She was born at home, in our apartment in Katamon. The entire birth, from start to finish was 10 hours. I wanted to insert an email Micah wrote after her birth, but I can't seem to find it. If I do I'll add it. I actually already wrote about Aliza's birth in my little book, so I'm not going to go into it here. But here's a picture from 2 days after her birth, Feb 2.
Unfortunately, I can't really remember any stories right now. I do know that Aliza took her first steps very close to her first birthday. Here is a video of first real walking taken on Jan 7, 2007.
UPDATE: Thanks to Shani Rotkovitz I now have the email Micah sent out after Aliza's birth, so I'm adding it in here. Thanks Shani!
At around 10:30 last Monday evening Miriam started having somewhat painful and irregular contractions. By 3:30 am they had become regular and we called our midwife and Miriam's mother, Donna. We were planning on having a home birth here in our apartment so there wasn't much to do but sit and wait. No bags to pack, to taxi to call. The midwife, Joyce, her partner, Rena, and Donna all arrived around 4:30 am and Miriam was at 3 cm. From that time on the contractions seemed to be very close together and very strong. Because we had a home birth we had the freedom to arrange things as we liked. We had all the lights off in the living room with only candles lit around the room. It was a very peaceful atmosphere which helped Miriam relax and concentrate. By 7:15 am Miriam was at 6 cm and we figured we had a few more hours to go. The contractions were getting very intense and were one on top of the other by this time. Miriam was exhausted and even managed to fall asleep for the 10 or 20 seconds between contractions. Finally, Miriam felt she really wanted to start pushing so we moved her to the bedroom which was also very dark except for a little light under the bed. The darkness was also great because it helps relax the baby and not startle it when it comes out. It was sufficiently dark that the midwife was using a flashlight much of the time. We also had the room very very warm. At 8:20 am Miriam was at 10 cm and she started pushing. At 8:42 a little girl came out, caught by Grandma Donna once the head was out, and placed right onto Miriam for a little mother daughter bonding and immediate nursing.
What an experience. When I asked Miriam about the pain she often objected to the term, saying instead that it was very intense. She wanted to experience the birth of her daughter in full, experience an event which has bonded women together since Eve. From my perspective it was amazing. I got to be there the whole time, helping Miriam through, moaning with the contractions, pushing like crazy at the end. When it was over I thought I would dehydrate from crying so much, my two girls in each other's arms.
On Shabbat I got called to the torah in the town of Alon Shvut where Miriam's parents live. It was amazing to be up there, the gabbai calling out to the world that this new little girl shall be forever known as Aliza Yaffa ben Micha Daniel. Our little girl had her name. Suddenly, she was so much more real.
Miriam and I wanted a name that reflected the journey our families took over the last hundred years and the eventual process of return to the Land of Israel. 9 months before Aliza (pronounced Aleeza) was born my grandmother, who's only given Jewish name was the Yiddish Freydel, passed away. As she got older, and a Hebrew name become more important, our family called her Simcha. Simcha is Hebrew for Freydel which means "joy." In Hebrew we have many words for joy, one of which is "aliza." We have, therefore, named our daughter Aliza after my grandmother. My grandmother had a great love for life and as she grew older she developed into a beautiful person who touched everyone she met. She survived a severely debilitating stroke and lived for two more years before she finally passed away, yet during those years she always affirmed her wish to live, her love for life. In Jewish mysticism the soul's journey does not end with the death of the individual but the soul continues perfecting itself through reincarnation, passing from life to life, growing ever closer to the Creator. With Aliza's creation so very close to my grandmother's passing, we can only hope that she will merit to have the heights my grandmother reached as her starting point.
Her middle name, Yaffa, has its roots in my family's long history in the United States. My great-great-great grandfather came to the US during the civil war, going straight to Virginia. My great grandmother's name was Maybel, or Maybelle, and she had a sister Florabelle. As I said before, we wanted a name that reflected our return to the land of Israel. There are two ways people often respond to Teshuva (return) whether it be return to the land of Israel or returning to observance of Jewish tradition. One way is that the ba'al teshuva (the person returning) rejects his or her past as an evil existence that must be forgotten. Another way, the way Rav Abraham Isaac Kook refers to teshuva, is that our process of return, or repentance, actually changes the spiritual makeup of our past, transforming the shortcomings of our past into merits. We wanted our Aliza to understand in a deep and meaningful way the journey of our ancestors, the teshuva of the Jewish people, and to see herself as in some way embodying the transformation of the Jewish people from a group of exiles to today's Nation of Israel. And so, we gave our Aliza the English name Belle, beautiful, a name my great grandmother and great-great aunt took from the South, and we transformed it into the Hebrew Yaffa, beautiful. We hope that Aliza Yaffa can draw from the wellspring of the Jewish nation's strength when she battles her shortcomings and she can successfully transform them into merits.
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