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Persistence of a Newborn

November 4, 2011 by George 14 Comments

“Oh, looka there.”

These were the words of a nurse at about 5:31 on Thursday, October 27. My wife Katherine had just delivered our daughter, Ella Aminah, 11 minutes before. She had just been taken to the warming table, and I had done what every parent has done for millenia, counted fingers and toes (for my family this is actually important; my daughter Naomi was born with 6 fingers on each hand), looked for anything that would show there was something we should be concerned with. No, Ella was perfect from the tips of her really long fingers, her very pointed toes, to the top of her squalling but otherwise healthy head.

“Oh, looka there.”

I was recording these moments in the room as they took her to the warming table, proud of my wife for enduring three days and two nights of induction, poking and prodding constant nurse visits in the middle of the night, the seemingly harmless but painful struggle to find a vein for her IV the first night we were there, the very necessary and helpful but painful epidural process. The doctor was doing what he needed to do for her post delivery. I was recording my daughter’s first breaths and movements outside the womb.

The nurse saw what none of us had seen immediately after delivery, what couldn’t be seen without special equipment and a bit of previous knowledge, and often can’t be known unless there is a terrible moment during pregnancy. She saw what is known as a “true knot” in Ella’s umbilical cord.Ella's umblical cord You can see the knot in the picture just above her left hand. The website associated with the ubiquitous pregnancy book “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” has this to say about umbilical cord knots:

What it is: A cord knot is exactly what the term sounds like — a knot in the baby’s umbilical cord. Some knots form during pregnancy as the baby flips and turns in his or her amniotic sac; other knots form during delivery.
 
How common is it?  Umbilical cord knots occur in about one in every hundred pregnancies, but only one in 2,000 deliveries will have a true tight knot that could present problems for the baby. (More common than knots are nuchal loops, the technical term for when the cord wraps around a baby’s neck. Nuchal loops — also known as nuchal cords — occur in as many as a quarter of all pregnancies but rarely pose risks to the baby).
 
Who is most at risk? Babies with long cords and those who are large-for-gestational age are at greater risk for developing true knots. Researchers also speculate that nutritional deficiencies that affect the structure and protective barrier of the cord, or other risk factors such as smoking or drug use, carrying multiples, or having hydramnios may make a woman more prone to having a pregnancy with a cord knot.

Katherine doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t use drugs, never has had a multiple pregnancy. When we asked the doctors and nurses that day what might have caused it, the repsonse was simple: “Swimming.” That is, Ella did a lot of moving around early in pregnancy and caused the loop that eventually became a knot. And she was big: at the 39 week mark when she was delivered, Ella clocked in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces.

Cutting to the chase, here’s what you can do:

What you can do: There is nothing you can do to prevent a knotted umbilical cord.

I’ll spare the descriptions of what can happen in the case of a tight true knot.

Katherine and I have talked about this only briefly, because the alternative was far too terrible. She had only seen it from the distance of the birthing bed to the warming table that day until I showed her the picture above, when she was finally ready to see it. She said “Wow. I do believe that should be one for the baby book – from day 1 a persistent, strong little soul.”

This always reminds me of how close to the razor’s edge every single birth of a child really is. It was not that long ago (1950) that 30 of every 1,000 births in this country ended in the worst way possible (currenly, just over 7 end this way in the US. That still only ranks us 34th in the world, well behind Japan, Spain, France, the U.K., and many others). Right now in Afghanistan, the birth mortality rate is an appalling 143 per 1,000. Maternal mortality in the US is 11 per 100,000 live births. Much smaller, but still sobering.

Our sleep deprived nights for the next few months are well underway. Ella is into the “reflex smile” stage, when she smiles withoutMe and Ella the day she came home context, and many times when she is still asleep. Her brothers and sisters have all held her, felt her squirm when she gets hunger or is in the process of excercising that brand new digestive system. Wallace, our Rhodesian Ridgeback, is getting over the nervousness of having a new baby in the house, but still comes quickly to see what’s going on when she cries. And as I hold her, this my third daughter, I still am amazed at her persistent, strong little soul. Even when that soul decides it’s time to poop again when I JUST CHANGED THAT diaper.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the voice artists, Twitter followers, and great people and friends who sent Ella a wonderful stuffed animal and Amazon gift cards. They are:

Erica Risberg, Mike Wong, Derek Chappell, Liz De Nesnera, Fran McLellan, Lisa Rice, Natalie Cooper, Emma Gable, Dave Courvoisier, Hélène Janover , Karen Souer, Bob Souer, Tim Keenan, Anne Ganguzza, Xe Sands, Gini Martinez, Pamela Vanderway, Bob Ball, and Lauren McCullough. Thank you everyone for your unbelieveable kindness and thoughfulness.

She is our gift, our persistent soul, and we’re glad to have her.

Filed Under: Random Thoughts, Voice Artists Tagged With: baby, birth, Ella, thanks, umbilical cord

Power of Human Voice – Hi, Ella

June 27, 2011 by George 1 Comment

Ella in ultrasound at 20 weeksHi, Ella.

It’s your daddy. I’m that low rumbly sound you hear talking to you through you mommy’s belly. I try to talk to you every day, so you know what I sound like when you make your big arrival in October. I know, it will be different when my voice comes through air instead of skin and fluid. But I want you to hear me and know me.

Did you know your mommy sings? You found out just how good she is a couple of weeks ago, when she sang “Quando me’n vo’” from La boheme and “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess when her friend Keri was here and played for us. Mommy sings MUCH higher than Daddy does, and wow, she can hold a note for a long time! I sang “I Got Plenty of Nuthin’,” but you probably didn’t hear it quite as well as you did your Mommy.

One of the coolest things you do now is when I talk or sing to you, Mommy tells me that that you pat inside her when you hear and feel the low frequencies. So I know you can hear me…and you probably can feel me. Until you are big enough to see when you move, it’s nice to know that you are responding by Mommy pointing to where she can feel you move. Oh, did you know all your brothers and sisters sing too? Jordan, Grace, Logan, Naomi and Sean all sing in one thing or another. They all love music…big brother Jordan, you almost never see without a headphone in his ear. All the others have been in musicals, choirs, everything…using their voices with music to communicate, entertain, and have fun.

Daddy sings, but he also talks a LOT! People ask him to talk like an announcer, like their best friend, like someone they have never met…like all kinds of things. Just this past week, I had to sound like a guy who needed to go to the hospital, needed to take his wife to the hospital, talk about a sad moment in North Carolina history, and give people options for going to college. I love doing that, and I can’t wait to do the same for you, when I get to read stories about saying good night to the moon, or that Velveteen Rabbit, or any of the hundreds of books you will get to grip and mouth and watch and listen to and eventually read yourself.

Ella, did you know who you are named for? Your name comes from someone people think is the greatest jazz singer of all time, and one of Mommy’s favorite artists, Ella Fitzgerald (we’re still working on a middle name). She was incredible, and she could scat sing better than just about anyone. When you get older, we will show you this video of her scatting to “One Note Samba.”

You know, you will do something like this as you learn to talk, making up syllables that make no sense to anyone but you. And we will love every minute of it. I keep talking about singing and talking. Ella, there is no pressure on you to be a singer. You go ahead and be a teacher, or a scientist, or a basketball player or anything you want to be. We love you so much already. I just wanted to tell you that, Ella.

We love you, and we can’t wait to see and hear you. Looking forward to meeting you in October, baby girl.

Filed Under: Power of Human Voice, Random Thoughts Tagged With: baby, Ella Fitzgerald, family, frequency, music, pregnancy, singing, voice

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