Grandma Vicki and Juliana...

My mom prides herself that the reason she and Noah have such a close relationship is because she was in the delivery room when he was born and cut his cord (yes, Ryan refused to do it). She was also the second one to hold him (no, I wasn't the third person, more like the 6th person).

When I was in labor with Juliana it was progressing slowly, so we figured my mom had plenty of time to leave our house (she and Grandpa were watching Noah) and get to the hospital. Things didn't work out like that. Since the epidural didn't work, everytime Ryan asked if he should call my mom, I refused to let him leave my side and threatened him when he tried to pull out his cell phone. Needless to say, Grandma Vicki wasn't in the delivery room to welcome the little girl or cut the cord (I cut the cord and got to hold her second).

Juliana's body temperature runs very warm, much like Grandma Vicki's. Sometimes, Juliana's head is so warm that I take her temperature to see if she has a fever. She doesn't. When my mom puts her hands on me, I tell her to take them off, because they're like the "hot hands from h-e double hockey sticks".

Grandma Vicki hasn't gotten to hold Juliana as much as she'd like, because she tends to cause Juliana to overheat (and vice versa) and then Juliana gets angry until someone much cooler takes her. Grandma Vicki, of course, chalks this up to not being in the delivery room with her and not cutting her cord.

I have felt bad for my mom, because she so desperately wants to hold Juliana and instead she has to watch the rest of us hold her while she smiles and babbles at us. She wants to feed Juliana a bottle, (and we all know how well feeding her has gone for those of us who run a bit cooler than my mom) but she hasn't been able to do that either.

Over Labor Day weekend, my parents spent the night, and I was able to get some pictures of my mom with Juliana. Not holding her, but she's pretty close. Mom, these are for you!