11 May 06

The Eagle Has Landed

Hanane and I had a pleasant—if not a bit surreal—surprise last night; the baby came a few days early, without any warning, and in fine form.

Tuesday we went to Hanane’s parents house, as they had some relatives in town and we were to all getting acquainted. We stayed until about 11:30 in the evening before deciding to leave. As we headed to the door, Hanane’s uncle jumped up, clapped his hands really loud and said in English “Come on, baby! Come on, baby!” He was talking to Hanane’s belly, of course, and was apparently trying to facilitate things as he’s only in town for a week. We all kind of chuckled.

After we returned home and got settled, no more than an hour or so after leaving her parent’s place, Hanane started to have contractions. We laid on the bed and started watching the time. Her contractions were happening about every 10 minutes for about 3 minutes at a stretch. This went on for a little while and then around 1:30 a.m. (Wednesday) Hanane suggested I get some sleep and that she would wake me if needed. I didn’t argue.

I closed my eyes for what seemed like 10 minutes (actually 4 hours passed) when suddenly Hanane shook me awake saying she needed to go to the hospital and that she already called ahead. I hopped up, threw some things on, and off we went. I drove illegally, but what do you do?

When we arrived at the hospital (actually a clinique in Strasbourg called Adassa with a solid reputation for child health care), Hanane was quickly examined in a room while I waited. After only five minutes, the nurse came out and retrieved me and we all made our way to the delivery room.

It turns out that during the 4 hours I slept, Hanane had managed on her own to achieve a state of dilation around 9 centimeters, which, for those who don’t know, means the baby is coming in about an hour. Sure enough, we are not statistical outliers.

Hanane was incredible, and the whole thing was textbook perfection. She was in pain, of course (lots), because there was no epidural given, but after 5 or 6 determined pushes on her own that even had the nurses impressed, the baby arrived in grand form. I was handed a scissors for the honor of cutting the umbilical cord and officially liberating the kid into the world (all credit goes to Hanane).

So, what you really want to know:

it’s a boy,
he weighed 3.685 kilos (a little over 8 pounds)
he was 51 centimeters (about 20 inches) long
he has huge hands (extrapolate as needed)
he’s beautiful
his name is Elyas

I have photos to post in the next couple of days, stay tuned.

HijabMan :: 11 May 06 :: #
congratulations to UmmElyas AbuElyas ;)
Lilium Pierson :: 11 May 06 :: #
HURRAH! I cannot wait to see pictures of your lovely boy. Congratulations to both of you. You will be seeing a similar message from me in the coming weeks…. Happiness to all of you.
Nathalie et Moussa :: 11 May 06 :: #
Congratulations! Felicitations! We are so happy! See you soon! All the best for Elyas and his parents. A big big kiss to Hanane and her son.
Nathalie et Moussa
Destry :: 12 May 06 :: #
Thanks everyone. Hanane thanks you too. She will be back home tomorrow or Sunday.