Some pictures of today

I’m rather tired and I should be sleeping, but we wanted to put some pictures up for our family back in the States (and elsewhere).

Today was just another lazy recovery day for me. Miriam and I slept and slept and slept. My milk’s coming in so we’re doing a whole lot of eating, too. The first time she got a good mouthful of milk Miriam’s eyes got all big. When she finished eating she delatched, gave a satisfied smack of her lips, raised her eyebrows and got this look on her face that said, “That? Was incredible!” She was much more alert and vocal today; still pretty calm, though!

El Nada Hospital

Nestled on a busy street corner of Manial Island and sandwiched between a fast food restaurant and cramped living quarters lies el Nada Hospital, three full storeys of a semi-sterile environment in the midst of the crowded, polluted chaos called Cairo.

Not everyone can say they were born in Egypt. Not everyone can say they were born on an island in the Nile. Not everyone can say they were born above McDonald’s and saw a donkey parked out front.

Just Miriam.

(And a few of her little friends…and the thousands upon thousands of babies born at this hospital…but now I’m making it sound less exciting…)

Part of a complete breakfast

The hospital food really wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t great, but hospital food rarely is. My only complaint is that everything was so oily. There was oily vermicelli and rice for both lunch and dinner with an oily side of vegetables and meat. Lunch even came with an oily soup that I didn’t finish; it congealed into a solid lump of lard after sitting on my tray for an hour.

Dinner came at 5:00 PM on Sunday. We were hoping to be told we could go home, but instead we were told that we would be spending the night. I almost cried. Andrew ran out and bought some more juice and water and a few snacks.

Home again, home again, jiggy-jig-jig!

Yesterday when we brought Miriam home it was raining. Her first day out in Cairo and it rained! I was totally expecting sunshine but I suppose it has to rain sometime or other—it was only sprinkling by regular standards, but it was raining by Cairene standards.

For those of you who are update-starved…

Nancy and Miriam are sleeping. I'm off to bed now, too, finally, after translating Miriam's hospital "birth notification" from English into Arabic. Why they couldn't do it in Arabic in the first place I'll never know… We're in Egypt…

We've got several posts coming down the pipe, but we're a little slow right now. My mom just posted some pictures on her blog—check those out while we get ours up :)

The birth story

Disclaimer: contains discussion of bodily fluids and other icky things. Reader discretion is advised.

The triage room was puzzling. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. There was a desk and some chairs but considering the three-minute interval between contractions office chairs somehow seemed inappropriate.

There was also a bed of sorts. More like a steel-framed table coated in faux-leather, bent at an 80 degree angle. That seemed inappropriate as well, so instead I stood in my nightgown, leaning against a chair, and wondering, quite loudly, when in the world we were going to be admitted.

The beginning…

I’m not quite sure where to begin Miriam’s birth story; there were several interesting, fun or horrifying events leading up to the actual point where I woke up in the middle of the night and frantically calmly told my husband that the time had come.

Miriam al-Noor Heiss

She's here! Check out our initial Facebook pictures or the PDF of the announcement.

Nancy started "real" labor at 4:15 AM, we were at the hospital at 5:30, Miriam was out at 7:45. Super fast!

Nancy and Miriam are just fine (sleeping now). Grandma is bringing Rachel later today. I'm sitting listening to the chaos of Cairo outside the window.

Beautiful times!

A marvelous work

Two very exciting things happened this week—for me, at least. First, Elder Russel M. Nelson dedicated a meetinghouse in Voronezh, Russia on October 20th. Previously the church had been renting out buildings to hold their meetings, so it’s very exciting to have one of our own.

I remember bussing out to Lipetsk when I lived in Voronezh to sing at the dedication of the church building there, or what I thought was the dedication of it…now that I think of it, I’m not quite sure what it was. No apostle was present, I’m sure, but something went on and our Voronezh choir combined forces with the Lipetsk choir to do a special musical number.

Sometimes when you live in a foreign country you end up not fully understanding what you’re doing all the time but you still go ahead and do it. At least…that’s what I find.

Flashback Friday: Octuplets

Yes, I’m still pregnant, which means that I’ve been spending a lot of my time wishing this weren’t so. It also means I’ve been spending a bit of time reading some books on the Bradley method of natural childbirth, not because this is my choice of methods for natural childbirth but because I happen to have access to some books and it can’t hurt to be familiar with his theory.