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Introducing Vivek Joseph Philip…A Little Earlier Than Expected

Our third little guy decided to make an early appearance when Melissa went into labor on Sunday.  Melissa woke up Sunday morning not feeling very good and thought she had caught the stomach flu because she felt sick to her stomach.  We decided to not go to church that morning because she was feeling so crummy and by later that morning she began to have full strength contractions that started off about 5 minutes apart and then progressed to about three minutes apart.

By later that afternoon we were pretty certain the contractions were not going to stop and so we called our doctor’s office and the on-call physician Dr. Truong instructed us to go to the hospital.  After a series of phone calls we managed to get my parents and sister over to our house to watch the kids so that we could go to the hospital.  Before we left for the hospital Karuna instructed Melissa, “Okay mommy you are going to have a baby and its going to hurt for a little while but don’t worry it will get better.”

Once at the hospital we were observed in L&D triage for a couple of hours and it confirmed that Melissa’s contractions were only becoming more frequent and an ultrasound of the baby showed that there was very little amniotic fluid around the baby (a condition called oligohydramnios).  With those pieces of information our on-call doctor decided it would be better to go ahead and perform the c-section rather than wait to see if the contractions could be stopped.  Our official due date was February 19th and so the baby came at around 37.5 weeks.  We were a little concerned because it was Superbowl Sunday and joked that the on-call doctor would not want to come in until the game was done but our on-call doctor even though he was a very avid football fan still came in and did the repeat c-section while the game was going on.  Because he was a big Steelers fan we did get to hear score updates from a runner about every 15 minutes as they did the c-section.

We went the OR and Melissa had a very good surgery and at 8:46 PM we greeted Vivek Joseph Philip, our second son, into this world.  He was by far our smallest baby weighing only 5 lbs 7 oz and was 18 ½” long.  He cried immediately after delivery and looked great from birth with Apgar scores of 9 and 9 at 1 and 5 minutes.  After cleaning off the baby I got to hold our new son and rejoice with Melissa at the blessing of our third baby.  We were amazed by how God had blessed us so richly with three wonderful children and soon both of us were in tears as we marveled at how God had so beautifully and wonderfully made Vivek.  The words of the David in Psalm 139: 13-16 came to mind, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.”  In case you had not read our previous post about why we decided to name him Vivek Joseph his name comes from the Sanskrit word that means “discernment or wisdom” and we thought that would be a wonderful attribute for a son  – to grow up to be a man that has wisdom and can discern between right and wrong.  We chose the middle name Joseph because Joseph is one of the great men of God in the Old Testament that led a life of purity, a man who lived out his faith in a pagan culture, a man who was selfless, and a man that trusted in God even as he went through so much adversity.  Joseph in Hebrew means “God will increase” and we pray that Vivek would be used by God to increase God’s kingdom.

We were excited that God had blessed us with a son because we are planning on adopting girls when we return to India because of the number of infant girls that are abandoned there.  We are excited for Luke also because Vivek will now be a new wrestling partner for him in a couple of years!  This will be our last biological baby because we would like to complete our family through adoption and so Melissa also had a tubal ligation done during this surgery.

After the surgery, Melissa when to the recovery room while I took the baby to the newborn nursery.  There I met Karuna, Luke, Appachan, Ammachi , Christine and Stan as they all got to see Vivek for the first time.  Karuna was a little sad at first that she did not get a baby sister but soon responded that she would learn to be thankful for her little brother.  Luke expressed interest in wanting to take the baby home immediately (“Dadda take the baby home?”) but soon became more interested in crawling over the hospital floor and trying to open up locked doors.

Vivek joined Melissa a couple of hours after the delivery when she got to her room.  Vivek has done a phenomenal job so far of breastfeeding…something that neither Luke nor Karuna got a hang of after their delivery.  This has been a big answer to prayer because it would be a lot more difficult for Melissa to care for three kids while also having to pump breast milk every couple of hours.  On the day after the delivery, Appachan, Ammachi, Luke and Karuna got to make their first official visit to see the baby and to hold him.  Karuna is already convinced that she can hold the baby without anyone’s help and so we have to keep reminding her that she is only 4 years old.  Luke was more interested in taking a ride on mommy’s bed with all the many buttons to push!   This morning Vivek had his circumcision which went well and both Melissa and Vivek are doing wonderfully.

Melissa’s parents were also so accomodating because we called them on Sunday night about the change in plans and by Monday they had left from Nebraska and got to Dallas by early Tuesday morning so that we could have some extra help with the baby for the next couple of weeks.  My mom was also able to rearrange her schedule so that she will also take a couple of weeks off after Melissa’s mom returns to Nebraska.

We are so thankful that both Melissa and the baby are safe and healthy after this early arrival.  We praise God for his graciousness to us with the provision of a healthy son and we look forward to raising him up to live up to his name.  We pray that Vivek will have discernment and wisdom and that he will know Christ at an early age because only through the spirit of God will he have true wisdom.  We pray Ephesians 1:17-19 for Vivek, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” Please continue lifting us up in your prayers as we adjust to having Vivek at home starting on Wednesday.

I have the first of many pictures uploaded from the delivery and the first day of Vivek’s life.  You can view the pictures by clicking on the pictures below or by clicking on the link to view the slideshow.  I had also finished some other pictures we had taken during Thanksgiving and our trip to Carlsbad Caverns in November  a couple of days before Melissa went into labor and so I’ll post those as well.  We’ll update you over the next couple of weeks as we get settled in with the new baby.  I also wanted to let you know about a new feature to our blog.  If you look at the menu at the top of the screen there is a new button called “Subscribe.”  If you would like to keep up with us but only want to check the blog when there is new things posted you can click on the subscribe page and put in your e-mail address and the blog will automatically send you an e-mail when there is a new post.  If you ever want to unsubscribe just put in your e-mail address again and just click the unsubscribe button.  Just to make sure that none of the e-mails go into junk mail you should add the e-mail address: thephilips@christoandmelissa.com to your safe list to make sure the messages get to your inbox.

Slideshows:

• Baby Vivek Delivery
• Thanksgiving 2008
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park