My new year's surprise!

Well, I was planning on posting my latest article in the Guardian Unlimited-reflections about Gaza in 2007. Instead, I got my own little new year's surprise-we welcomed (drum roll please....) little Noor into the world at 1:36pm January 1 ! 13 hours too late for a tax deduction, as Yassine will note :) This girl sets her own rules form the get go.

I would like to post in length about the experience, but I am sure you will forgive me if I seek a little rest :) In brief, let's just call it an unplanned natural delivery! I ignored my own body's signals that I was in labor (not to mention my husband's!) and convinced myself it was nothing, until I was quite in its advanced stages.

We rushed to the hospital, and by the time we got there, little Noor was about ready to pop out of the oven. It took only about an hour for her to show up. Of course I was confronted with the grim news from my doctor and nurse as I screamed my way into the delivery room (epidural please! now!!!) that there was simply no time for pain medication at that point. Talk about nature taking its own course!! All they could manage to give me was a small dose of morphine, which only made me dizzy and gave me delirious recollections of the doctor having a conversation about sushi and pregnancy with Yassine as I pushing ("just think" he said, attempting to comfort me, "you can have sushi again!").

Anyway, I will save you all the painful details, just suffice to say it was certainly all worth it when I saw her precious little face. And Yousuf, of course, is already assuming the role of older brother like a pro-including schooling her in the ways of spiderman (he attempted to pose like Spiderman in all his pictures with her :)).

And for those of you wondering, yes, we took the laptop with us to the hospital :)