Pittsfield Couple Has First 2014 Baby at North Adams Hospital
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Jaclyn Sacco and Craig Goetze are the proud parents of Vivienne Rey Goetze, the first baby of 2014 born in North County. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Every newborn is precious, particularly to the parents, but only one has the distinction of being the first baby born at North Adams Regional Hospital in 2014.
Vivienne Rey Goetze arrived on Friday, Jan. 3 at 9:15 a.m. The dark-haired darling weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces and measured 20 inches long.
"I was happy to meet her," said her mother, Jaclyn Sacco, speaking by phone on Saturday from her room at the hospital's birthing center. "We were both lazy yesterday, but we picked up today."
"I am thrilled," Craig Goetze, her father, said. "Now we have two girls."
Charlotte, the affianced couple's 21-month-old daughter, had already visited her baby sister in the hospital. "She was so excited when she saw the baby," Sacco said. "She held her in her arms and gave her kisses."
Vivienne was the second baby born in Berkshire County this year; Isaiah Brian Markham arrived a day earlier, on Jan. 2, at 1:19 a.m. at Berkshire Medical Center, son of Christopher and Kayla Markham of Pittsfield.
Delivered by a planned Caesarean section, Vivienne Rey spared her parents the stress of not knowing when they would need to rush to the hospital.
"My due date was Jan. 10 and the doctor scheduled the Caesarean section for early morning Jan. 3. You can't eat before [the surgery] so they try to do it early in the day," Sacco said. "I didn't give any thought to whether my baby would be the first one born at North Adams Hospital in the new year, but on Dec. 31, the doctor said there was a strong possibility that it would happen."
Both of the couple's children have been born during periods the Berkshires were experiencing extreme weather conditions.
"There was a heat wave in March of 2012 when Charlotte was born. It was 80 degrees that day," Sacco recalled.
And on Jan. 3, the Berkshires were buried in snow from a major storm that threatened to become a blizzard, and temperature plummeted to minus-14.
"It was only flurrying when we left for the hospital at 5:30 that morning, but the roads were bad," Goetze said. "The snow had caked."
Fortunately, he was able to navigate the roads without incident, and soon the family of four will be together in their home in Pittsfield.
Sacco explained they had chosen North Adams Regional hospital over closer Berkshire Medical Center because it was smaller and more intimate.
"I heard so much about how good the [birthing department] is at North Adams that we decided to come here," Sacco said. She was not disappointed. "They are lower pace here. It's more homey. The doctors are very attentive, they are taking good care of us."
Nonetheless, she is looking forward to leaving the hospital.
"If all goes well, we will be going home on Monday or Tuesday," she said, as the newest addition to the family slept contentedly in a bassinet. "I'm excited to hold Vivienne Rey in my arms outside the hospital."
Tags: baby, NARH, new year,
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