Women’s Hospital staff surprised Mollie Hopkins with a baby shower during her extended maternity stay.

Joshua and Mollie Hopkins welcome baby Adeline on March 3 at NMMC Women’s Hospital.

Mollie and Joshua Hopkins of Ripley recently welcomed their baby girl, Adeline Blake, at the North Mississippi Medical Center Women’s Hospital in Tupelo. By then, the staff had become like family to them because Mollie had been hospitalized there since Dec. 20.

Early in her pregnancy, Mollie was diagnosed with oligohydramnios, a condition in which the amniotic fluid measures lower than expected for a baby’s gestational age. Maternal fetal medicine specialist Justin Brewer, M.D., and obstetrician-gynecologist Kristen Turner, M.D., admitted Mollie to Women’s Hospital at 23 weeks gestation so that they could closely monitor her and the baby. A C-section delivery was planned for March 5 at 34 weeks gestation.

While any hospital stay is trying, a stay spanning three months during a pandemic that virtually shut down hospital visits could prove almost unbearable. Joshua says the couple’s faith has helped sustain them. “We’ve never been in control, and we’ve understood that from the beginning,” he says. “We knew it was in our best interest to be here.”

Joshua also says the Women’s Hospital staff has been extremely accommodating during their stay. As a surprise to Mollie, the Women’s Hospital staff planned a baby shower on March 1, a few days before Adeline Blake was scheduled to make her debut. “Since we didn’t get to have any maternity pictures made like we had planned, Joshua and my mother told me they had arranged for us to do some here,” Mollie says. “They led me to the courtyard, and I just started crying when I saw everything. It was very precious, such a blessing.” The staff went all out with decorations, refreshments and gifts galore, and grandparents, aunts and uncles shared in the outdoor celebration.

Baby Adeline decided not to wait until March 5, but rather to come on her own terms at 11:17 a.m. March 3. Mollie and Joshua are both schoolteachers, so baby Adeline arrived during their Spring Break and Dr. Turner’s scheduled day off—presumably so she could capture their full attention! Dr. Turner delivered Adeline by C-section, weighing 4 pounds, 4 ounces and measuring 16 inches long.

Adeline was born with persistent pulmonary hypertension, a common malady of premature infants in which the blood vessels going to her lungs were not fully open. During her first week in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, she depended on a ventilator to help her breathe. Now she receives supplemental oxygen through a nasal cannula.

As Mollie and Joshua prepare to take Adeline home in the coming days, they count their many blessings. “There’s no reason I should have stayed pregnant as long as I did – but God. Most people with oligohydramnios deliver within the first week,” Mollie says. “Adeline had a little bit of a rocky start, but she has improved every day since. God has been faithful.”