Names

I have joked I can't have any more children because with five first and middle names I can't think of anymore.  I always wanted my children to have Hebrew names and names that could be shortened into nicknames. (I know some people want just the opposite)  My husband wanted to make sure they weren't too unusual or hard for Americans to say.  He had a brother that passed away in 1996 named Joey.  We named our oldest boy Yosef in his honor.  The poor boy has had to say "no that's a Y not a J" for almost 12 years now.  We thought we were being safer with the second but amazingly despite the popularity of Zachary, and the fact that it is a book of the Bible no one seems to know how to spell Zachariah.  With my daughter I thought I found the perfect balance of unusual but still "easy".  Even though I had never heard the name before I have met no less than ten Elianas since she was born.  Nathaniel has had better luck with people being familiar with his name.  For some reason it has never been shortened to Nate, little guy, big name.  When I found out I was pregnant the last time, the first name on my list was Naomi, it was the one my husband liked most too even before we had discussed it.  It seemed a natural fit.  Nathaniel calls her Mimi, I don't know if it will stick. So Yosef Dahvid, Zachariah Michael, Eliana Abigail, Nathaniel Levi and Naomi Tova.  I am officially out of names

Circumcision

I just unliked a facebook page after seeing at least the 10th post bashing circumcision in a couple days. I cant look anymore.

I circumcised all three of my boys as a matter of course. It has been done for 3000 + years. I am Jewish, we do this.

Until this pregnancy, I never knew there was anyone else who cared what happened to my child's penis. But I discovered there is a whole movement out there who not only cares deeply about it but wants to change the law to force me to comply with their wishes.

I am pretty "crunchy" or AP, or whatever label you want to give it. And this seems to go along with not circing.. unless of course you are Jewish. I never thought anything of it. I certainly never felt the need to convience any of these friends to circumcise.

But I cant help feeling attacked lately. Not by people choosing not to circumcise but by that growing vocal minority who feel it is their obligation to stop others. When people call it child abuse and mutilation, you are attacking me and my G-d. When I hesitate to post something like this on facebook, I wonder, am I being immoral? Is this being ashamed of G-d?

I never try and convince others not to eat pork, but I never doubted my decision. I never felt the need to search for scientific backup for this command (although its there pork is gross but thats another subject).

I do these things because that is what He said to do, I do not need another reason.

This is a bit disorganized as I am just typing out what I am feeling at the moment. Sorry

Naomi

Two months

12lbs

One Month 10lbs

3x5 Folded Card

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Naomi

While its still fresh in my mind thought I should get this out...

Saturday (Sept 17) I went to Shul with the kids,... Mike had to work. I was not feeling well but I had been having BH contractions for weeks and was just trying to ignore it. That day I also felt sick to my stomach and didnt want to eat at all but I was trying not to make too big of a deal of that. Around 330 I decided I needed to go home and try to relax so we left a little early. I went home.. took a hot bath (which made my back pan subside) and just tried to chill out while watching a movie with the kids and Mike. At eleven we decided to go to bed since Mike had to work Sunday too and I still didnt feel well.

I did manage to fall asleep for about an hour but just after midnight I woke up with the vague idea I had a dream about pushing out the baby. I was wet and honestly thought maybe I had confused the dream and wet myself. But when I stood up from the toilet gush more came out! I wasnt having any contractions yet though. I woke Mike up and started making phone calls. By 1230 the OB had said come to the hospital, the doula was meeting us and conractions were starting. We got checked in just after one. I was about three but contractions weren't too bad yet. By three I had made it to five, my contractions were really bad, my doula was really helping me through this while poor Michael was stuck trying to get Eliana and Nathaniel to go back to sleep. By 430 I was telling the nurse I needed to push, I was 9! Mike had finally had success and was helping me get through the worst parts. At 510 am Naomi was born. She was 8lbs 4oz. I made it with no interventions at all this time!

We did have a bit of a scare a couple hours later with some low pulse/ox readings. She had to go to the NICU for about an hour while the did chest xrays and tested for infections. She passed all the tests and her O2 improved. The conclusion is that I pushed so fast that the fluid wasnt able to completely be squeezed from her lungs.

Nathaniel is Two!

On the fifteenth Nathaniel turned two. We took him to see Rio (which he lasted through about half of) and let him pick a new toy at ToysRUs. We came home and had cupcakes. I think Nathaniel's favorite part was singing Happy Birthday, he kept signing "more, more"

Six Flags

We took our annual trip to six flags on the fourteenth. It was completely unplanned which ended up being a lot of fun. The weather was pretty cool (well for this summer it wasnt hitting triple digits) and they had predicted rain that didnt come so the lines were fairly short. There was not much that Nathaniel could ride yet but he defiantly had fun on the few things he could ride. Eliana is still wondering if next year she will be tall enough for roller coasters. We let her play a carnival game and she won a big pink bear! She was very proud.