When our baby was born she was put right on my chest. We waited to clamp the cord until it had stopped pulsing so that she could get all of that excellent cord blood.
When it came time for Amos to cut the cord, the doctor mentioned that it may take several cuts to cut through, because cords are so dense. However, when Amos cut it, it cut with one snip, which indicated something was a little off. Then it was time for me to deliver the placenta. Dr. Stell told me that I would feel some pressure and then some relief. But the placenta wouldn't deliver and Dr. Stell had to manually deliver it (I won't go into details, but lets just say, both hands were involved....). When she did she said, "Wow, the cord was attached to your membranes." Apparently, what happened was that I had what is called a velamentous cord insertion (VCI). This happens in about 1% of singleton pregnancies and is a bit more common with multiples. Normally, the umbilical cord inserts into the middle of the placenta as it develops. In velamentous cord insertion, the umbilical cord inserts into the fetal membranes, then travels within the membranes to the placenta. The exposed vessels are not protected by Wharton's jelly (a protectant and insulator) and are therefore vulnerable to rupture in early labor. We are very lucky that this did not happen, as the outcome could have been unspeakably terrible. because of the VCI, the baby was not getting enough nutrients, which explained her low birth weight and slightly early arrival. Susan later said that she took one look at the placenta and knew that this baby was a survivor. She knew she needed to get out into the big ol' world where she could fatten up and grow big and healthy. And what a debut it was!
I held her on my chest for several hours and she nursed right away (or as Amos' mom Bet called it, she "climbed Milk Mountain"). She was so tiny and sweet and Amos and I were in awe of her perfection.
As I held her, Amos said, "Katy, I think she's a June Apple." Yes. Yes she is. And the placenta? Well its name is Calamity.
Amos holds our daughter for the first time.
Dear June Apple,
Papa and I are so very, very blessed to finally be able to hold you and look into your big, beautiful eyes. They are bluish gray now, and time will tell what color they will turn out to be. You have gorgeous long fingers and feet that remind me of candy and I want to eat them. Your hair is dark and you have so much of it! It feels like satin and your hands feel like feathers. Your skin is so soft and I like to nuzzle my face in the sweetness of your neck. Who knew that such a little being could create a space for such big, big love?
You are a miracle and Papa and I love you very, very much.
Love,
Mama
All I can say is that Angela's food puts me in the hospital every time. Okay, maybe not every time, but the last two times. The first time was when I went to her house and ate quiche and fried Oreos (yum) and then later that night ended up with a placental abruption (or so they think...). The next time I was at her house, I ate meat loaf, cottage cheese and orange juice. And then, I went into labor. Something about that girl's cooking....
Okay, so here's the how it all went down:
Earlier in the week I went to see my midwife, Beth, to have a non-stress test to make sure the baby was doing well and check her growth. Everything looked good, and Beth told me to expect a tiny, but healthy baby. She said that she thought the baby would weigh between 5 and 6 pounds and that I should buy preemie clothes. I resisted this, because we have so many clothes already and the newborn clothes look so so tiny. Friends said their 5-6 pound babies fit in newborn sizes, which fueled my resistance. But, on my way to Angela's house, on Friday, January 14th, I stopped by Walmart (yuck) because I had a gift certificate and needed a changing pad for the nursery (and then it would be near complete!). While at the Hell on Earth that is Walmart, I saw a preemie sleeper and I bought it. What the hell, it was 5 bucks. I then showed up at Angela's and announced, " Well, I bought a changing pad and a preemie outfit. I can now officially have the baby!" Famous last words.
Around 1:30 am, I was lying in bed with Amos and he was tickling me. He does that. I am VERY ticklish and it drives me crazy. Which is why he does it. Anyhoo, I had just gotten up to go to the bathroom and returned to bed when he started to tickle me. I told him, "Please stop, because I am going to have to pee again." He tickled me again. " Great. Now I have to pee." I got up and started to literally pee my pants. Or so I thought. I waddled to the bathroom, embarrassed by my total lack of bladder control. But then it felt different. I thought, could this be my water breaking? I had just met with Susan, out doula, that day, and asked her how often women's water breaks before they go into labor. She said not very often. So needless to say, I thought maybe I had just peed my pants and if so, that is gross. I went back to bed and told, a now falling asleep Amos, "Either my water just broke or I have completely lost all bladder control." He said, half-asleep, "Just don't get any placenta on the floor." And then he fell asleep.
And then I started to have contractions. Okay. Here we go. I laid down in bed and Juliette jumped up and curled up on top of my belly. She NEVER does this. I continued to have contractions every few minutes, not too strong, for about an hour and Juliette purred contently on my belly the whole time.
Finally, around 2:30, I decided to call Susan and let her know what was happening. By the way, I had yet to wake Amos up, as I thought, well, if I am in labor, he might as well get as much rest as possible because this is going to be a long haul. My midwife told me to expect a labor similar to my mom's, which was 36 hours long. So I prepared for the long stretch. I called Susan. "I think my water broke." "You probably just peed your pants." "Oh, okay, that what I thought." "Go back to bed and try and get some sleep." Well, I'm having contractions." "Oh. Well, you should still try and get as much rest as possible. Call me in the morning, or if your contractions get longer, stronger and closer together."
So I tried to lie down for a little bit, but then decided I should probably start packing my bag for the hospital. I did that for a little while and then lay down on the couch. Contractions started to get stronger and I found myself obsessively reading the paper that Susan had given me titled, "When to call your doula. When not to call your doula, and go straight to the hospital." I took a shower. I lay down. I walked around. I lay down.
At around 4:30am, I started to get anxious because I didn't feel her moving. A decrease in fetal movement was one of the reasons listed under "When not to call your doula and go straight to the hospital." I called Susan. She told me that sometimes in labor, babies get really quiet, as they need to conserve their energy for birth. She told me to drink a soda and lie down and see if that got her moving. She told me to try and rest as much as possible, to conserve my energy. The only soda we had in the fridge was a strawberry Jarrittos, a Mexican soda leftover from our Dia De Los Meurtos party in October. I drank it and lay down. I didn't notice a change, but the contractions were getting more intense, so I decided that everything was okay and that I would just try and focus on relaxing, as much as possible. My contractions were every 2-3 minutes and my method of pain management was to moan though them. Miraculously, I did manage to rest, pretty deeply, in between them. At around 7 am, I decided that I wanted to be in our bed, instead of on the couch. I went into our room and gently woke Amos. "Amos, I am in labor. If you want to keep sleeping, I would suggest that you move to couch, because I may make some noise when I have a contraction." Then I had a contraction. "Shhhhh, "Amos said, half asleep. "Stop being so dramatic."
Now, when I have told this story to others, they gasp at this point and make some remark about how I must have wanted to kill him. No. In fact, upon hearing this, in the middle of my contraction, I burst out laughing. Which was wonderful. I'm guessing he didn't realize fully what was happening, as it was 7 in the morning, he had been out honky tonking the night before and he was still half-asleep. By my next contraction, I think it started to sink in a bit more. His friend Chuck called around 7:30 to see if Amos was ready to go hunting. As I was moaning loudly in the background, Amos said to Chuck, "Uh, I think Katy is going to have the baby soon, and she would probably kill me if I went hunting." Good call.
Susan had told me to call he when the pain got to be more than I could manage by myself. At about 8 am, I told Amos to call her. He said, "Why don't you wait 15 more minutes?" Okay.....5 minutes went by. Amos called Susan and told I thought it was time for her to come over. I told Amos to call our parents.
Now, Susan and I had just gone over my birth plan the day before, and my plan was to labor at home as long as possible. I had asked her, as a part of the plan, when she thought would be a good time to go to the hospital. She said when I was 6 or 7 centimeters dilated. She said she would now this by how I acted. Not knowing what she meant, I went with it. This is why we hired her. I wanted to be at home as long as possible, so I could avoid all the interventions and rules that come in to play as soon as you walk into the hospital. I wanted to be able to get up and move around and not be hooked up to anything and eat, drink, dance whenever I felt like it. For the record, I did not eat, drink, or dance, but I could have if I wanted to. But I didn't.
Susan got to the house around 9am and I was in the living room sitting on a yoga ball, with my grandmother's quilt wrapped around my shoulders and Rosco standing guard.
Susan sat on the floor next to me. Afterward, she would say that every time I had a contraction, my left hip would lift up off the ball, and she thought that maybe the baby was bearing down in an awkward position. She asked me if I thought I might be more comfortable if I moved to the couch. She thought this might change the position of the baby, but she didn't mention any of this to me, she just posed it to me as if it might make things more comfortable. I guess she didn't want to worry me unnecessarily. I moved to the couch and lay down. As soon as I did, shit got INTENSE. Whoa. Serious pain. I thought to myself, If I have 24 more hours of this, I will never be able to do it without an epidural. I had told both Amos and Susan, and had written it in my birth plan, that I did not want to be offered any sort of pain medication. We had all agreed that an epidural would only be discussed if I had been in labor for something crazy, like 43 hours, and I was really suffering. At this point I had only been in labor for 8 hours, and it was starting to really be painful. How was I going to do this? Susan would later tell me that as soon as I moved to couch, I transitioned into hard labor. I didn't know this. I thought I had a day to go. I had, of course, never done this before.
Susan asked if I was starting to feel any pressure. I said, "I guess so." Truthfully, it was kind of hard to tell, it was all so intense. Again, I had never done this before, what the hell do I know? Then Susan said,"'I think we should probably go to the hospital soon." Oh, good, that means I must only have 5 or 6 more hours of labor. I can do that.
Amos ate a big breakfast and offered me some food. No food for me, thanks. He finished packing the bag. I had this list in one of my pregnancy books of what to bring to the hospital. Amos was going off of that. He would look at the list as say, "Okay, shampoo." And then go and get the shampoo and put it in the bag. He'd then come back, pick up the book again, "Okay, deodorant." Then he would go back to the bathroom and find the deodorant. Not the most efficient packer under fire. But charming. The bag got packed. "Katy," Amos called, "Do you know where my black sweatshirt is?" "Sorry, sweetie. My uterine homing device is a little busy right now, you'll have to find it yourself." The sweatshirt (aptly printed with "Spawn Till You Die) was found. He told me he packed me several books and Scrabble. Susan told him she didn't think we would be playing any Scrabble.
Susan called the hospital to let them know we were coming and that we wanted a room with a big tub. Finally, I was going to get to take my first bath of my pregnancy! Yay! (Foreshadowing...I never got that bath) We got into our cars. We started toward the hospital and I thought I forgot my purse. Amos went back to the house. I hadn't forgotten my purse, it was in the bag. We started off again towards the hospital. At this point my contractions were so intense I was lifting off the seat and screaming like a Neanderthal (I actually don't know if Neanderthals screamed like this, but trust me, it was some primal shit.)
Thankfully, the hospital is only 8 minutes from our house, so we got there fairly quickly. Amos dropped me off at the emergency room entrance and parked the car. Susan took me up to Labor and Delivery while Amos registered me. When I got up to the L and D floor, I was wheeled into a room and I got up onto the bed. The nurse told me she was going to check to see how far along I was. When she did, she looked at me and said, "Okay, your baby's head is right here. The doctor is delivering another baby, so if you feel the need to push-don't." WHAT?! I thought I had 5 or 6 more hours! Where was Beth, my midwife? She was still at home, in her jammies- not going to get there in time. I had a contraction and felt the need to push, and just had to breathe through it.
Amos came in to the room and said, "Oh no, I forgot the birthing ball." Susan put her hand on his shoulder and said, "We aren't going to need the birthing ball. She's going to have this baby now." Amos' eyes got really big and he turned and walked to the opposite corner of the room. His back was to me and for a minute I thought he was using his cell phone, but then I realized his head was in his hands. He turned around and came right next to me. He was crying. For the record, not crying like he did at the wedding. No hysterical sobbing. Just tears. This was happening. Now.
Dr. Stell, a lovely doctor I had met when I was on the hospital in December came in the room. Amos asked her if he could catch the baby. She told him he could, if there was time. Another contraction. This time I pushed. As I was pushing, I thought, Oh God, I am not pushing the baby out, but I am about to poop on this table. I don't want to poop on the table! That would be too embarrassing! I thought about stopping. I tried to mentally rewire my pushing energy. Then I thought, Fuck it. I need to just push this baby out, poop or no poop. I pushed again and out she came in one fell swoop. No time for Amos to catch her. Dr. Stell put her on my chest. "Oh, Baby. Oh, Baby. Oh, Baby." I said over and over again. She was here! She didn't cry, she just kind of squeaked. 9 1/2 hours of labor, arriving at the hospital at 10:50am and giving birth at 11:11am. She was perfect and tiny and perfect. And she had so much hair! It was so dark! She was perfect. And AWESOME.
June Apple Hopkins, born on January 15, 2011 at 11:11 am. She weighed 4 pounds, 12 1/2 ounces and was 18 1/2 inches long. AWESOME.
AWESOME.
This past weekend, I spent four glorious days with some of my favorite women. I drove up to Cincinnati for, yet another (I know its ridiculous) baby shower, which was primarily attended by women who I have known my entire life. Included in the bunch were my mom and mom-in-law, my cousins, Gina and Emma, and aunts, Joanne and Janet from DC, my grandma Marianne- also from DC, my grandma Rita, my aunt Kim, my cousin April, my quarter sister Lynn (we share a half brother), my soul sister Willow, along with one of my soul mamas Ruth, my friend, Clara, who so lovingly helped throw the shower along with my Mom, my friend Erin and her darling sweet 7 month-old daughter, Anodyne (a preview of whats to come!), as well as many other fantabulous women whom have all had a GREAT impact on my life and evolution as a girl, daughter, friend, soon-to- be mother, and woman.
The long weekend was spent with my DC women, preparing for the shower and talking about the womanly arts of pregnancy, birth and motherhood. I felt so enveloped by love and affection and renewed by the strength of their wisdom and humor. I am so lucky to have been blessed to have spent a life surrounded by such powerful, wonderful women, who continue to effect my life in such deep ways. I cannot wait to include my daughter into this loving family fold. My hope is that her life will also include such a wide community of strong, amazing women. Part of my duty as a mother, I believe, will be in insuring this.
Here are a few pics from the weekend:
Grandma Marianne, Mom, Janet, Gina, Emma, Me
Showered, again, with cuteness!
Clara and I
Mom, Gina, Emma and I
I am also grateful to Amos, for agreeing to let me drive up to Cincinnati for the weekend. He has been (understandably so) concerned that I could go into labor at any time, as I get closer to my due date, and in light of recent complications. Not wanting me to have the baby while in Cincinnati (again, understandably), he was hestitant to have me gone for so long. After promising not to have her while I was away (thankfully I was able to keep this promise), he felt okay about me going, as he knew how important the weekend was to me. I have been so filled with love for him these past months, as he continues to show what an amazing partner he is, full of care, concern, and the right amount of good humor to keep things real. I'm one lucky mama!
Clearly the high protein/high calorie diet is going to good use, cause this belly (as well as the rest of me) is poppin! We went back to see our midwife yesterday and, according to the ultrasound, Awesome has gained about 12 ounces in the past two weeks and looks great. She is still in the 10th percentile for her weight, but seems to be perfect in every way. Beth, our midwife said to just plan for a smaller baby, guessing that she will weigh, somewhere between 5 and 6 pounds if I carry her to 40 weeks (here's hoping!). So I guess I need to go out and pic up a few preemie outfits, as Beth thought she would drown in newborn sizes. Of course, the ultrasound could be wrong and she could be 7 pounds, so guess we'll just have to wait and see. But, the high calorie/high protein diet must continue, so that we both can pack on the pounds and beef this baby up!
The proof is in the pudding (and milkshakes) in this pic for week 36:
Dear Little Bear,
Did you enjoy all the love and affection you received over the weekend? There were so many loving hands on my belly who are excited to hold you!
You have been moving a lot, as usual, and this week have started getting the hiccups late at night. I had the hiccups a lot when I was in my mama's belly. I hope they don't annoy you too much. I think they are pretty darn cute!
Papa and I got to see you again yesterday on the ultrasound. As soon as your face came in to view you stuck your tongue out at us! I hope that this display of behavior is an indication of your silliness to come, because Papa and I are huge endorsers of silliness. Your cheeks looked chubbier this week and your face is really starting to look like a baby's (before, sorry to say it, you kind of resembled an alien). I promise not to pinch those cheeks (or let others) too much, because that is really annoying.
This past week we were showered with so many wonderful gifts and I am finally starting to feel like we may just be "ready" for you. We even got a Little Bear suit, that you will look so cute in once you are big enough. I think if we put you in it when you are born it may look like a bear is swallowing you, and we don't want that!
Papa and I anticipate your familiarity and are eager for your newness.
Papa and I love you very much.
Love,
Mama
Well its been a week filled with ice cream, cupcakes, milk, burgers and pizza. MMMMmmm. It would all be enjoyable if I didn't feel positively STUFFED all the time. I literally feel full from the time I wake up, until the time I go to bed. I think I am going to have to start setting a timer to remind myself to eat every two hours, because I never actually feel hungry. Awesome is pressed so far up into my ribcage, smooshing my stomach with her, that I barely have room for string cheese, let alone a burger! But alas, whatever it takes to get this girl chubby! We will find out at next week's ultrasound whether or not she continues to fatten up. Hopefully all is gravy (fatty, fatty gravy) and she will be well on her way to beefiness. In the meantime, bring on the food!
I went up to Cincinnati to celebrate with some great women (as well as two of my dear guy friends, Jacob, age 30 and Finley, age 10 1/2 months) at a baby shower thrown by one of my nearest and dearest friends, Britt, and her mom, Chris. It was fantastic to be surrounded by so many friends I have know since middle school (and their mama's)! We had a lot of fun and I was so touched by all the good advice, gifts, and love I received. Here are a few pics from the party:
Month 8 began in week 33, but since I was in the hospital, I didn't get to put an update on where Awesome is in her development. According to thebump.com, she is about the size of a honeydew melon (albeit a small one, according to the ultrasound):
Awesome’s senses are continuing to improve -- when light peeks in through my (extremely) stretched belly, those tiny eyelids and irises blink and dilate. In fact, at a recent ultrasound, she winked at us! And, Awesome can now recognize and react to simple songs… time to start practicing my lullabies! Growth (at least inside my womb) is starting to slow, and Awesome will have descended into my pelvis by the end of this month. She is definitely hanging down low (head down!), as my bladder can attest! My belly button is well on its way to popping and I think, as does Amos, that I've really popped this week that. Here's a pic from week 35:
This past weekend, my good friend, Ashlee offered to take some maternity shots of me. Amos wasn't feeling well, so he didn't brave the cold with me, but here are a couple shots from the photo shoot. I think they turned out great.
*Note the sign on the door of Spinelli's right next to me. I think I will take that advice!
My dad came down to help Amos get the nursery together. They connected the heat into the room, built high shelves for more storage and are laying down carpet. I am so excited to finally be getting the room together. I have been busy working on Awesome's baby quilt and am really liking how its coming along. I have been collecting fabric for it since before I was pregnant, and I love it, so far. I can't wait for the room to be finished and to have a sweet little one living in it! Here is a before shot of the room. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I can post the after shot!
Dear Little Bear,
Well we have all switched to full force throttle, preparing for your arrival! I really hope you like your room. We are filling it with lots and lots of color, because, as Papa always says, life is too short not to have color in it. You, my dear, are bound to bring A LOT of color into our lives!
We met with our doula, Susan, today, who is going to help us when I am in labor with you. I hope that everything goes well and your transition into this crazy world is a great one. Meeting with Susan made your arrival feel all the more real and before we know it, you'll be here! We are so excited to meet you!
Papa and I love you very much.
Love,
Mama
