Tempura baby

Adam, baby, and I spent an hour last night with an OB/GYN in the plush suburb of Be'er Sheba called Omer. Its where most of the professors and doctors live and it feels a bit like southern California with big stucco houses, green lawns, and big cars. All the same, we went there to visit Dr. Maymon, one of Adam's professors in the reproductive unit in school for a private ultra-sound. Let me explain a bit....

Israel does more genetic testing than any other country. Reason: lots of inter-marriage in the Bedouin community, and closely related gene pools in the Ashkenazi Jewish populations. Both communities are strongly urged to do genetic counseling and testing BEFORE marriage. Either way, all OB/GYNS require this special, 3D, ultrasound at 20 weeks of gestation. These factors make Israel, especially the southern part where we live, a fascinating place to study genetics. Or so I am told by all our geeky medical student friends.

We were not so hip to do this since we are minimalists when it comes to intervening in this pregnancy, but its the only ultra-sound our midwife, Mindy, requires. Additionally, this test isn't covered by insurance. Ironically, most of our prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care within the mainstream system (blood tests, ultrasounds) isn't covered by insurance although we bought the special "pregnancy package". When we complain about this additional, significant cost we are often presented with the suggestion that we should just become citizens of Israel. Then all of our problems would be solved, right? Ha, not quite. Anyway, I am getting away from the story.

So, off we went to Omer last night.

We arrived at the residence of Dr. Maymon, with his office behind his home. It was certainly the most western office we've encountered here so far: bookshelves with lots of medical books, pictures on the wall of babies he delivered, and a coffee machine! In the back room, with nice soft lighting, was this amazing ultrasound machine complete with flat screen TV on the wall facing the table the patient lies on so she can watch the whole thing in full-on technicolor and 3D.

The test was about an hour long, and we did not find out the sex of the little one. Gentle reader, you will have to keep tuning in to find that out. But we found out just about everything else. If our baby were a trading card, here would be her/his stats:

97% for weight according to gestational age
It has lips, eye lenses, and a nose (that looks like Adam's)
It has two kidneys
It has all four limbs that are all well above 50% for length according to gestational age
The fetal position during the exam was vertex (its head was on my left side)
The spine was anterior (towards the top)
The umbilical cord is inserted in the middle of the placenta (where it should be)
There is the right amount of amniotic fluid
It has ten fingers and ten toes
It weighs a bit more than 1 pound

What we learned about our baby from watching it on the screen: it doesn't like to be seen, it kept hiding its face and turning away from the belly camera; it is SUPER long, could be an Olympic swimmer or NBA star; and it is super mobile. That explains my incredibly sore belly. We also saw it scratch its face; so cool.

So where this leaves us. Mindy is happy as it seems our little one is seemingly very healthy so we are free to move forward with planning for our water birth. We still have a very elusive due date. According to some measurements from this test, the baby is at 20 weeks and 5 days of development. Then according to others, like the length of its leg bones, its at 22 weeks and 5 days. We are confident it will arrive just when it means to, and not a moment before. But we are sorry for those of you who are trying to plan travel to be here as it could be as early as September 22, or as late as October 5. All we know is, it will come to meet us when it chooses. And we will do our best to wait, patiently and gracefully.

Here are some pictures of our deep-fried baby (my sister says the pics look like the baby is being batter fried, I tend to agree). These are likely to be the last images we see of our little one before we meet her/him in the flesh. Enjoy!

Birth of two kinds

I feel as though I witnessed a birth last weekend. Not to the growing baby inside of me that stars in the last few lines and photos of this blog posting, but to a project we've been working on since 2004. COHI was finally able to host and sponsor the first meeting of Israeli and Palestinian midwives as part of our coexistence work in the mid-east last week. To say that I was humbled, moved, and inspired would not do the experience justice. I want to share some of the photos with you, there will be more published on the COHI site soon, but please take a few moments to bask in our success.

I served as the facilitator for the weekend's activities, and while this was a great honor, it was also a great challenge. We spoke together in English as this is our shared language. But many of the midwives from both groups don't speak English often and so there were some funny miscommunications. As the excitement mounted, women were speaking over one another and so we resorted to the old "talking stick" protocol. But as we were in a birth center, we used a fetascope as it was closer at hand.

Here is our token man, he is used to this role in these settings. He tends to disappear all day, running errands for us, and then shows up when chores need to be done. What a man, what a man. He can be seen here washing up the day's tea cups at the birth center after the first day's event.
Mindy, the Israeli coordinator for this project as well as our midwife and COHI Board member, can be seen here hugging two of the Palestinian participants. This is the sentiment that exuded from everyone present all weekend. It was heavenly, really.

The workshop over the course of the weekend paired up midwives from both groups to present on protocols regarding all aspects of labor and delivery in their countries. It was a great place to start the conversations between the women and to keep things focused on midwifery. Here are two midwives, one from each group, demonstrating some positioning options for delivery. Truly supporting one another!
Below you will see the entire group, minus one of the Israeli midwives who was called to a birth early in the am. I hope that the friendship, partnership, and goodwill established through our first few days together continues to grow, proving that peace is indeed possible in this part of the world, and women just may be the ones to make it so!

Adam and I stayed on for a day so we could do our scheduled pre-natal with Mindy. I thought you might enjoying seeing some of what our process involves, and the place where the baby will hopefully make its debut.

Here is our midwife, Mindy Levy, who is also a dear friend and COHI Board member, checking my blood pressure. It was just where it is supposed to be.

Adam working through the various positions that the baby takes as it moves through the birth canal. Lots of work for that little baby!

I have a a tipped uterus, meaning that my pregnancy is in the front of my body rather than in the middle. Mindy is modeling for us how my uterus is extending out over my pelvis right now, but as the pregnancy progresses it will straighten out. This is why I am showing so much, so early.
Adam checking my proteins, again, right where they should be. Reminds me of checking the chlorine levels at the pool all of those years. The scientist in him really enjoys this part of the appointments, I think.

This is the garden out back from the birth center, where should I feel up to walking during my labor I can wander around. Not a bad place to bring a new life into the world, eh?

This is the size of our baby as of now: 19 weeks, plus a few days. See the cell phone placed next to the picture so you can get the scale. No, the baby isn't making a call.

You can see here Mindy measuring what is called the fundal height. As it is, when I lie down the majority of the pregnancy disappears due to the tipping action of my uterus. We measured me both lying down and when I stand up. When I stand up, its significantly larger. All the same, I am where we should be with this, as well. Or I should say, the baby is where it should be!

So there you have it, an update on all of the excitement that we've joined in over the last week. I am set to fly away in less than a month to the US, and Adam will join me there in early June. We can't wait to see many of you quite soon, and we will post any news about things from our sandbox should we have the chance.

Love from us,

Adam, Sera, and the bump