PARENTING

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The Newest Arrivals

Waiting for Baby

By Maayan Jaffe

The day Heather Horowitz’s white plastic stick read positive a combination of shock and thrill surged through her body. She knew she had a new life inside of her and that her own life was about to change.

At seven-and-a-half months pregnant at the time iNSIDER interviewed her, Heather, who teaches special needs children in Baltimore County, said she’s feeling great — aside from some lower back pains and issues with her sciatic nerve. She’s eagerly awaiting the arrival of the newest member of her and husband Andrew’s Mt. Washington family.

It’s a boy, she said.

Being pregnant has been a learning experience for the Horowitz family. Physically, said Heather, she finds it fascinating to watch her body change.

“I’ve been taking pictures every month from three months and it’s so cool to watch the belly change,” she said. “I thought I was so big at three months and I look at me at almost eight months and I’m like, ‘Oh my God!’ There is very little comparison.”

Nineteen pounds heavier, Heather said she hasn’t had the “typical” pregnancy cravings, the ones you hear about or see in movies. The smell of pickles, in fact, makes her sick. However, there was that night she just had to have a sub from her favorite pizza place.

“I remember I craved it at 11 at night. We called and ordered. By 11:15, it was at our house. By 11:30, I was asleep,” recalled Heather, explaining that sometimes her blood sugar takes a dive and if she doesn’t eat right away she gets lightheaded and “in such a bad mood.”

How’s dad adjusting to the weight?

“I think she is even more beautiful now,” Andrew said. “She’s gorgeous! It’s very attractive, her being pregnant.”

The round belly and food frenzy hasn’t, however, been the focus of the Horowitz pregnancy. Around 18-and-a-half weeks, they found out the sex of the baby. They almost immediately planned the brit milah. (Rabbi Michael Henesch is going to officiate. It will be at the Horowitz’s house on the eighth day, unless the eighth day is a weekend — then they might look at halls.)

At 20 weeks, they first felt the baby kick.

“The wildest thing so far is when I actually got to feel her stomach moving. It is an amazing feeling,” noted Andrew, a financial consultant in Hunt Valley.

“I call them comfort kicks,” Heather said. “It’s like, ‘Kick for Mommy, so I don’t need to worry and I know everything is OK.’”

Are the Horowitzs scared? Let’s just say they’re leaving little room for the unknown. They’re enrolled in the Center for Jewish Education’s Shalom Baby program and have already become infant CPR-certified. They’ve taken classes at Babies “R” Us on how to get their little one to sleep through the night. Before the due date, they’ll have sat in a Sinai Hospital class about the birth, breathing techniques and baby’s first few moments. They’ve even interviewed and selected their pediatrician.

“I’m a very structured and organized person and it drives me crazy that I don’t know exactly when he is coming. I have been clinging to my girlfriends who have kids and I keep creating lists, you know, like what do you bring to the hospital, etc.” Heather said.

The couple plans to deliver at Sinai Hospital. No doula, just hubbie.

“Andrew is my man,” said Heather, who noted she hopes to at least try to breastfeed the baby.

Knowing a baby is on the way has brought their nuclear family closer together. “We feel more like a family now.… Finally, I’m going to have one of my own.” 

Baby on Board
You can do it, honey! Just a little more to go! Push it! Push it!”
If it sounds like a marathon, it’s not. It’s labor. But at the end of the long haul, a little bundle of joy comes out, wrinkled and red, but nonetheless the most special addition to your life.
“It’s a different life, but having a child is a happiness I haven’t experienced before,” said Dr. Tyler Cymet, whose wife, Dr. Holly Cymet, gave birth to Ilana in late August.

The Cymets live in a quiet, wooded area of Owings Mills, with their dog, cat and a new Thailandi au pair.

“Life has seriously changed!” said Holly, as she curled up her legs on a chair at the kitchen table, Ilana dozing in the swing alongside. Married five and a half years, the Cymets said they felt it was about time they added something new to their lives. When they found out it would be a little girl, they were overjoyed.

“I had a slight preference for a girl, just for the first one,” Holly said. “I feel like I know what to do with a girl.”

However, even with Holly’s intimate knowledge of the female gender, she admitted there have been a lot of surprises. There was that time in the first month when she was trying to change her baby’s diaper, and she went through four, as Ilana continued to poop through the process. Oh, and it was only recently that Holly got a good taste of her own breast milk, when Ilana spat up in her mother’s mouth.

Tyler recalled the day he and his wife left the house with Ilana, but without the diaper bag.

“I don’t care if I make a mistake for myself. Like if I’d walk out of the house with clothes that don’t match,” Tyler said. “But for our baby — we don’t want her to be without a clean diaper.”

The Cymets said they’re adjusting to the baby surprisingly well. She’s not sleeping through the night. She gets up one or two times per night to nurse — which also is going smoothly. Holly is a professor at Morgan State University and is transitioning back to work. If she gets overly tired from a few nights without enough shuteye, she pumps a bottle and Tyler fills in.

“She gets up a lot more during a growth spurt,” said Holly. “She’s growing now. I can see it and feel it.”

After Ilana was born, by planned Caesarean because she was breech, the Cymets used a postpartum doula to help get them set up. This is advice Holly said should not be taken lightly. Setting up a routine, she said, helps mom, dad and baby thrive.

What’s Ilana’s routine?

“Ok,” said Holly, with a matter-of-fact look on her face. “She’s on this wonderful schedule of feed, awake, nap that runs roughly every three hours from her first feeding between 6 and 7 a.m. She’s a very happy baby that way.”

In the evening, the schedule is modified a little, so that Ilana nurses, plays, then nurses again and goes to sleep. In the first six weeks, Holly let Ilana nurse on demand. But she said she quickly realized she was going to crack with feedings every hour-and-a-half at night, so she put the current routine in place.

For Holly and Tyler, five years without children meant they had time to go out with friends, meet for drinks and the like. Holly said some of her relationships have changed since baby came on board. She has less time for her single and childless friends, but seems to be getting closer with those who have children too.

“We did the Shalom Baby class in August and about half-way through it was pretty clear people were looking for peers going through the process at the same time, as much as the education. We’re very much in touch with the other couples,” said Holly. “We also see our friends with kids much more now. Those friends are thinking of including us now as much as we want to get together with them.”

How’d they pick the name? Tyler said they wanted something Hebrew.

“With a name like Cymet, we needed something that identified with more of who she is,” he said. An official baby naming is planned for her first birthday, when Tyler’s brother, a rabbi, can come in from Israel to “officiate.”

Any sentiments they think those expecting should hear?

“The best advice is to not have a picture of what a perfect child or a perfect birth should be. If you do that, you’ll be disappointed,” said Tyler. “You may not get a vaginal delivery or something else you want. But you’re getting a person in your life, and that is what matters.”