been in "Ready Mode" long enough that we all (Liz, Sophia, myself and our support team:Patty, Martha, Marea, Doe) were good and sick of waiting and ready to get on with it. Thanksgiving plans in Claryville had of course been canceled, Patty's opening had come and gone, Martha was making plans to leave town for Thanksgiving, Patty's sister's wedding had come and gone, Doe Mechem had already entered and left town; you get the picture.

Anyway, Liz was at the doctor and there didn't seem to be much progress. The doctor suggested Liz might want to induce, and in fact, our favorite doctor (who had not been on call last time so didn't deliver Sophia) was actually at the hospital attending another birth. Liz had some trepidation about not allowing our daughter to choose her own birthday, but she was also darn sick of being pregnant and ready to get on with the business of child rearing.

So up to the hospital, on the subway (Where's a cab at 4:30?!), packing a kid. We called Patty, who headed right on up to meet Liz. Martha interupted her pie baking gathering to come over here and cover Sophia. I gave her (Sophia, that is) dinner, bath, and got her ready for bed. One part of me wanted to rush right up to the hospital to help Liz, but Sophia had been freaked out enough by all the goings-on lately, and it seemed prudent to get her to bed as normally as possible. I was quite happy to not have her see her Mom stagger out of the house all bent over with labor pains. She went down to bed quite easily, just before Miss Migny showed up, with promises of getting to see "Mama's baby" really soon now.

Martha started shooing me out the door. I was fooling around taking care of things, straightening the house, thinking I had a full night and day of labor to go and there was no real reason to rush. I finally made an egress and grabbed a cab and arrived at Beth Israel at nine on the button. Liz was already doubled over in pain, and looked as though she'd been there a while. I asked how the pitocin (hormone used to induce labor) was going and Patty told me they'd never administered it. Whether by chance or something to do with the act of going to the hospital, Liz had gone into full blown labor without supplemental drugs.

She was having some pretty severe contractions, causing her knuckles to whiten as I held her hands. She had apparently decided to "take the drugs" just before I'd arrived, and the special doctor with the "happy dural" arrived soon after. They'd kicked Patty and me out last time, but for some reason they allowed us to stay for this one. Bad choice. One is supposed to stay TOTALLY STILL while getting an epidural, lest a slip disturb the spinal column. This wouldn't be so bad normally, but is very difficult to do when undergoing intense labor pains. The whole 5" needle, Liz moaning in pain, images of spinal damage thing got to me and I felt faint. I didn't actualy pass out, but I called Patty, who took over helping Liz stay totally frozen through an intense contraction. I sat down and sipped ginger ale and tried to regain my composure.

After they got the catheter into Liz, everyone's attention turned to the super-lame-white-as-a-sheet husband. I sipped my soda and waited as the blood returned to my head. By then the epidural had begun to flow and Liz started to feel some relief from the intense spasms. I got my act together and stood up to take over from Patty on lead hand holding.

Things were apparently progressing rather fast at this point: I heard the nurse mention offhandedly to Liz that she'd feel an urge to push at some future point and to mention it when it happened. Liz responded, "I feel like pushing RIGHT NOW..." This seemed to light a fire under Nurse Ade who immediately and simultaneously started unwrapping packages, called for Doctor Audrey, checked the fetal monitor again, and primped Liz's pillows.

Unbelievably, it seemed to be happening faster than I'd even dared hope. I'd only been there an hour. Though Liz had received the epidural again, this time she had more feeling in and control of her legs. As last time, Liz wanted to be squatting on her knees, supporting herself on the elevated head of the bed. Nurse Ade quickly removed the bottom of the bed while Dr. Audrey yelled,"Hold on, I've gotta pee!", and flew into the bathroom. We all laughed and paused for a moment while the also pregnant Dr. Audrey took care of business. Then we were ready to go. Liz remarked, "Oh here comes a big one..." and pushed with all her might. Both Audrey and Patty (down at the Doctor's side calling play by play) yelled, "There's the head!", then bam...

...nothing. Carroll child #2 pulled her head right back in there and said "no way, not ready yet." Whoa. We all took a breath, Liz made herself a little more comfortable on the head of the bed, I held her and told her how beautiful and powerful she looked and how well she was doing, and then it was time for another round. "Two more pushes" said Dr. Audrey, and she was about right. Next big push delivered the head, then the rest of the little lady slithered out. As last time, I was busy up with Liz' head, and so couldn't see anything but Patty and Dr. Audrey's beaming faces. I heard a kittenish mewling and there she was! She was out, but we had requested Dr. A try to save "cord blood" which is thought to contain special types of cells which could be useful to any member of the family that need them. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but it's more of a pain in the a** than you'd think. It's kind of like, "yeah yeah, whatever, the kid's delivered, now let's deal with this..." and they go to work on getting the cord blood, while basically tossing the newborn onto Liz' chest.

She actually exclaimed "Oh my God!" at the shock of this brand new slimy squalling baby being at her breast with so (compared to last time) little effort. We looked at each other with "Can it really be over this soon?!" glances. She was in much better shape than Sophia had been, and had such a warm glow to her we almost named her "Rosie". That or "Claire" because of how directly she had appeared. Lots of dark hair, perfect little feet and hands, a little smooshed from the birth and coated with slime, she still looked as beaufiful as anything I've ever seen.

And indeed, it was over. Liz was in labor for a little over four hours (compared to twenty or so last time), and I was there for a little over one hour. Guess Martha was right to shoo me out of the house!

Baby Lucy has returned home with her Mom, and both are doing fabulously. Sophia is thrilled to death at the sight of her new baby sister. We're still working on reversing the nocturnal raspings of the Junior member but in general seem to be settling in. Both parents are feeling much better than the first time around and we'd be happy to arrange viewings at your convenience.

Lucy will (of course!) have her own website, http://lucycarroll.com

but it won't go live until the slackers at Internic finish their turkey dinners (probably sometime next week)...