Finally, after almost 9 months of pre-production she's finally arrived. Here she is:
Vista Avalon Simser was born May 18th at 18:10 MST, weighing in at 5 pounds and 11 ounces (well, 10.6 ounces but the hospital seems to round it up).
Okay, first I know that most of you are reading this on the bus, at home, at work, and you're laughing. Some people are shocked and probably scratching your head why a nerd would potentially put their child through the slings and arrows of naming their spawn after an operating system. Hopefully by the time she's old enough for someone to make fun of her name, nobody will remember where it came from.
Her name came as a discussion about what her name should be, as they always do. At first we didn't know what sex the baby was going to be so we started with a boys name. We rummaged around the Internet, baby name books, and our brains finally to arrive at Dev. Yeah, geek origins but it had meaning to us. Dev (as in short for Developer) sounded like a good boys name; had it's origins in Sanskrit, it was unique and interesting and we liked the sound of it. Then came the process of finding a good middle name and again after some time, we liked Orion (as in the constellation).
We stared at the piece of paper with his name written out:
Dev
Orion
Simser
DOS
There it was, plain as day. Our son's initials would be DOS. We laughed and laughed and then came the afterthought. Well, if our son's initials are DOS, a daughter would have be an upgrade. And thus the name Vista was born.
Vista (the operating system) hadn't been released yet, but we looked at it on paper. Vista. I liked the sound of it. True, it was spawned from the name of Microsoft's next operating system but it was also a word seeded in the Italian language (from visto) meaning a sight. Well, a daughter who is a sight. That works for us. Besides, above all (other than the glares we'll get from geeks and this blog entry) Vista is a pretty name for a girl. As for the middle name, it was not driven by the fact that Avalon was the codename for Windows Presentation Foundation. Again we turned to unique names and needed something that fit. Something that sounded right to match Vista. Avalon being the paradise where Arthur was carried to after his death; Avalon the peninsula in Canada in Newfoundland; Avalon the Druidic site in Glastonbury, England. This just became the name we wanted for our daughter and it stuck.
There are two reactions we get from her name. Probably everyone reading this blog, is the first reaction. "You named your daughter after an operating system?". The other is "Oh that's such a pretty name". We can separate the nerds from the norms with the reaction.
Of course there are some advantages to being named after one of the most expensive operating systems in history (notice that I didn't say popular, good, or fast; let's not get into that holy war):
- Her blog will contain the largest number of search hits with people looking for information about Vista
- She has her very own carrying case (a laptop bag) and other personalized "logoware", most of which I can buy from the Microsoft store or any geek conference for the next 10 years
- She'll be the only one at her school with a service pack (or two, or three, ...) named after her
- If she's cute when she's older (and she will be) boys will make many crazy jokes about "starting her up" and "rebooting her" to which I will pummel them upside the head with an XPS laptop that I'll carry around to "interview" any potential suitors.
Bottom line, we think it's a pretty name and it's hers for life. We like it, and she's our daughter not yours so deal.
Not every entry into this world is perfect and there were complications. Needless to say, we were disappointed at the process (but not the result, not in the least). We had gone through obtaining a midwife. We're true believers of the natural way and were convinced having a midwife and a home birth was what we wanted. No drug induced delivery. No machines that go ping. No drip, drip, drip of some bag attached to the baby that's hooked up to a monitor. It was going to be natural, fun, and without stress.
The best laid plans.
As a result of a lot of factors (incompatible blood types between momma and poppa, go figure) it was difficult and we ended up doing everything we didn't want to happen. It was a hospital birth, we had machines that went ping, drugs were used to induce, an emergency C-Section was needed, etc. Like I said, the best laid plans.
Vista spent a week in the hospital, mostly for jaundice. However she seemed to enjoy her personal suntan studio as you can see below.
Everyone is home now. Mommy and Baby are doing great. Vista's two weeks old now and is thriving. This was a life changing experience for me. It will be long remembered, not only for the birth of my daughter; the changes we went through; and the journey ahead. I hope you've enjoyed the sharing of the experience and this is something that I'll someday show to her, so feel free to leave comments for her to read when she's old enough. So welcome Vista to the world as she'll be a big part of it.
Here's Vista's entire Flickr set which of course grows every day with new images.