The Del Vecchio Family: Happy Birthday Josh!

Joshua Michael Del Vecchio was born at 6:14 p.m. on Friday, April 10. He weighed in at 7 pounds 8 ounces, and was 20 1/2 inches long.

Josh had a bit of a rough entry into the world. We went in to be induced at 6:30 that morning. Everything went fine (and faster than with Zak), except for the fact that they said it would only take 10 minutes to get the epidural once I requested it, but the anesthesiologist was busy and I ended up waiting about 45 minutes - meanwhile, Dr. Gonzalez (my doctor) came in and broke my water, so I had a little while of some not so fun contractions, but after the drugs kicked in, everything was good. I was ready to push around 5:00 p.m., but we had a rain delay - Dr. Gonzalez was in a procedure downstairs, so I was delayed 45 minutes. She showed up exactly 45 minutes later and it was time to push. I pushed for about half an hour - the nurse kept saying I wasn't pushing, but I was! Turns out that when Josh came out, he was face up (which is NOT the way babies usually come out). This made it not only harder to push, but his head had been pressing on my pelvic bone and he had a HUGE bruise on his head. They're not sure if the placenta abrupted (detached) at the last minute or if the umbilical cord was just compressed between his head and my pelvic bone, but when he came out, Dr. Gonzalez' technical term was "floppy baby - very floppy baby". Josh's color was not good, he wasn't breathing and had a low heart rate, so it was pretty scary for a few minutes while the nurses got him going. He had to be intubated. Due to all of the drama right after his birth, we don't have all of the standard "just born" pictures we otherwise would have.

Josh after the nurses got him going

I only got to hold him for a few seconds before they whisked him off to the nursery to monitor him. We weren't able to spring him for about 2 1/2 hours. Everyone else got to go see him in the nursery, but I was stuck in the bed for a while :( Don't worry, his head now looks perfectly round and normal.

Grandmas Barbara and Cindy were in the delivery room with us, while Grandpa Bob

was in the waiting room and Grandpa Gary and Auntie Allie went to pick up Zak from Teri's(although they were at the hospital all day with us - Allyson reconfirmed that she did not want children). Grandpa Mike will be out to visit soon.

Gary and Allyson brought Zak to the hospital to see us.

Showing off this big brother bracelet that my nurse Iman gave him.

Zak with his grandmas

Hanging with Grandpa Bob

Josh's stats

Here's a shot from the nursery around 8:45 p.m. He had just gotten a bath and was in the warmer. He just had to warm up a few more minutes then we sprung him free. They just handed him over - Adam and I kind of looked at each other like "do we remember what we're doing here?" - I think we may have actually even said it.