Visit Katy and baby Hailynne Rose Price at Abington Memorial Hospital

Here's Hailynne! She had a cute little cry, cute to everyone but new mom Katy. The baby is swaddled to preserve a feeling of being warm and protected as she was in the womb.

The name Hailynne? An invention by Kreative Katy!

Proud "Pop-Pop" Rick Temple was keeping Katy company since 8 in the morning. His wife MaryRose is very tired, having had successful surgery on her pituitary gland. The baby's dad was there early but had to go to work.

Met Danielle, a good friend of Katy's, who gave Katy some tips about nursing. Her daughter Ashley is now 8. See the tiny "crib" in the background?

Katy must keep track of when the baby poops and nurses.

When I was a nursing mom back in Texas, I read "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding." Remember, Sarah Lynn?

It'd been a long long time but I remembered the words "meconium," "prolactin," and "episiotomy." The latter was once a routine procedure - I signed a lot of paperwork at Abington hospital where Dan was born - so I wouldn't have to get one. Now, it's done only in certain occasions.

Both my births were natural. Unlike my friend Ada, who had an easy birth with Aaron, the pain was, well, horrific, soon forgotten, as Katy herself said.

The proud father is Adam Price. They all live happily together in the home of the Temples.




Katy was gonna eat a bowl of Cheerios and milk. She's very careful about her diet since she's a nursing mom.

One of her docs, Robert Desmond, kept a close eye on her. He's been in practice for quite a while, so he could guide her with problems she encountered, including an overproduction of bile, which made her itch.

She itches no more. Just to get home and show Hailynne her new home.

Walking in the pouring rain, I parked on Guernsey Road, then walked, with hood on head, over to the hospital.

The obstetrician induced labor via a new method - read about the Foley Balloon Method here. 

Katy and Adam and Katy's sister were all present at the birth.

25 hour labor. Finally it was time to "push," but where was the doc? You can't push w/o her!

She came in. The short umbilical cord was wrapped lightly around the baby's neck. The OB fixed it so the baby could make her exit into the world.

Katy did not know all these details until afterward. Whew!

In utero, the baby learns to breathe shortly before delivery.  Full-term pregnancy is 40 weeks. Hailynne was 37 weeks. The doc wanted her lungs to be as fully developed as possible. She had just developed the necessary inner lining to the lungs.

Enjoyed holding the baby. Katy told me to check out her long toes and fingers.

Indeed. When I put my finger around hers, she clasped them. A reflex. I think it's from the days when we were monkeys - remember, that? - and needed to grasp onto mom's fur.


Bonobos, along with chimps, are our closest relatives.

When entering the Maternity Ward in the Lenfest Pavilion, the visitor is buzzed inside. You speak in a microphone, telling who you want to visit.

You're also checked when you leave, to see if you might be hiding a little person inside your backpack. 

 I exited the hospital at the Lenfest Pavilion and had no idea where I was. I always park my car on Guernsey Cow Road.

Aha! Here's the original hospital, a beautiful old bldg with a cupola on top.

 This is how I walk to the hospital from Guernsey Road.

Ah, my chariot waits.

Isn't it fun for all you parents reading this as we remember forgotten things about our own children's births? Below is Baby Grace, my first of two grandchildren. Grace is now four years old. Look, she remembers her years as a Bonobo.


More recent pic of Hailynne