A Girl? You can’t be serious
My reaction to the arrival of our first female baby was more or less the title of this blog. I actually asked the midwife to turn her round to make sure it wasnt a boy. Dead serious. Unlike 99% of israelis (who are not known for their patience), I decided to keep it a surprise. I was pretty sure it would be another boy anyway. The pregnancy was the same except i think she kicked harder than the others. Perhaps she’s planning to be the next Ally Raisman.
The labour went pretty well all things considered. I usually have baies on weekends (yes true) but I had to wait for a friend to have hers as we were sharing a midwife. I went to my belly dancing class one evening around 37 weeks and the girls told me they were sure i would drop the next day. Well i did wake up with mild contractions plus I had that strange urge to do lots of housework. I sent the kids off to school and gan and told Husband to stay home in case I went into labour whilst caring for yakir (age 20 months). I decided i had better cook lunch and dinner because I didnt fancy being starving after giving birth and having Husband offer scrambled eggs. So I made a tortilla for lunch, almond burgers and brown rice and homemade sweet and sour sauce for dinner and a fantastic loaf of sourdough seed bread which i have not yet managed to recreate. It’s funny how I will forever associate that food with having a baby.
This time we gave our midwife more notice (mostly because we love her company) and called her shortly after kids got in from school. She rolled in around 4, drank a strong cup of coffee and promptly fell asleep on our sofa. As only a midwife can do.
The older boys went off to chugim, Raviv went to play with his girlfriend over the road and I decided to do some belly dancing. Great distraction. Eventually things got more uncomfortable so i migrated upstairs with the midwife. The boys came home and were sent to the neighbours for dinner. Around 6:15 or so i got into the bath and baby arrived by 7. I had made Husband promise he would hold my hand throughout and not check his fone…. except he had to text our neighbour to instruct how much insulin to give Raviv during my final contractions. But we can forgive him for that one.
The bath is an amazing place to have a baby, if you like taking baths. Plus its a very easy cleanup. I highly recommend it.
We sent for the kids as soon as I was settled back in bed so they got to watch the placenta examination, the baby being weighed and checked and each had a cuddle. They were only gone about 2 hours in total, which was terrific for them. No scary being whisked off to varous places while mummy Disappears.
Happily my midwife had the other new mum to visit on our yeshuv the next morning – so my midwife had 2 days to recover. Another friend on my street had a baby girl the same morning so the girls on my street group were already whatsapping when I decided to announce mine. (They were all in shock that I had given birth without anyone noticing…..was I expected to scream deadly wails???) Anyway in the end my midwife stayed over which was very fun for us as my kids consider her as one of their adopted grandmothers.
(Please note she is off duty in this pic, she doesnt drink on the job. Although frankly I wouldn’t blame her if she did).
The boys were very excited to have a sister, although I think Yakir was in shock. For about 3 months after the birth he woke up seeming surprised and thrilled that she was still there. He has named her RahRah after the noise she makes when she cries and the name has stuck. She has since become the centre of all the love in this house and a sort of doll for everyone to play with. Yakir is incredibly gentle with her and is a trusted babysitter as much as the other boys depite being barely 2 years old.
Since this was our first opportunity to celebrate the birth of a baby without the trauma of an operation we decided to throw her a big bash. I had three rules, no impersonal speeches, no boring beards, and no bows on the baby. My friend Nirit filled our entire downstairs in decorative pink laundry, I hired 3 separate ladies from my own yeshuv to do the food, and people brought stuff too. We named our baby girl (officially) Sienna Rivka and invited friends to give blessings. The boys prepared a fantastic show. This included Jojo serenading the baby, Raviv serenading me, and the Fairy Tale Story of her arrival in English with ivrit translation by Yaron (see below). The fairy tale ended with a rousing jazz dance performance by my oldest 3 boys. After doing 4 Brits, 2 of which we had to hold in shul on shabbat/yom tov, it was great to finally throw a party in our own style. I sang a song of thanks accompanied by our friend Eran on the piano, who then led the audience in His own version. It was all good fun.