November 17, 2009. Julia was born on a sunny Tuesday at 3:43 PM. She is a very punctual neonate as she emerged on her exact due date.

March '10: 14.5 pounds, 26 inches, more red curly hair but still primarily bald
January '10: 13 pounds, 25 inches
December '09: 10 pounds, 21 inches
November '09: Born 7 pounds 11 ounces. 19 inches long. red hair and blue eyes

11 months....Feeding the kitty is still one of her favorite things to do. She drags the bag out of the pantry and takes it to the cat when she sees him.

10 months....Julia is walking all over town now and climbing lots. She says mom, dad-dad, iddy (kitty), ni ni dada (night night dada), yum yum yum, and chchchczzzz (this means cheese, her favorite food)!

9 months...Trying to walk. The amazing first, tentative steps towards Dad. We also started biking. She loves her bike seat and doesn't even mind the helmet.

8 months...Enough teeth eat a little. Blueberries are a favorite, and plain yogurt, also toast with hummus...mango...strawberries. She doesn't like any of her food mushed up though (like 'baby food'), she likes bite size chunks she can pick up with her fingers.

6 months...the raise & launch manuever is perfected into a crawl this month. She started trying some fruits and veggies too.

The day after her 5 month birthday, Julia Sea got her first tooth! It's on the bottom side of her mouth. She also decided to get up on all fours and push herself backwards across the floor this week. She is still working on the forward motion.
She had a spectacular Easter at her Grandmother's house. She put her toes in the ocean for the first time and loved it. She has spent lots of quality time with her Aunts and Uncles lately. Auntie Mariah came for the weekend and the
two were inseparable. Aunt Amy and Uncle Taco took Julia to the Farmers Market the other day, and Uncle Mik took her to stir it up! She even gets to see her Great Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Jim when we go up to Jacksonville.
She likes practicing walking in her walker on the back deck after Dad comes home from work. She also talks to dad a lot...mostly saying bla bla bla and da da da.


At just a few month's...Julia has been on a boat ride, and is currently rolling over from back to front and front to back. Most of her time is spent on perfecting these manuvers. Our happy baby also smiles and laughs and holds her head up. She finished her weekly Itsy Bitsy Yoga classes and practices at home often.

The day before I went into labor I worked a short day in the downtown office with Zach. Tied up some loose ends, organized files. Was having some Braxton-Hicks contractions throughout the day. Had lunch at the Polish/Greek restaurant Zach. Then, went home and did my prenatal yoga dvd. I had tried to do yoga a few times a week throughout the pregnancy, plus lots of walks. Erika and I were up to 4 miles again right before I had Julia. That night, we were eating Boboli pizza and green beans when Zach asked me when I thought she would come. I said, “Maybe on her due date tomorrow. The due date is probably the least likely day she’d come, so doesn’t that then make it the most likely?"

My water broke in the middle of the night. I was having contractions, but just a few an hour so I tried to go back to sleep. That didn’t work so I got up and drank some coconut water and did some goddess squats to try to get labor going. Didn’t want to wake Zach up or call the Dr because according to the contractions, I was pretty far out and didn’t want to end up stuck in the hospital on their time line so I went back to bed. At 5am I got up and ate a banana and waited for Zach to wake up. I told him and he got excited, started downloading our play list onto the ipod. I called the midwife and she said if my water broke, we need to have a baby so come in to the hospital. They don’t like your water to be broken for more than 12 hours before delivery, but I really didn’t want to be induced, that’s why I’d been doing the goddess squats to try to get the baby on the move!

Zach and I take our time packing, my contractions pick up and are coming every 5-10 minutes, but I’m not very good at timing them and am more focused on moving the baby down through yoga moves. But while I’m in the shower, I decide maybe things are picking up and we should get a move on. So, I get out and we start throwing things in the car. The hospital calls to see where I am, they say Amy (midwife) was expecting me. On the way, Zach wants to drive fast, because he says this is the best excuse he’ll ever have. Walk upstairs and buzz the door. Tell them we’re here to check in. The lady laughs at me, sarcastically, like I don’t know what I’m talking about! Into the “check out” room. The first nurse, Sharon, hooks me up to the EFM. Zach and I explain that our goal is to do this naturally—drug free. She says that they strongly recommend epidurals. She is not very nice. She argues with all of our ideas. Then, thank goodness, a nurse named Norah comes in and we mention the same thing. She tells us, “Look, I had 2 of my kids at home, I understand what you’re trying to do and I’m going to help you.” YEAH! She is our woman now. She agrees that they will unhook the EFM after the mandatory 15 minutes of monitoring and then I can move around. Amy the midwife comes down and checks me. 2 cm, fully effaced, not too far. She’s optimistic though, says we won’t put a timeline on anything yet. I’m glad it’s her. It could have been any one of 3 midwives on call and she was my fav because she reminds me of my friend Cyndi. She says she’ll be back to check later.

It takes about 30 minutes for them to move me to a room and then monitor the heartbeat. After that, they unhook the machines and set me free. Zach and I walk the halls a little bit. Then I send him home with a short list, since everyone seems to think we’ve got lots of time, I tell him to get some movies and the ginger candies and some more coconut water. I do some yoga moves on the floor while he’s gone. Lots of breathing and goddess squats, frog style pose, cat and dog tilts, and even downward dog. By the time he’s back the pain is worse. We walk some more back and forth, up and down the halls. I’m having to stop for contractions now. After a few laps, we head back into the room. He’s reminding me not to tense up and furrow my brow when they come, but they are bad enough now that I have to tune everything out and focus when they do come. I do more yoga, but have to go into child’s pose for the contractions and I’m moaning and wondering how they could get much worse. They seem to be coming fast now, but when they hook me up, it’s hard for them to see the contractions because the belt monitors a tightening of the tummy and my tummy is already pretty tight, or so Norma says. She wants me to eat a popsicle, but it tastes awful—like pure corn syrup. She tells Zach he should go get me honey packets from the cafeteria, she likes the way the baby’s heart rate is responding to the sugar. I’m strapped in for monitoring and the contractions are pretty unbearable when you have to lie still. Zach asks if she thinks we’re close and Norma says no—after all, we’ve only been there a few hours. He says he’ll go get honey in the café and if they don’t have it, he’ll run across the street to Diane’s natural food market. Ok, I am so focused on getting through the contractions I don’t pay much attention. He walks out and I have a huge contraction.

I tell Norma I have to get up, I have to go to the bathroom, it feels like something is coming out! It’s just the two of us in the room; she moves me and goes to check. Then, it’s like a scene from a movie, she’s throwing off her glove, telling me, “Call Zach, DON’T PUSH, I need to get the midwife down here, this baby is here!” I’m calling Zach but, like a good guy, he’s turned his ringer off so it won’t drive us crazy. They have to page him on the intercom. Amy comes in, checks and says, "It’s TIME!" Zach comes in, meets Amy, it’s on! Amy is sitting on the foot of my bed, telling us how it’s going to go. She puts her arms out and tells me to do the same and grasp hers, it’s like tug-of-war. Zach is by my right shoulder holding my hand. Nurse Norma and the mean Sharon are each holding a foot. My legs are splayed, knees open, kind of like Supta Baddha Konasana pose—legs bent out to the sides—only my feet are apart. Sharon tells me I should start pushing, but Amy says no, wait until I feel the spontaneous urge on the next contraction. So I do, and it feels good to push, to work with it when it comes. Amy and I lock arms and pull on each other when a push comes. This feels good and everyone keeps telling me it’s working, “Good Job Grace, you’re doing it,” Zach is saying. Everyone is encouraging. It feels good, like we’re all old friends. It hurts though. Zach has a wet washcloth on my neck, I ask for them to wet it again and instead Amy takes it and swings it around like a lasso to cool it off. She gives it back to Zach and he puts it on my neck, it is my only pain relief. He is holding my shoulders up and telling me to curl in instead of back, like Carrie taught us in our child birth classes. They are calling to Julia now, telling her to come on out. I think I pushed for about an hour, but it flew by. I loved the resting time in between pushes—I truly went into Savasana each break, immediately—even if only for a moment as the breaks got shorter. Okay, now they are telling me that it’s time…she’s here! Amy says I need to let go of her and grip the handles on the sides of the bed instead so that she can “catch the baby.” Do I want to feel the head? Zach looks. No, I say, then Yes! I reach down…it’s only a little bit of skin I feel, and it feels wrinkly. “I’m scared!” I say, and they all say, “of course you are!” But they assure me that I’m doing great and everything’s okay. I’m afraid, but I know I need to do my job, push her out…Julia did her part, helping me, she moved all the way down there, now it’s my turn to work hard. They tell me that when she comes out they will put her on my chest, so Zach helps me pull my hospital gown over my head so that we can be skin to skin with no obstructions.

Amy tells me to try to continue bearing down between the contractions. So, I do. I am gripping the sides of the bed so hard. Zach is holding me up. Amy tells me I just need to do it. Push! So I am. Zach tells me “This is it Grace, this is going to be the one, the head is going to come out.” I think Amy said that too, but when Zach said it, I knew he was right. And he was! I felt her explode out of me. Immediately prior to that, Amy had told me I should pause after the head comes out, so she could check to be sure the cord wasn’t around her neck, so I do I pause and I feel relief and joy and then she says I can push the rest of her out. It is a smaller push, a milder push and a longer, milder exiting of her little dolphin body as I feel her slide out of me. Then, the noises—cries? Zach has moved down to her, they are lifting her up to me. (I feel a rush of warmth on my side as they put her on my chest, pee? I don’t realize until later but I think it was.) I am beside myself in wonder as is Zach, I can tell when we lock eyes. He cuts the cord, I see out of the corner of my eye because I am immersed in this creature before me. I feel like I know her, have known her for so long. Her little face, so red and crying, and beautiful. She’s pink-hot pink and the umbilical cord is blue. I am trying to collect her flailing limbs in my arms. Showing her my breast for when she is ready. Loving her and telling her so. I look up at Zach. I keep saying “she’s perfect, you’re perfect, she’s so tiny.” Zach tells me she’s not that tiny, really she wasn’t. It’s like a picture frame where my vision is limited to her body and Zach’s face when I look up. I am filled with awe. Julia has vernix, the creamy white substance on her. She smells wonderful. Nurse Norma’s arm reaches into my picture frame with a snot sucker, she is putting it in Julia’s nose and I am pushing her away. She wants to clear her but it is making her cry and I stop her. Then, Amy tells me it is time to deliver the placenta. They put pitocin in my IV, but at this point, I could care less what they are giving me because I have my prize and I had her naturally. I push out the placenta when she tells me to, Julia still on my chest. I ask to see it and it is giant and red and Zach says it looks good. It’s cool looking, like a jellyfish. I want to keep it, keep every minute of this experience. Freeze it. I love it. Julia is still on my chest. The three of us, for maybe an hour. I love it, Julia finally starts to nurse. They ask about taking her away for a bath and feeding but Zach insists that they bring the “bathing” cart and scale into the room. The nurse is pushy and says if we want to do it in the room it has to be right now, even though she was just learning to eat…so they take her off my chest and Zach goes over to the cart with her. It is only steps from my bed, and I am happy that Zach is with her. He keeps his hand on her belly while they wash her off. Pink Floyd is playing on the ipod, and it keeps her calm. This is the beginning of our dream!