D Day

It was the most awaited D Day, Tuesday, the 8th of November 2005. Louna Clarita Marie Bourcier is about to join us...

What's in a name?

How did Papa and Maman came up with my name? Well, Louna came actually from papa's search from the internet, it was a love at first sight, and maman loved it at once too. But if we look at it closely, it's actually a good melange of papa and maman's name, don't you agree? Clarita is just so simple, it's mommy's name. Marie on the other hand is papa's grandmom's name (maternal and paternal side).

The Works

8 am: Papa and Maman finally arrived in the Clinique Ste Marthe's Maternity Ward. Midwife Delphine took us in charge and examined maman at once. Maman is already 2.5 cm dilated. With that, no more pre-labor procedures, maman was directly confined in the delivery room and had perfusion to induce labor and contraction.

9:15 am: Dr Vert, the anesthesist came to inject the epidural (péridurale) for painless labor.

10:15 am: Maman's amniotic bag was pierced, with this, I know, there's no turning back. She was already 5 cm dilated. Errr, was it obvious I was kinda excited to go out?

11:15 am: 6 cm dilated.

12:15 pm: 8 cm dilated.

2:00 pm: 10 cm dilated. Midwife Delphine started to prepare the paraphernalias for the delivery. Maman on the other hand started to tremble, probably due to stress, fear or fatigue or just the simple realization of giving birth was just minutes away.

2:10 pm: Maman started to push (4 doses of epidural before labor). 3 series of contractions, with 3 consecutive pushes each. It was tiring for both of us. The 4th push was aided by a ventouse (sucking instrument) and voila, I was out. Finally, I was on maman's tummy.

I just did one short cry which obviously made maman worry. Dr Andry-Serain, maman's gynecologist, midwife Delphine and the assistant brought me to another room. I had my first bath under the caring eyes of papa.

3:50 pm: I had my first ever breastfeeding session. Wow, that was yummy!

Please click on the picture on the left to access on my baby announcement card. It's a tradition here in France to announce each addition to the family and here's maman's electronic version of it...enjoy yourselves!

More of me next time..