By Stephanie Gandelman 
Giving birth for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic without my husband in the hospital felt strange. It was lonely at times. It didn’t feel real. But it was OK because my baby was OK.
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Now, being home from the hospital during a pandemic with only my husband and baby feels strange. It is lonely at times. It doesn’t feel real. But it is OK because my baby is OK.
Our little family has been home for a week now, and we have settled into our newborn quarantine life consisting of changing diapers, feeding baby Jake, sleeping, chilling, and then doing it all again and again and again. It’s kind of fun. It’s kind of like Groundhog Day. It’s kind of like what having a newborn is like whether there’s a global pandemic or not. That is, except for the fact that in the real world, Jake has a huge family. In the corona-world, however, we are a family of three.
One could argue video chat is the fourth member of our family.
Maybe it’s because everyone is home quarantining themselves or maybe it’s just because Jake is so super loved, but my Jake may, in fact, be the most connected 1-week-old this world has ever seen. On any given day, he gets serenaded by Aunt Mollie and her ukelele. He plays Zoom family game night. He loves a good girl hang with Mommy’s friends. He has video check-ups with Dr. Grandpa and Dr. Auntie Devo. And he even had 200+ of his nearest and dearest attend his virtual bris. I know . . . ridic.
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If we were not living in the time of the coronavirus, we would have circumcised our boy at a bris eight days after he was born. Instead, for obvious reasons, we had him circumcised in the hospital. This left the question: what about the bris? (For those who don’t know, a bris is a ceremony performed on the eighth day of a baby boy’s life, entering him into Judaism.) We decided to do a bris via Zoom.
I was hesitant at first, thinking it would be boring, and I also didn’t want people to feel obligated to come. However, I also didn’t want my boy to miss out on this life milestone.
The outcome was greater than I could have ever imagined.
My husband welcomed everyone and did an amazing job of capturing exactly what we were feeling:
It’s hard to put into words what it’s like having a baby during the coronavirus pandemic. But, it has really enabled us to put this whole thing into perspective.
As many of you know, Steph delivered Baby G without me there. And, he has not met his grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins or any of you. He is, however, here. He is healthy. And, he is everything we’ve been wishing for.
It might seem like the world is falling apart around us, but we’ve never felt more loved or supported in our whole lives. We almost feel guilty about how happy we are right now. This is my first Zoom bris, and I imagine it’s yours, so here goes nothing!
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The service followed, and then our family members spoke so incredibly beautifully about our boy. So much so that multiple friends and family members reached out after to let us know it was the best bris they had ever been to. Which is mind-blowing because we didn’t even feed them.
It was such a special day we will never, ever forget.
Even in this crazy time, we are still making memories.
We are still in love with our baby boy. We are still extremely grateful that after a long IVF journey our little guy is finally here.
So, all in all, week one was a success. I can’t wait to see what is in store for week two.
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