Bruce FAQs

Hi All! Thanks so much for all your emails, calls and thoughts. We are settling in well and should be heading home from the hospital by the end of the day. Thought I would blog to answer some of your questions you've written us about:

How was the labor/delivery?

Well, as with most things in life, nothing like what we expected. My contractions started at 7PM on Thursday, the 5th. Told Robb I wasn't feeling quite right, figured they were false, but we started timing. I went very quickly from 10 min intervals, to 5 min, then to 2min by about 8PM. We quickly gathered our things (though I did sneak in a quick shower) and headed to the hospital. By 8:30 we were in triage and I was 4-5cm dilated. This was much to our surprise since I had no signs of dilation or other at my dr appointment at 2PM that day. So my body went from 0 to 4.5 in in less than 7 hrs. We asked the triage nurse what that meant and she said, well "it means you are having a baby TODAY" and then 1 hr later I was 9 cm and he was on his way, born at 10:19PM. He came so quickly that there was no time for epidural, which I will admit, the thought of which made me cry, but it was for the best in the end as the delivery/pushing went much faster as a result of feeling the "intensity" (shall we say). So we quickly became famous around the hospital here as the first time mother whose labor was just 3.5 hrs. The nurses were all great, they just couldn't believe how fast he progressed. And now we have our little man in our arms. So hard to believe even after preparing for so long.

How do you say his middle name?

Many of you have been curious about Bruce's middle name, Eleuterio (pronounced: el-lu-tare-e-o, don't forget to roll the 'r'). Our favorite guess from Bruce's fan club was that it must be Swahili for "Go Big Red!". But no, Eleuterio was my grandfather's legal first name, though most of you knew him as Leonardo (or Pipo). Don't worry, he won't be able to pronounce (or say) it either for a while, so Bruce E. Heier (or Brucito, little Bruce) it is for now. Some of you asked where the name Bruce came from and there is no family or other association other than famous superheroes (Batman and Incredible Hulk) and rockstars (like the Boss). It was a not so common, easy to spell name that Robb came up with early on and various signs led Deanna to agree, yep, that's his name alright.

So that's the scoop. Thanks again for all your support during the pregnancy and with our new arrival. We couldn't be happier finally getting to meet our little one. He is so precious. Thanks to our supportive workplaces, I'll be moving into mommy mode after 5 years at CCO for the next 12 weeks and Robb will be home with us as well for the next 3 weeks, which is all fantastic. Lots of helpers are planned to be here for us as well over the next several weeks which we are so thankful for. Will keep the photos and videos coming as we can.

Love to all,
Deanna