The Shuk

Ah, shopping in he shuk, you either love it or hate it. For those who have never visited Israel, the shuk is like the loudest, most crowded crazy farmer's market you've ever been to. You can score outrageous deals on just about everything, but it can be a challenge to navigate, particularly for non-Hebrew speakers.
I both love and hate the Shuk. it depends on the day and my time. As long as I'm wise enough to stay away during peak hours (after 4 any day and pretty much all of Thursday and Friday) it's a fun experience to go and pick my lovely produce, baked treats, and whatever else you're looking for. The girls always demand treats, which are usually the nice-looking apples or bananas. Sometimes we are tempted into buying the lovely strawberries, and just this week I bought fresh peas in the pod as a fun project. I'll put up some of my favorite shuk photos next week. It's a lovely place, as long as you know when to visit.

a somtime blogger hits the big time...

Well, not really, but it's big for me anyway. I'm actually writing a guest post at Mother in Israel this week. Crazy, right? The first half of the full story about David's birth is on her site, this is just the part about my c-section.

It took 2 hours to get me checked into a bed after my water had broken, and I was subsequently ignored for the next 4 hours, as I wasn't in active labor. Finally someone stopped in to check my dilation. An hour later they applied some gel to help me along and then ignored me again for 4 hours. Finally 12 hours after my water had broken, they decided to put me on pitocin. I was OK with this, having had it on both prior births. I started having gentle contractions over the next hour or so. They upped my dose to hurry things along, and the next time I was checked, the midwife got the "panic" look on her face. She felt not a head, but an elbow. not the end of the world in my mind, but she seemed to think it was VERY problematic. So, they backed off the pitocin to give the baby a chance to re-adjust. Then they (the 2 on-duty midwives) felt again and still felt what they thought was elbow, and one doctor who also said elbow but the doc they called in said it was a heel. They brought in the mobile Ultrasound (my nemesis) to look at the baby's position, and one said the baby was head down, one said he was feet down, one said she couldn't tell. They were all yelling at each other in the delivery room about what should be done and who was the most incompetent. It was a nightmare for me, having gone through so much to get to this point and being so opposed to surgery. They decided to do another ultrasound, my 3rd in less than 24 hours, and this time the one doc overrode the midwives and said I needed an emergency c-section. It was 3 AM, I'd been awake for almost 24 hours and I was worn down. So, I signed the papers and was wheeled, sobbing, into surgery. They refused to let my husband come in with me, which only made things worse. I spoke with the anesthesiologist and he told me he'd give me something to calm me down as well as for the pain. from that point on, I remember only hearing the baby cry as he was born, being told I couldn't touch him, and even if I had tried I realized my arms were strapped down to boards and spread out crucifixion-style. All I wanted to do was comfort and nurse my crying baby, who was instead being held by this stranger-doctor. I still have nightmares that the baby is crying and I can't get to him because my arms are strapped down. My only comfort at the time was that my husband would be able to hold him, which I later found out was not what happened. They let him only touch the baby for a moment before wheeling him away into the nursery and telling him he couldn't come. It would be another 14 hours until they would "let" me have the baby.
The next day I was even more upset to have one of the consulting docs tell me in a very superior way that the baby had been head down after all, so I probably could have given birth normally. The day after that, the doc who had tried to convince me to abort the baby came in while I was nursing. I didn't even want to speak to her, but I did want to show her that my boy was just fine thankyouverymuch. All she had to say to that was, "we'll see" in an ominous tone.
I am still very upset about the way things went down. I definitely want to do VBAC next time, even if I have to hire a private doctor to ensure it happens. After 3 years here and 3 births here you would think I would know how to work the system, but I still don't, and now I'm more nervous than ever about medical intervention during pregnancy and birth. My husband isn't excited about the idea of a home birth, so that's not really an option either.

Any one used to the Israeli medical system care to weigh in?

I edited this to add these links to my Husband's reactions at the time. Part one, Part two.

a post per week...maybe.

My DH decided he is doing a post a day on his blog and he challenged me to write a post per week. I think I can do it. I hope I can.

This week was dominated by my second daughter's second birthday. I did some balloon decor, which I think turned out pretty well.
And I made a cake, which always turns out well because it is an awesome recipe. Thanks to Hershey's for coming up with it!
Perfectly chocolate cake:
2 c sugar
1 3/4 c flour
3/4 c cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Whisk these ingredients together in a large bowl
then add:
1 c milk
1/2 c oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla.
mix until smooth.
then add:
1 c boiling water
stir until just mixed

pour into 2 greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans and bake at 375 F for 30-35 minutes. I also put rounds of baking paper into the bottom of each pan, as this is a very moist cake and sometimes sticks despite my best efforts at flouring.

I make a different frosting from the one in the recipe. you can use either, both are wonderful.

Winter in Israel

I took some neat pictures on the way home from the Shuk (Open market) last week and thought I'd put them up here and see what you all think. (that is, if there's any "all" left after months of neglect!)
Winter here is cool and clear. It ought to rain more, but we are in the midst of a drought. Having grown up in Washington State, I miss rain, and I get so excited every year when the rain starts. But the nice sunny days when it isn't rainy are a nice change from the constantly overcast skies I was used to. And it makes for some nice pictures.

time flies

Wow, time flies. I had my boy. There were some complications (too much amniotic fluid, they thought), and one Doc offered me a late-term abortion (40 weeks and 3 days!) based solely on that. Twice. We said absolutely not the first time, but she persisted. What?? it was crazy, and I cringed every time I saw her after that. the whole birth thing was traumatic, the medical staff reminiscent of the 3 stooges, ending with a c-section that was very likely unnecessary. We'll go to a different hospital next time. The baby was a bit too yellow, but we took him out in the sun a lot and were able to circumcise him on the 8th day! (as a side note, concerned people actually yelled from their car across 2 lanes of traffic that I shouldn't have him out in the sun. Thank you, complete stranger for judging me!) My DH was able to be his Mohel and we named him David Yitzhoch. We put the video of the brit on youtube and got SO MANY negative comments, we finally disabled them. Crazy. People seriously called me a child abuser for allowing my son to be circumcised, as per our religious tradition. This has been a crazy time.

But he is a wonderful, sweet baby; worth every crazy thing.

so, I'm having a boy...how strange.

I've been pretty quiet since Passover, the reason mainly being that I am dealing with an amazingly tiring pregnancy. It wasn't like this with my first two. I think much of the change is because I'm finally having a boy, not a girl. I knowpeople say, well, you have two kids now, so of course you're tired, etc,but seriously, the whole experience is different. I'm carrying different, craving different things, having different difficulties (low blood pressure? what??), everything seems different this time. Honestly, the whole idea of having a boy seems a little strange.
I had always planned on having ALL boys. I love the way they interact, playing boy games, everything about boys. So, I had to really change my thoughts about my girls, although I can't imagine having anything else now. Girl clothes and toys really are quite fun. So, to go from all the pink, frilly, girly-ness to now thinking about someone growing inside me that is so fundamentally different than I am, well, it's a whole paradigm shift that I'm still working on. I've got 8 weeks left to wrap my head around it, but I figure it won't all really come into focus until the moment I hold the little guy in my arms. And remember that I have to avoid getting "sprayed" while changing diapers.

You cleaned your what?...Why?

In a continuing effort to amaze my non-Jewish readers, I am going to discuss the most stressful event of the Jewish Year, Passover. Why is this holiday so stressful? you would think Yom Kippur would be the stressful one, not eating or drinking, 5 prayer services in 24 hours, your last chance to get in good with the higher power for the year...but no. It's the cleaning for Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) that nearly does in every Jewish woman, and many Jewish men, every year.
Let me explain what has to be done. Everything you own must be gone through, cleaned and/or gotten rid of if it contains Chametz (any of the 5 grains or their derivatives, like grain alchohol, citric acid, etc.). Pasta, unopened bags of flour, most medicines, and a whole host of other things must be used up or thrown out or possibly ritually "sold" to a non-Jew for the duration of the holiday. All your dishes, utensils, pots, pans, and appliances must be cleaned thouroughly and put away in sealed cupboards. every surface in your entire home must be wiped down with caustic cleanser (bleach works well) including under the beds, Under the Washer and dryer, under the refrigerator and stove, on top of the fridge, etc. All books taken from bookshelves and shelves wiped down (I found 6 cheerios and a ton of crumbs on our bookshelves this year). Strollers cleaned out, high chair completely cleaned, the list goes on and on. after everything you own is perfectly clean, you go into your kitchen and really get down to work. All counter tops have boiling water poured over them, all cabinets are wiped out, your sink gets really boiled and bleached, your stove and oven treated by torch to burn away any remaining chametz after cleaning them. If you can, you torch your pots to make them perfectly clean of chametz, although many people just have a Passover set of dishes, utensils, and pots. then you cover everything in heavy-duty foil (heaver than anything I've ever seen in a regular grocery store, like tin-pan heavy) until it feels like you're cooking in a space ship. Buy new dish drainers, sponges, and other kitchen accoutrements (if it's touched hot food during the year, it must be replaced for Passover) then you're ready to start cooking for Passover, which is it's own challenge. But that's another post...
Just so you can see, here is what a passover kitchen might look like (not my kitchen, but a good example)