Meet Benedicta Maribel

Simcha Fisher over at the I Have To Sit Down blog has had her baby and is blogging again. Simcha is a cradle Hebrew Catholic. She and her husband just had their ninth child on December 8th. Benedicta Maribel weighed 8 pounds, 14 ounces. Simcha lives in New Hampshire and is sort of writing a book. Her blog posts are always great. Here's her latest about the birth of Benedicta Maribel...


Baby Post with Blabbering and Lots of Pictures!

I took a week off writing and forgot how to write. So here are some miscellaneous word-thingies about life with our lovely Baby Benny, who is a week old today.

THE NAME:

We originally chose Benedict Renée Fisher, thinking “blessed and reborn” was pretty awesome, with the bonus of a tribute to our beloved pope and St. Benedict. But then we realized her initials would be BRF, which any self-respecting sibling would immediately and permanently identify as BARF. So Renée was out.

When it became clear that the little stinker intended to be born in December, and not November, we started to think about more Marian names. Maribel is for Mary, of course, with a nod to Our Lady of Guadalupe (whose feast is one of three due dates I was given) because . . . um, it sounds kind of Spanishy.

I tried really, really hard to give birth on Dec. 7, but the pious child simply wouldn’t budge until the feast of the Immaculate Conception (two minutes into Dec. 8, to be exact).

Furthermore, when I was in early labor, I had the sudden idea to use the Sh’ma Yisrael (something I haven’t thought about in years) as a mental chant while doing my useless breathing exercises. The Sh’ma is a short prayer derived from the Torah. It’s sort of the anchor for all Jewish prayer: ”Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” You say it in the morning and in the evening, and, if you can manage it, as your last words before you die.

So I went with it. After the birth, my mother reminded me that Edith Stein, the great Jewish philosopher, who converted to Catholicism, became a nun, and was martyred in the Holocaust, took the name Theresa Benedicta with her vows. So, Benedicta again! This child has, at last count, four patron saints, including one with an apparent penchant for making cryptic suggestions to women in labor.

THE BIRTH STORY:

I hate, hate, hate giving birth, and this one was, to be honest, one of the most scary and unhappy labors and deliveries for me, although it’s hard to say why, since there were no medical complications and I had so much care and support from my husband, family, friends, and doctors. So I will spare you the birth story, and instead I’ll take Jen Fulwiler’s advice and put it into haiku form:

THE BIRTH OF BENEDICTA MARIBEL

Everybody prayed,
And I appreciate it!
(I threw out those socks)

And we got us one of these:



So that turned out okay. Let’s see, what else?

THE OTHER KIDS:


The kids are all more or less bonkers over her.

Click here to read more and see more pictures of Benedicta Maribel and Simcha's family...