Zusha's Take on Baby

Baby has a peach fuzz, looks like blonde. She looks exactly like Zusha did, but with Gedalya's nose Eye color... hmmm. Navy? I'm really hoping for Zusha's sake that they turn blue!

Zusha is full of chochmas now that the baby's here.
"We always had only yingelech, but not maidelech. Now we have yingelech and a maidele. When maidele grows big, she will have lots of hair and have a long pony tail. Will she cry when you make her a tail?" I said I don't know if she will. "Yes, she will. Because she will see that Gedalya cries when you make him a tail, so she will think you're supposed to cry."

Then he's pestering me about the name. I told him she won't have a name until Shabbos. But he's pouting, "Tatte knows the name, Mama knows the name, but I don't know it!"

It's really cool about the name. We don't talk about it before birth, but both my husband and I only had one girls' name in mind. And the posuk from which the name comes is in this parsha!

Some pics of the kids saying good night to the baby before going to sleep on the day she was born:

Baby, Baby...

She's an extremely light sleeper! Newborns are NOT supposed to act this way. She can't sleep unless it's 100% silent all around. The only time she slept was when my mother and mother in law took the kids out for a couple of hours today. YIKES!

Gedalya came running to my bed first thing in the morning to hold his new "toy." LOL!

(Please don't mind his hair!!)

Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 9:30 AM

Contractions began at 3:30 AM on Simchas Torah, 10-15 minutes apart. All night long I rode the contractions out on my hands and knees, and it was pretty manageable. I called Marcy (my midwife) at 7:00, and told her this is likely it. I was planning to get into the shower for some relief, and she told me to call her after the shower. After the shower the contractions jumped from every 10 minutes to every 3! I called her to tell her to come, and by the time she arrived, contractions were coming every couple of minutes. When Marcy came, she called my doula, Elanna Posner, to come right away.

Gedalya was still asleep, but Zusha was up. At first Zusha was helping me through the contractions by assuming the hands and knees position together with me. When he saw me on the phone (On Yom Tov) he got curious and demanded to know what is happening and who that was. I told him, and he right away figured out that it's time for the baby to come! When the pain got worse, Hillel took Zusha to another room with him. He couldn't take both boys out as planned because we didn't want to wake Gedalya just for that.

I wasn't taking labor like a big girl I was kinda kvetching and whining through the contractions. Saying things like, "I need a break" or "I want to take a raincheck for tomorrow, this is more than enough for now!" I was going to say that people who take epidurals are geniouses and please, just give me a c-section and get this over with, but I restrained myself.
At which point Marcy asked, "Honey, are you ready to push?"
I said, "NO!" because I was afraid of tearing badly like last time.
A few contractions later, she encouraged me to get checked. I reluctantly agreed- and I was fully dilated! Then I began to panic, because I did NOT want to push!

I cried to Marcy and Elanna, 'I KNEW it! I knew I was ready to push! I just was too scared to!" (And indeed, I probably went through 20 minutes of contractions while feeling like I can already push.)
I was whimpering that I'm so scared to do this, I'm terrified of tearing. The midwife and doula both assured me that I will not tear, encouraged me along, and after a few pushes my water broke all over the place! The pain of pushing was nothing like I remembered. It was awful! It relieved the contraction pain, but it was really much worse than contractions. But a few pushes later, at 9:30 AM, the baby was out!
They put her straight on my chest, and all I could do was repeat, "Who are you? Who are you? Do I know you?" Then I looked, and she was a girl. :)

I lost a lot of blood. The doula thought it was another baby when after the baby I gave one more push and a huge volume of blood came out.

As soon as they wiped up the baby and swaddled her, they brought her out to Hillel and the boys.
She weighed 9lbs 12 oz and I didn't even tear, B"H. It makes such a huge difference in healing!

I almost passed out a few times and had to be given smelling salts. I couldn't stand up for 24 hours, and now I can walk, but bent over so that my head isn't so high up.

So that is that! The big brothers are thrilled! Zusha keeps saying, "It's a maidele, just like I said it would be!" They love holding her and petting her, and checking to make sure I'm taking proper care of her.

(Home birth is the awesomest thing. You would NOT be able to get me into a car at that point in my life! )

Baby's first photo :) 10 hours old:

Cute Thing the Baby Did :)

I was in the kitchen and at one point there was a loud noise. (I think a pot fell, but I don't remember for sure.)
Well, I actually felt the baby jump from being startled! :D

Yom Kippur

I managed, and no baby yet! :)
The fast was alright. It wasn't as bad as I expected. I wasn't hungry, and not too thirsty, either. But I was pretty weak. I felt really faint when I got up, so I tried to limit that, and just stayed on the kids' beds as they played in their room. I didn't feel any contractions, and the baby was moving nicely, B"H.
Marcy came yesterday, and all is the same, B"H.

Latest Doings with the Little Ones

A couple of weeks ago Gedalya woke up in the middle of the night, but fell asleep without nursing. One of those times he even fell asleep without me in the bed! So I decided to keep it up. At one point, he realized that something was off and cried and demanded half the night. But I wasn't going to give in, because that would mean the 4 nights of progress would go down the drain.

The next morning I explained to him that he can have nyama only when he is going to sleep and waking up in the morning. NOT when he wakes up in middle of the night. He seemed to accept it.

And... he actually began sleeping through the night!! Some nights he wakes up and all I have to do is lie next to him for a few minutes. But other nights he just doesn't bother- it's not worth it anymore ;)

So this is very exciting news, as I'll be able to start putting both boys to sleep in their own beds now again! YAY!

~~~~~~~~
Tonight was very funny. Zusha was falling asleep cuddled up next to me. As soon as his eyelids started fluttering, the baby kicked him! Zusha snapped his eyes wide open, and with a huge grin began to tell me how the baby kicked him, and even showed me with his legs what the baby did. :D
The funniest part: it happened 3 times! Three times Zusha was almost asleep, and 3 times the baby started kicking right then. Hahaha. What a mischievous little kid. Will fit right in with his brothers. :D

7th Month Checkup!

Marcy (my midwife) came yesterday for the 7th month (29 weeks) visit. We have another visit scheduled a month from now, and then the visits will be more frequent. :D
She also gave me a list of things I need to prepare for the birth (yikes!) I have a hard time believing it will be so soon...

We spoke a little, and she took my blood pressure... we went to listen to the baby's heartbeat. The kids were so excited! As I wrote in the last post, the kids loved hearing it. They have no idea it's a heartbeat or what, but they think the baby is making the noises and they are thrilled!

This time we listened through a fetoscope instead of a doppler. The difference is that a doppler uses ultrasound waves and a fetoscope doesn't. It works like a stethoscope. It doesn't project the sound to the whole room, but Marcy let the kids hear it from the device.

Now I have to get a glucose test done and find a doula...

Three Tiny Poozils

The kids ask a lot of questions about the baby. Zusha wanted to know if the baby stands when we are walking outside, if it laughs when I do, and if it can talk. He wants to know how big it is.

I'm about 26 weeks now, and I told the kids that the baby can hear them. They sang to the baby. :) I let them feel the baby's kicks, but they were too slight, so I don't think the boys really felt them.
I patted my stomach a little to get the baby moving and said, "Baby, come on, wake up and play with the boys." They got so excited and started doing the same, hitting and pushing my stomach and saying baby, come out and play!
Then Gedalya got the idea that maybe the baby will actually come OUT and play and not just "wake up" the way I meant it. So he said, "Baby will come out? I wanna see! I wanna see!" When I told him it's not really coming OUT to play yet, he shrugged his shoulders, pointed to my stomach and said, "Yeah, nishta kein lechele." (There's no hole.)

At about 24 weeks, my midwife was here for a visit and checked the heartbeat with a doppler. She asked the boys if they want to hear the baby, and of course they did. I didn't get a chance to explain that the baby wasn't saying those sounds, that it was the heartbeat and the liquid sounds. So when they heard it, they were thrilled beyond belief! They went around telling each other that day, "The baby said, 'Wchoo wchoo wchooooo!'" They retold this story to anyone who would listen!

Gedalya is constantly hugging and kissing the baby (my stomach :D)

Are You My Baby?

On June 16th my friend Batsheva came to visit from Cleveland with her baby. She was in Boro Park and spent the afternoon with us.

As soon as Zusha saw the baby, he was all over her. He wanted to hold her, commented on her blue eyes (gray, really, but blue enough for Zusha) and insisted on bringing her to his room to show her all the toys. Both boys were bringing toy after toy to the baby (Chevy).

When I carried Chevy through my bedroom once, Zusha got all excited because he thought that I will be putting her to sleep there.
When Batsheva was leaving, we all went outside to see her off. Zusha got a little apprehensive that she was taking the baby with her. I didn't understand really why, until we were going back upstairs and Zusha asked, "It's Mama's friend's baby? Not our baby?"
Poor Zusha thought that this was his promised baby!

I gently explained to him that no, it's not ours. Our baby will come on Sukkos and will be much smaller than this one.

But Zusha had one request, "Will our baby also have a purple shirt?"

A few days later he told me he wants our baby to be a girl. With earrings. :)

Back in Business!

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

Whoever has been following my blog surely realized that I stopped updating for 4 months. The post below was my last one, until I started up again in June. I backdated this entry so it should be a starting point for my new posts, after this long hiatus.

The reason I stopped blogging is that I am B"H pregnant and I was really barely managing to function as it is. Coincidentally, the last entry (below) was posted the day before I found out I was pregnant. The next 3 months were pretty hard on me, not leaving me any time or energy for anything.

So when I sort of got back to my senses, I was so overwhelmed by how much I missed! I have a lot of catching up to do, and will be backdating posts to keep them in the correct chronological order. Which is why I am entering this post in this spot, as a divider between old and new posts. :)