Mia with her father Eran, Mia with her mother Gabi and Mia with her safta (gradmother in hebrew) Nira. Photos by Sabrina Balassa
We love taking care of Mia. Holding, caressing, bathing, changing her diapers...and I adore breastfeeding her! It's a lot of work and we are just so much in love with her...Mia is growing very quickly and according to the pediatrician she is doing so great she can do everything already! She can go out, commute by subway, enjoy the air conditioner with us, take a bath...and she is taking advantage of it! She already went to the pediatrician in the West Village (twice!), she went to the Waterfront Park in Williamsburg and also to the Tomkins Square Park in the East Village, she went to her friend and neighbor Lucia's 4th year birthday party, had lots of friends visiting, already commuted by taxi AND by subway! Oh, and she has her own playlist in my itunes! She loves to listen to bossa nova and classical music! She posed for Sabrina Balassa's camera and also she posed for her 1st passport picture ever! She will have 3 passports: Brazilian, Israeli and American, what a cosmopolitan girl!
Mia posing for passport pictures
It wasn't easy, she was asleep, didn't want to wake up...so we strolled around with her...we had lunch and obviously she woke up in the restaurant, before I could finish my meal! I breastfed her, than she was about to sleep again after eating, oh noooo, so and we ran to the photographer's office, so she could take the proper document picture; with her eyes open and facing front, showing her 2 ears! What an adventure!
To check some beautiful photos by Sabrina Balassa and to view ALL the adventures of The 1st Month in the Life of Mia, please double click in the photo below and all the photos will open in another window:
Mia Gasparini Bornstein was born on thursday, June 26 at 2pm.
We are overwhelmed with joy and happiness and ready to embark on this exciting voyage! We are so in love with our precious little girl, it's just unbelievable! Impossible to explain this miraculous feeling...this dimension of love is just way too grand to put in words...the only word I can think that is nearly close to what I feel is God...yes, he does exist...I feel it in every part of my body...
THE DELIVERY | THE TRUE STORY UNCENSURED
On tuesday, June 24th I woke up feeling like I was a little too wet...was this the water that broke? I called my doctor. he suggested not to panic, just to put a pad on and wait like 2 hours, than check if the pad was too wet...I did that and it looked like it wasn't very wet...At night, just before sleeping Eran checked me and said he thought I was too wet, and I should go first thing in the morning to the doctor. And that I should make my hospital bag just in case... And that's what I did! So on June 25th, wednesday, at 9am I had my doctors appointment. The doc said I was really wet, but it did not seem to be the amniotic fluid...He asked me to come back at 4pm just to be on the safe side... I live in Brooklyn, the doctors office is in the Upper East Side, so...what to do from like 10am till 4pm? Was I going to be a mommy today? Do I need to do something before I deliver? It would be cool to take my last pregnant artistic pictures...so I called my professional photographer friend Arthur Nobre and he said he would be available to take my pictures at night! (if the baby did not born, obviously!). I knew I had to walk, because the baby was high up and I wanted her to drop down. And I knew I was craving sunny side up eggs with bacon! Ok, I decided to go to a dinner, have my freaking eggs, than go to the The Jeff Koons Exhibition on the Roof Top of the Metropolitan Museum. And that's what I did! It was a beautiful sunny day and I decided to go to the Central Park for a little walk around the Reservoir (by the way, did you know it's officially named the Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir?) Nice! After that I met my dear friend Tania for a late lunch. Full day of culture and joy! At 4pm I went to my doctors appointment again. When I was just about to see him, while I was changing my clothes in the bathroom...what's going on? I feel super wet, and there is water all over my legs, the water definitely broke!!! I feel excited, anxious, terrified, afraid, happy, confused, everything at the same time! When the doctor arrived I was crying "The water broke! The water broke!" He said: "Congratulations! It's not an emergency, the baby needs to drop down and you still need to dilate so we'll have to induce to do the normal vaginal delivery. Let's call Eran and make a plan. We will meet me in the Lenox Hill Hospital in about one hour! Eran will go home to get my hospital bag and meet me at the hospital as soon as he can. Cool! I went walking from his office on the 86th street bet Park and Madison to the Lenox Hill Hospital, on the 77th bet Park and Lexington. During this walk I spoke with friends on the cell phone, cancelled the photo shoot with Arthur, stopped to have a vanilla coffee ice cream, took photos...and got a calling card to phone my mom ;) So exciting!!! So I went to the Labor and Delivery, met my doc and the Hospital's staff...Eran did his obgyn residency there, so we had a vip treatment, he knew everyone and things were going smooth...I was getting ready for my planned vaginal delivery, I took a shower, feeling nice, clean and pampered and after that, around 7pm, I received my medications to be induced...So I started doing some yoga exercises and eventually I dilated 1 cm...I started to feel pain...actually, a lot of pain! So I received another medication, a pain reliever...Oh boy, what a strong drug! I felt SO high, as if it was heroin...(I never did it, but that's what I imagined it was like!). So the effect of that drug lasted about 2 hours...Than the pain came back! And they decided to give me the epidural...ok, still under drug effects, still feeling high, sleepy or in intense meditation, whatever you want to call it! I felt pain again and the epidural was refilled 3 times more! Next day, on thursday, June 26 around 12pm the doctor tells me I am finally 10 cm dilated! I made it! Don't know how, it was a major trip, but it happened! Wow! But...the baby hasn't dropped yet...and...wait, Oh My God, the baby's heart rate slowed down, we can't wait any longer, we'll have to do a cesarian, actually an emergency c-section! Shit! So we rush to do the operation before the baby's heart rate drops down even more, and when I was laying down there my back REALLY hurts, it feels like all my muscles contracted, I thought it was from the stress, I wanted to relax, so I asked for the João Gilberto's CD! The CD player wasn't working, please Eran, bring your laptop, Oh, it's in the other room, but I need to relax, I need to listen to bossa nova right now! Meanwhile the doctors started to touch my belly, I noticed I CAN feel it, they asked me to move my legs and I can move them, so we realized: the epidural effect wasn't working anymore! Dam it! There was no more time to wait for another epidural, I had to have a general anesthesia! But at least our beloved Mia came out fine, on June 26th, at 2pm, with Apgar score 9! 6 pounds (around 3 kilos), and 20 inches (around 50 centimeters) ! So it was for sure a crazy adventure like everything else in my life, but this result was like nothing I have ever experienced before...just amazing, so magical, so wonderful, so beautiful...Mia Gasparini Bornstein, our beloved daughter...
To view ALL the pictures of this amazing day, please double click on the photo below and the photos will open in another window:
Click below to view the video of my friend Hosanna singing Isn't She Lovely for Mia during hospital visit!
Click below to view the video of Mia being loved and admired by mommy and daddy...we can't stop ourselves...we are so in love with our baby...
