Leonid's World: Anne Sophie - birth and first week

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles
song from The Fiddler on the Roof

Miracles happen every day. Sometimes we have to wait long for them to happen, sometimes years. Our little miracle happened after more than six years of patient waiting and trying, after a number of miscarriages, after an ectopic pregnancy (внематочная беременность), after many medical examinations. Finally, we conceived a child in a completely natural way, and out of seeming nothingness, out of two miniscule cells, out of love of two individuals, a little precious human being came to life!

Anne Sophie Levin was born on Tuesday, September 18, 2007, at the Westeinde Ziekenhuis (hospital) in The Hague, Netherlands. The contractions began early in the morning, and at 4 a.m. we took a 20-minutes ride to the hospital. The labour continued until 6 p.m. under close supervision from an experienced, well trained team of doctors and nurses. My wife Luda worked very hard, enduring often unbearable pain and fatigue. However, the uterus would not open fast enough. The doctors decided that letting the labour go on like this could put the baby at risk and opted for caesarean section. The operation was not easy, because the baby already went quite deep into the birth channel, and was additionally complicated by the presence of a few uterine fibroids. Yet the surgical team under the leadership of Dr. C.A. Yedema did a great job, and at 19:33 our little girl was born!

I was at Luda’s side during the operation and was the first of the two of us to see our little daughter. Luda could see her just very briefly, because the operation had to go on. After the birth, there was a lot of hustle and running around and photographing in the room, and I was given a chance to cut a piece of the umbilical cord and all that. But among all this hustle, the most amazing thing was the little pinky red being squirming in front of me.

I cannot describe my feelings as I was watching my own little baby for the first time. It was a combination of love, wonder and tenderness mixed with anxiety and exhaustion. The girl was so small and precious, she seemed so helpless and fragile … I could not keep tears from flowing. And yet she was amazingly awake and active, looking and kicking around. She wouldn’t cry much, but would rather frown and wriggle when she did not like something.

After she was examined, weighed (3.14 kg, 51 cm) and dressed, I

held her in my arms for about an hour and a half until her mother was finally brought back into the labour room. With lights deemed, in complete silence and with classical music in the background, I could not take my eyes off my baby girl, who lay quietly in my arms.

Luda and Anne Sophie stayed in the hospital for 4 days. The doctors and the personnel of the maternity division took very good care of them, for which I am very grateful. Fathers are not allowed to stay in the hospital overnight, so I would come over every day. I’d talk with them, read to them, play the guitar and sing to them.

But what is better than home? We’ve been at home for 3 days now. There is a lot to learn for all three of us: breastfeeding, diaper changing, bathing, etc. Luckily, the Dutch health care system helps you a lot by providing the so-called kraamzorg, whereby a trained nurse comes over every day for a period of 5-7 days to care for the mother and the child, doing all kinds of chores and educating the parents about different aspects of child care.

Now a few words about the name. Anne Sophie is named after all four of her great-grandmothers (may they rest in peace): Hannah (Dasha) Levin-Pukhovich, Sofia Barshay-Disman, Hanna Verbnaya and Hanna Suslenko. The name Anne is derived from the biblical Hebrew name Hannah or Channah meaning grace, charm or mercy. Sophie is a Greek name meaning wisdom. So we pray for our Anne Sophie to grow up as a graceful, charming, kindhearted, compassionate and wise human being.

Now about the date: 18-9-2007 was a special day in The Netherlands. It was the third Tuesday of September, and hence a prinsjesdag, the day on which the Queen, cheered by the crowds of her loyal subjects, rides in her golden carriage from the Noordeinde palace to the Binnenhof in The Hague to open the parliamentary season with a speech outlining the government policies for the coming year. Well, all of this was happening just a couple of hundred meters away from the Westeinde hospital, where Luda was labouring.

There is a wonderful view over the city from the 12th floor of the maternity division, but we couldn’t actually see anything going on, because of the narrow streets lined with stately houses.

Those of you who like number 9 will be amuzed to notice that the day, month and year of Anne Sophie’s birth are all multiples of 9. Number 9 is the highest single-digit number (at least in base ten :)) and symbolizes completeness in the Baha’i Faith. Number 18 is special in Judaism, for this is the numeric value of the Hebrew word life (chai).

As a pleasant surprise, as if a reward for her hard work and patience, the day after the birth, Luda received a letter from the Dutch Naturalization Service saying that the Queen approved her application for Dutch citizenship! Congratulations!

Well, this was the story of the birth of Anne Sophie Levin. Through this blog, I’ll keep you up to date on how she is getting on. If you pray, please pray for her health, growth and development!

Click on the image below to see some pictures of Anne Sophie!