Hi there! 

Yummy - this time there was a big catch. With food in her mouth she used to stand on the fence for a minute near the nest, looking around, making sure nobody watches, then flying to the nest. 

little Robin was cleaning the nest all the time 

feeding. Robin moved fast and she is a little smeared 

In the lion's mouth 

The little ever hungry chicks could stetch their necks to an amazing extent 

The sad story about little Robin: Some human being (if s/he can be called so) came and destroyed the little nest! They took the little gozalim and left the empty nest on our doorsteps. We are so sad! Who could have done something like that???? We were afraid it would fall, but did not expect somebody to be so ruthless. Given where the nest was found, and the fact that the chicks disappeared, it was clear it did not fall by itself. In fact, it did not fall at all - it was carefully taken down. Bu. I will post one more picture of the little chicks z"l that I took a couple of days before it happened. 

Colette is preparing pregnancy herbs, after getting the OK from the midwife. Yori helped. 

Lelo milim 

Colette's size 

Some more ecological baby clothes

Due to overwhelming public demand....

Here is the picture of the changing table with Yori. The diaper, also known as pa?al, is made from organic cotton.
Yori is still wondering....

Home birth is becoming popular in Israel too?

If you read Hebrew, click here: http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3101925,00.html

We bought a changing table, from Craigslist

We bought a used one for $50. It looks good, like new.

Now only a kitchen hutch left to buy, and maybe a couch for the living room.

The GBS test is negative

We just got the Group B strep (also called GBS or Beta strep) results, and they are negative (good!). GBS is a type of bacteria found in the vagina in about 15% of women without symptoms. It is not an infection in the mother, and does not require treatment before labor.
A mother with group B strep who is not treated with antibiotics during labor has the potential of passing the bacteria on to her baby as the baby passes through the birth canal. Newborns do not fight infections well, and GBS in the newborn can be very serious, causing pneumonia, meningitis and blood poisoning and death.
Without the negative results, the standard protocol here is to give antibiotics IV during labor. Many people do not test for this unless there are additional risk factors (I do not think in Israel they test for it at all) - however it is better to test it, because if we end up in hospital, without this negative test they would have put Colette automatically on antibiotics and she does not want it.

The stupid bird had her chicks!

So no more beautiful turquoise eggs - now there is one or two (we cannot see) little black chick(s). The chick we can see have his beak wide open pointing up, and the parents (both!) are bringing food and putting it in their mouth. Sometimes the food runs away, and so they need to bring some more. It's interesting - right now the father is sitting on the nest more than the mother. In the previous two weeks it was only the mother, and we could not see the father.

However... The condition of the nest continues to deteriorate, and we are still worried that it will collapse and fall down. Anybody knows how long does it take for the chicks to fly/be independent?

A really stupid bird (you'll hear why in a moment) built her nest on a tree near our entrance. It is a beautiful little bird, with big black eyes and yellow beak. She is sitting in her nest, on top of 2 or 3 beautiful TURQUOISE eggs, and leaves only once in a while. There is no spouse in sight, by the way. At the beginning she used to run away each time we entered or left the house, but now she is more accustomed to us. The sad thing, is that this tonta bird did not build a high quality nest, and it is slowly slowly sliding down and falling apart. We do not really know what to do - shall we help her and duct-tape it to the tree (risking she will abandon the nest) - or just let it ride and hope that it will hold? It is really coming apart. Michal said to leave it as is, and consider this as brera tiv'it. Maybe this is what we need to do (i.e. not do). PLEASE post your opinion as a comment!

Pickles

We made pickles safta style... Yummy. They are really good. Colette found this excellent trick to make the jar air tight during the fermentation - she puts a nylon bag filled with water on the top of the Jar. It allows gas to escape, but otherwise keep it shut. One tablespoon of salt per cup of water and spices. That's it.

This is where b"h Colette will give birth. We just assembled the "AquaDoula" tub that we rented. Unseen on the right hand side is a sleeper sofa that we will open as a bed. The tub is filled with warm water from the bathroom via a hose. It has a thermostat and a heating pad that will maintain the water in body temperature. One extra liner will be placed before we put the water in.

Sunday was FATHER'S DAY, and Colette made this beautiful present for Yori! Note the Left Occipital Anterior position of Orez - visualizing the baby in the correct presentation cannot hurt!!! Unfortunately, at this point s/he is still posterior :-(

View form our living room 

Study

Colette studying Gemara (Kidushin) with Henry Falkenberg over the phone. Henry is the Rabbi at the downtown San Francisco synagogue. His expertise is Kabala. Yori is studying with him Sefer Yetzira once a week. (See http://kenesethisraelsf.org/)

Lelo milim 

Hi everyone! As you can see in this picture, Colette is bigger than ever these days. The baby is still posterior, but we sure hope it will rotate to anterior anytime. Moo Meow exercises are being conducted daily.

“Colette is due in 3 weeks, and is doing GREAT”

(thank you Stewart)

The midwife visit

Beah, our midwife, came to visit this morning to see the house and check Colette. Everything is fine. The baby that was posterior before my trip to Israel, is now anterior (what's called LOA - Left Occipital Anterior) which is the best position for birth. The baby is high though, so it could still turn into a less favorable position. We will continue to check it every week. Beah said that she think the baby will not be early, and that we are shooting for the due date of early July.
She also said that the legs of this baby are very long - so long that she was worried at some point that it is breech, which is why she wanted to do an vaginal examination today to make sure it is OK. Next visit is Tuesday 8am. Tuesday we will also do the Group B Streptococcus (GBS) test. Between 10% to 30% of women carry this bacteria, without symptom. If present, the standard procedure is to give the laboring women antibiotics IV. Colette hates this idea, and we hope to be clear. Shabat Shalom and see you soon.

la lalalahhhh lalala 

harooach noshevet krira 

The portable fire proved really really nice 

This candle is citronella candle to keep the mosquitoes away 

Colette made sure there was fire everywhere