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Motherhood arrived during pandemic

By Staff | May 5, 2021

PHOTO PROVIDED Kevin and Angela Ganther with daughter Stella who was born during the pandemic. The threesome are shown in an outing choosing a tree for baby’s first Christmas.

MUNCY – “With some much going on in the world today, it has been quite the time to have a baby. This is definitely not what we expected to happen when deciding to have a baby but babies will be born, whether there’s a pandemic or not,” said first time mother Angela Ganther. 

While waiting for the blessed event, Angela was thankful her husband was able to attend most of the ultrasounds before the pandemic hit. However, the pandemic and her job provided her the ability to work from home the final two months of her pregnancy, for which she was really grateful.

Angela said that, “I didn’t have to worry about long uncomfortable drives to work and staying home also decreased my chances of being exposed to COVID-19. The number one thing that heightened my anxiety once the pandemic hit was taking all the precautions to make sure my husband and I didn’t contract the virus. At that time, our hospital only allowed the mother and father in the room. If either one of us tested positive for COVID, that meant I was delivering this baby alone and I absolutely wanted my husband there with me, she said.

To heighten the anticipation and add to the excitement, the couple had a plan set in place that once the baby was born, husband Kevin would announce if the baby was a girl or boy. “We decided not to find out the baby’s gender during the entire pregnancy,” Angela said.

Walking us through the last hours, long story short, the baby was born nine days late. Angela recalled that, “I went in for a scheduled induction on a Friday night. Upon arrival into our room, the nurse, wearing full head to toe PPE, gave me a COVID test and we were told to sit tight for the next two hours until results came back. As we were from the same household, my husband did not have to be tested.”

Baby disregarded the two hour wait for within the next 20 minutes, Angela’s water broke going into labor on her own. ” Everything happened very fast, they couldn’t give me that epidural fast enough, haha. We had to wait until test results came back negative before anyone could really do anything for me besides hook me up to some monitors,” Angela said.

The new mother was grateful she could push without a mask during the 12-hours of labor. The baby girl arrived in the early morning of May 9. Her name, Stella Ambrosia Ganther, was decided over 24 hours after she was born. 

Having family and friends restricted from hospital visits gave mom, dad, and baby time to enjoy each other and get settled into parenthood. Angela noted that, “There were some complications once Stella was born, a lot of doctors and nurses were in and out of the room day and night. I don’t think there would have been time to have family come and visit.” 

Angela tells about the ‘doozy’ first day and night home. “Both Kevin and I were up until five a.m. because she was ‘cluster feeding’. We had about two hours sleep before taking her to her first well baby doctors appointment at eight a.m. Those first few weeks are rough! I was still pretty anxious about COVID on top of being anxious about everything typically surrounding having a baby. It was a very hard transition for me,” the new mom said.

Eventually, the routine improved once Stella turned six months old, that was when the new parents began enjoying parenthood. They start smiling and reacting to facial expressions, start solid foods, and started crawling around about this time. Every stage got better and better but like any other family, there are still ups and downs. “Overall, we are so happy Stella is in our lives,” the mother said.   

It’s now a year later and the threesome are a very healthy happy family. Both parents received vaccines giving them hope for the future. 

The mother said that, “Stella has yet to even be in a grocery store. Although she did go shopping with us on Christmas Eve this year. I had imagined taking Stella on so many shopping runs during maternity leave, but It didn’t happen once. Instead, we took a lot of walks (I walked, she napped) on our property down by the creek.”

Stella is the first grandchild in both the Orr and Ganther families. It’s an understatement to say the grandmothers were ecstatic to hear of the baby’s coming. “This year is going to be extra special as Stella’s birthday lands on Mother’s Day. We are planning a small family gathering to celebrate the occasions with a Cinco de Mayo birthday theme, honestly because I just want a margarita on Mother’s day,” Angela concluded with a laugh.