{"id":5828,"date":"2022-07-13T05:06:59","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T09:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/espacestudio.ca\/marriage-and-a-baby-during-the-pandemic\/"},"modified":"2022-07-13T05:06:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T09:06:59","slug":"marriage-and-a-baby-during-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/espacestudio.ca\/en\/marriage-and-a-baby-during-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Marriage and a baby during the pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

THE PARENTS: Cynthia Moffat, 36, and Nate Fried, 36, of South Philadelphia<\/p>\n

THE CHILD: Penelope Rosemary, born Feb. 26, 2022<\/p>\n

POSTPARTUM RELIEF: A good friend of Cynthia\u2019s came to stay with them when Penelope was four days old; she made dinner for the couple and took the baby on walks so they could get some respite \u2014 or at least, a shower.<\/p>\n

The coast-to-coast scavenger hunt began with a puzzle-collage Nate had created, filled with images from the previous year.<\/p>\n

There was a clue cached behind a minus-80-degree freezer in a lab at Thomas Jefferson University, where the two first met. A map drawn with magic disappearing ink. A lockbox with a secret combination. A thumb drive containing a 10-minute movie about their relationship.<\/p>\n

Nate had spent months delighting in the prospect of feeding Cynthia\u2019s puzzle obsession and finally popping the question near a campfire during a rock-climbing trip in California with good friends.<\/p>\n

Then COVID-19 happened, and their rock-climbing buddies, who were from Canada, needed to return home before the government sealed the borders. Suddenly, Cynthia and Nate were racing across Southern California, trying to get to the Las Vegas airport before all flights were canceled.<\/p>\n

Outside an Airbnb that was a converted brothel, surrounded by several peacocks (including one named Thor), Nate knelt down in the desert and proposed.<\/p>\n

At the airport, they washed their hands obsessively. After three canceled flights, they managed to catch one headed home. And when they finally reached Philadelphia, they began a two-week quarantine. Friends dropped a bottle of wine and a congratulations card on the front steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kept telling everybody: When the quarantine is over, once COVID passes, we\u2019ll all celebrate,\u201d Cynthia recalls. Meantime, they pored over each day\u2019s news with scientists\u2019 attention to detail: what were the latest case counts; what were studies saying about aerosolized virus?<\/p>\n

They met in 2012, when Cynthia worked at Jefferson as a lab assistant and Nate was getting his Ph.D. They collaborated on a research paper. \u201cWe discovered that rats who get migraines have reduced mitochondrial function,\u201d Nate says. They were friends and colleagues who bumped into one another occasionally on the Market-Frankford El.<\/p>\n

That is, until 2018, <\/b>when Nate suggested a happy hour excursion. \u201cAll of a sudden, sparks flew,\u201d Cynthia says. \u201cIt was surprising at first, but we quickly realized how compatible we were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although she grew up in Ottawa and Nate was raised in Riverside, N.J., they were born in the same year and shared cultural touchstones. They understood each other\u2019s careers. In early conversations about the future, their aspirations aligned.<\/p>\n

During those first months of the pandemic, they still envisioned a wedding. \u201cOne of us would be hopeful; the other one would be dour,\u201d Nate recalls. \u201cI had elaborate ideas: How about a reverse wedding, where we go to everyone\u2019s houses across the U.S. and Canada?\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, they realized that even a micro-wedding wasn\u2019t in the cards; instead, they eloped to Ridley Creek State Park with a huppah, two friends, a photographer, and a videographer. Their vows, which they hadn\u2019t shared with each other prior to the ceremony, were nearly identical.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both knew that we were people who wanted kids,\u201d Cynthia says. \u201cWe were older; there was more risk; we didn\u2019t want to wait too long. Once we were both vaccinated and case rates were coming down and there was all this optimism in the air, we thought: Why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

Two different drugstore tests registered positive on the day before Father\u2019s Day. Cynthia waited until the next morning, then woke Nate with a test stick in hand. \u201cWhat? Is this real?\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think it would happen so quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pregnancy was a smooth ride, physically: no morning sickness or heartburn. But Cynthia, who weeps each time they watch Encanto<\/i>, expected to feel more sentimental during those nine months. Instead, \u201cmy pregnancy was a phase that I went through. I don\u2019t think it was until she was born that I felt super-connected to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

They learned the baby\u2019s sex at 11 weeks but kept the news private. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to receive a million pink tutus,\u201d Cynthia says. She wanted a vaginal delivery, and with a due date of Feb. 19, they were secretly hoping for a \u201ctwos-day\u201d birth \u2014 that is, Tuesday, 2\/22\/22.<\/p>\n

Penelope had other ideas. They scheduled an induction that turned into two days of slow progress and increasing interventions at Pennsylvania Hospital. \u201cShe never moved down. I never dilated,\u201d Cynthia says. Doctors began prepping her for a C-section while Nate sat in a waiting area.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard an announcement: \u2018Emergency C-section,\u2019 then saw people running to the same room Cynthia had gone into. Someone grabbed me and said, \u2018Don\u2019t look at her.\u2019 The curtain was up, and I was by Cynthia\u2019s head. Finally, Penelope was on the table; they got her to breathe, and I remember not knowing if I was allowed to touch her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, they learned that the baby\u2019s heart rate had begun to drop, and that it had taken four nurses pushing on Cynthia\u2019s belly to help their 9-pound, 14-ounce daughter emerge. Cynthia\u2019s first clear memory is in the post-op room, nursing the baby while nibbling an Entenmann\u2019s doughnut.<\/p>\n

COVID caution became an effective way to keep throngs of well-wishers at bay, Nate says, and to make sure they weren\u2019t giving preferential treatment to Philadelphia relatives over farther-flung family members in Canada.<\/p>\n

He quickly learned a lesson that he now readily shares with other new parents. In the hospital, when Penelope was wakeful all night, he panicked, wondering how they would manage without sleep. \u201cI thought: Oh, my God, she is going to cry nonstop. But that all went away in a couple of days. What I tell people now is: All these struggles, they are just temporary.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear to both of them that their daughter is already her own person. \u201cOur parents spend a lot of time trying to suss out who she looks like. When I look at Penelope, I just see Penelope,\u201d Cynthia says. \u201cI\u2019m fascinated to see what she\u2019s going to be like when she grows up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE PARENTS: Cynthia Moffat, 36, and Nate Fried, 36, of South Philadelphia THE CHILD: Penelope Rosemary, born Feb. 26, 2022 POSTPARTUM RELIEF: A good friend of Cynthia\u2019s came to stay with them when Penelope was four days old; she made dinner for the couple and took the baby on walks so they could get some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191570323,"featured_media":5829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1910],"tags":[2510,3683,2282,1976],"class_list":["post-5828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-micro-wedding","tag-baby","tag-cynthia-moffat-nate-fried-penelope-south-philadelphia-jefferson-scientists-pandemic-elopement-pregnancy","tag-marriage","tag-pandemic"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/espacestudio.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Marriage-and-a-baby-during-the-pandemic.jpg?fit=760%2C507&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pciheA-1w0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4544,"url":"https:\/\/espacestudio.ca\/en\/real-talk-i-was-36-weeks-pregnant-at-our-postponed-pandemic-reception\/","url_meta":{"origin":5828,"position":0},"title":"Real Talk: I Was 36 Weeks Pregnant at Our Postponed Pandemic Reception","author":"ESPACE STUDIO","date":"May 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"News The couple originally said \u201cI do\u201d in front of their Queen Village home. 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