At 7:55pm on October 26th, my wife Sara and I welcomed a third little girl to our family. Samantha Joy Harvey weighed 7lbs, 8 oz and was 21 inches long. Jenna and Emmy are thrilled to meet their little sister (while on the phone after Sam was born, Jenna said, “Daddy, I keep laughing when I hear Sammy talking”). Thank goodness for four grandparents in town to encourage us, watch the girls, bring us meals, and visit at the hospital. I can’t express what having friends and family close means to us. The outpouring of support from friends has been incredible.

Crowdcasting via Facebook (and Twitter)

What I find most hilarious about the whole process was the heavy response to the “crowdcasting” I did on Facebook during the day. While I have a Facebook account, I rarely log in. Mostly, I don’t have time to invest in keeping up with it all. But on baby day, I did more Facebook than I had in the last six months.

For this special event, Facebook became my secret weapon. With our last two girls, I spent WAY too much time on the phone calling people to let them know what was going on, organizing visits, and answering questions. All in all, it was exhausting. I’m not terribly social (preferring to connect more deeply with smaller groups of people), so all of that phone time was overwhelming. Worst of all, I even offended several folks who thought they should have heard from me (and didn’t because of all the chaos). Sorry!

Yesterday, over the course of 10 hours, I posted numerous photos and updates. I ended up making just two calls (thank goodness)…one to each set of grandparents. The result: a significantly larger pool of friends and family were in the know and the whole process was incredibly relaxed. Best of all, with an iPhone by my side, uploading photos was quick and easy. Updates were almost instant as I could post in seconds with the Facebook app. Nice. I did do a few Twitter posts, but I intentionally kept that light. I use Twitter to connect with other professionals, so I didn’t want to spam them with too much personal detail. I try hard to avoid being the person who posts about what they ate for lunch all the time.

A wonderful journey

I’m certainly a “glass half-full” kind of person. Even still, I’m amazed at how blessed we have been with this pregnancy. Everything went very smoothly. While we always worry about the worst headed into the final stages, things went fine. After a short meeting with a new client, we showed up at the hospital around 10am. We had several hours of waiting while some meds got going. The staff was looking to keep things slow until enough antibiotics had gone through. By 2 or 3pm, Sara and I made a bet (that I lost). I figured we’d have a baby by 5p, with Sara knowing that it would be much later.

We had a relaxing afternoon of gentle laboring during which I got a fair bit of work done, we watched several episodes of How I Met Your Mother, and a TON of Food Network was enjoyed. Once the evening rolled around, Sam decided that she was ready to make her entrance. Within a half-hour, momma and baby met face to face and our world is forever changed (for the better, of course).

Amazing care from Dupont Hospital

It’s been a great time and the staff at Dupont Hospital has made our stay amazing. Our other two ladies were also born here and our experience was the same. If you are going to have (or planning on) a baby, I can’t recommend Dupont highly enough. All the obvious things (taking care of baby and momma) were perfect. Beyond that, a few highlights:

• Extremely kind and caring staff, made us feel welcome and supported
• Special band on the baby that locks down the floor with alarms if anyone (even us) tries to take her out of the birth center
• Free wifi kept us in touch with family / friends via Facebook and Twitter
• Rooms are comfortable (even for Dad) and quiet
• Fantastic “celebration meal” of Filet Mignon w/Shrimp, appetizer, desert, and sparkling grape juice. Very cool.
• Many meal options, all quite good
• Nourishment area stocked with a WIDE assortment of complimentary snacks and drinks for mom and dad

All in all, it makes the transition really peaceful. While I’m sure all of the local hospitals offer good care, I think Dupont lives up to their tagline: “Experience the Dupont Difference”. It’s clear that they work hard to stand out from the crowd.