Dear Friends and Family,
Arden Zola Sterling, calling name Zola, arrived today quite unexpectedly on her due date, Jan. 28, at 10 minutes past 3 p.m. local time in Amsterdam.
She's obviously a young woman in a hurry, since she was born less than a half hour after Hinke and I arrived at the hospital. Full details of the thrilling and fast-paced but otherwise relatively smooth birth will follow. Mother and child are doing fine.
Those of you keeping notes will recall that her big brother Zephyr was born at 10 minutes before 1 p.m. on his due date, March 16. Zola was 3.175 kg to Zephyr's 3.120 kg (7 pounds, 0 ounces vs. 6 pounds, 14 ounces); say what you will about Hinke as an incubator, she's nothing if not consistent.
First impressions of Zola: like Zephyr, she is so far a relatively calm baby; and of course she looks quite a bit like her brother did (as do all babies I suppose).
However, Zola appears to have darker hair and darker (blue) eyes than Zephyr did. Her face is rounder. Her cry is louder. Her nose is smushed off to one side a little bit, though of course that will straighten out somewhat in the coming days. Ten fingers, for those who might wonder, and ten toes.
We love her!
Take a moment to see the pictures Hinke's Dad Lambert snapped after our glorious return:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lambertvangils/ZolaArden?authkey=MB0a-5rDFMY
And now the birth tale:
Hinke woke up this morning with a feeling of cramps in her stomach, so we thought this might be the day. I went to work as normal, but she gave me a call at around 1 p.m. saying she was having contractions.
Having learned from previous experience that Hinke means what she says in re: contractions, I promptly came home from work, and decided to skip going to the store as we had idly discussed I might do.
In retrospect, I'm pretty damn thankful I didn't. When I got home, Hinke was really moaning, so we called a taxi, checked our arrangements for Zeph, and took off for the hospital.
I don't think the driver was too happy when Hinke screamed that her water had broken in his new Mercedes, but hey, what can you do?
Once we were in the birthing room, the doctors (and nurses and an intern? four of them, all women.) were quickly in agreement that Hinke's dilation was complete and the baby was coming out. I believe their exact words were "donderend naar beneden," which translates literally as "thundering down."
Having seen Hinke's labors with Zephyr I had my doubts, but I kept them to myself.
They were having her puff and push, and around this time Hinke gave me a look that I will never forget: The eagle staring down its prey. Battle berzerker. Shiva, the destroyer.
Just when I thought we were settling down for a long night, we saw a bulge near the bottom of her abdomen. At this point they _ how shall I say it? _ cut Hinke a bit to widen the hole, a common procedure here.
Hinke resumed pushing and next thing I knew I could see some hair coming out. The doctor reached in there and with the next push, flop! out came Zola. Just like on TV.
Hinke's in some pain now. But this was a much, much better birth than last time, believe you me. This time I actually did cut the umbilical cord & Hinke was totally awake and took Zola to her breast right away. And we were very happy. Still are.
Evidence:
The rest is really just details. A new doctor came in to stitch Hinke's wound. We alerted the grandparents. I had some time cuddling Zola as Hinke showered and cleaned up. Hinke's dad drove us home a couple of hours later.
Zephyr's initial reaction was pretty positive. "Baby!" he said. Kijken? (Can I see?). Ogen (=eyes, which he tried without malicious intent to poke). Then: Computer? (meaning, he had lost interest and wanted to watch Muppets clips on YouTube.).
And later, when the baby was crying, he observed: "baby crying. Computer?" He's off to spend a night or two with Hinke's parents, and I don't think he understands that unlike other babies Hinke has picked up in his sight in the past, this one isn't going to disappear shortly.
For now, Hinke and Zola are breastfeeding sleepily in bed, and I'm writing this.
As I come to the conclusion, like last time, the great wheel of life has made another turn. Sadly, Zola missed any chance of meeting her great grandmother Nora by just a few weeks; Nora's memorial ceremony was Jan. 27th, my mother's birthday.
For anybody wondering about the significance of Zola's name(s), well, they're multi-faceted by design; but from my perspective, they refer in part to Emile Zola's famous J'Accuse, a nod to Nora's political bent and my Jewish heritage. Arden, among other things, was Shakespeare's mother's name.
For the record, just as I'm glad Zephyr Noah missed many of the emotionally-laden days around his birthday, I'm glad Arden Zola dodged being born on the 27th itself: she will have her own races to run.
Love,
Toby
Next: double trouble
