Introducing Vivian Dawn Sharp

Last Prego Shot



You will have to bear with me, this is going to be a very LONG, detailed post, but I wanted to be able to remember everything, so if you don't want to know all the details, just look at the fun pictures.:) Baby Vivian was born on July 11, 2011 at 9:13 p.m.. We were so blessed throughout the whole pregnancy and birthing process. Our Heavenly Father sure wanted her to be here with us. Like her sister Emma, Viv was induced pre-term, but for IUGR. For some reason my body does not like to grow big babies so the doctor thought she would do better outside of my body than in. We were scheduled for inducement at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, but due to the business of the hospital we weren't able to head over there until 11:00. There have been so many wonderful friends from our ward that have been very helpful in watching Emma for us. It brought a lot of peace knowing that she was being taken care of. We made it to the hospital around 11:30 and sat in the waiting room for another hour. Once we got to our room we got settled in and we had a wonderful nurse, Cindy, for the first part of our labor. I HATE getting I'V's, but she was very patient and good about taking her time and making sure she only had to stick me once. She was amazing! We waited for awhile to see the doctor and find out how we were going to be induced. The doctor recommended giving me Misoprostil first in order to soften my cervix, and then we would talk about starting Pitocin. We were excited about this option since with Emma we were given the Miso and it kickstarted my labor and we didn't' need anything else. Well, this time the Misoprostil was administered orally and for some reason my body did not respond well. Within 5 minutes I was having a lot of tightening in my abdomen which would not subside, and to make it worse I was shaking uncontrollably which made it impossible for me to relax in order to breathe through the pain. I couldn't believe that things were already THAT intense and was concerned about the rest of the process. We didn't realize there was anything else going on until the doctor and nurse come in, put me on some oxygen and informed us that I needed to relax because the baby was in stress and her heart rate had dropped. That was a pretty frightening time for us, but Mike was such a wonderful companion, and through the singing of hymns and the help of our Heavenly Father I was able to relax and the shaking eventually stopped. For the next 4 hours I continued to have contractions every 1-2 minutes. When they checked me next I was only dilated to a 3, and 80% effaced. We expressed the desire for them to break my water before starting the Pitocin since I was contracting so regularly and hoped that my body was laboring on it's own at this point. Things went REALLY quickly for then on. My membranes were ruptured around 8:00 and after an hour of INTENSE contractions (surges) my body was complete and we were ready to go. With Emma, her decent was very gradual and took about an hour. It was a time where I was actually able to relax in comparison to the regular contractions. When people told me that the decent was the worst part for them I thought they were crazy, I guess I just had a different experience with Emma. With Vivian I couldn't believe how intense the last 5 minutes were. I was so confused that everything was happening so fast. The nurse came in to check me which was very difficult since I was trying to breathe through a contraction that was lasting for minutes. She asked if I was feeling a lot of pressure and the next thing I know the doctor and multiple nurses are rushing into our room. They couldn't find the baby's heartbeat and wanted to get her out as soon as possible. I was really hoping for a nice relaxing delivery:), but it sure ended up being quite the opposite. The doctor and staff were wonderful and little Vivian was born within minutes. I felt so relieved to know that she was finally here and that she was o.k.,(and that I was still alive to be honest). We were truly blessed throughout the whole process, and we feel so blessed that both of our pre-term babies have done so well. We have been able to take them home right away and they haven't had to stay in the NICU at all. I think the natural labor has helped the babies recover better for us.


Mike commented that she looked a lot like my sisters Kim and Heidi


We had the hardest time agreeing on a name before she arrived. We had a few names that we were thinking about, but like Emma, we wanted to wait and see what she looked like. It's amazing how in sink Mike and I can be. I had been thinking about Vivian, but not too seriously. Once we were able to look at her together, Mike said that he thought we should name her Vivian, which just happened to be to only name that was coming to my mind as I was looking at her as well. She sure takes after the Pierce side of our family so to name her after my Grandma just seemed right.


Proud Papa


Tired Mama


Since she's been born things have been going really well. I am recovering a lot quicker than last time, and although she isn't perfect at nursing yet, she is making a lot of progress and has only had one bottle, which was at the hospital. It's nice being home and together as a family. I am a pretty apprehensive about the days to come and trying to work out a different schedule in order to include 1 more, but I am grateful for a supportive husband who I know is there for me. We are grateful for all the prayers in our behalf, we truly felt them and know our Father in Heaven was there for us, and continues to be.

What a cutie!