By Joshua Rosenstein, Assistant Editor, JTNews
In a race no less brutal then the gubernatorial contest that has roiled our state, three babies converged upon Swedish Medical Center on New Year’s Day, each striving to be the first Jewish baby born in 2005. Two of the babies struggled inside their mother, Sarah Rudnick, each trying his best to come out first. In a birthing room not far away, Zosia Claire Rosler was keeping her own counsel on her quest to be first. In the final run, Zosia beat Rosler baby Aleph by two minutes, pulling into the lead and bursting into the world at 10:55 p.m. on January 1st. Rosler Baby Aleph (as he is currently being called) arrived at 10:57 p.m. and Baby Bet arrived at 11:02 p.m., thereby giving the local Jewish community three shining new faces—all in the space of seven minutes! Which makes choosing the first baby a statistical dead heat, but with any luck we won’t need a recount.
Steve and Sarah Rudnick of Seattle are some times known as a paradox (Pair-O-Docs). Steve is a doctor of internal medicine and Sarah is a pediatrician. The couple belongs to Congregation Shaarei Tefilah-Lubavitch in Seattle. The proud grandparents are Dr. Arnie and Anita Reich of Mercer Island and Sharon and Roland Rudnick of San Diego, Calif.
Steve and Sarah, who have not yet decided on names for their twin boys, have wanted a family for a long time. The pregnancy was difficult, and Sarah spent the first three and the last three months on enforced bedrest. But some lovely serendipity has given even more meaning to the birth: she had been pregnant 36 weeks to the day when Sarah went into labor, a double chai, and she gave birth to twin boys. Also, the babies were born on the anniversary of the death of Shneor Zalman, the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, whose name translates to “two points of light.”
The Rudnicks’ two points of light came into the world after 20 hours of labor and fulfilled both their dreams. Baby Aleph weighed in at 5 lbs., 14 oz. and measured 18 inches long. Baby Bet weighed 5 lbs., 13 oz. and measured 19 inches.
But the actual first baby of the year prize goes to Zosia Clair Rosler, born to David and Kristin Rosler of West Seattle. She weighed 7 lbs, 2 oz. and measured 19 inches long. Her grandparents are Marvin and Sharyn Rosler of Wayne, N.J., Marilyn and Van Lawrence of South Lake, Tex., and Richard Morey of Queensland, Australia.
There was never any doubt in Zosia’s mind that she was going to be first. When Kristin started labor on Dec. 19, the excited couple went to the hospital, but Zosia had her sights set on a different day and refused to come out. So the couple went home to wait another two weeks. On the morning of New Years’ Day, David and Kristin went to the hospital again, and were told that Kristin would give birth on Jan. 2nd. Neither Kristin nor Zosia were having any of that.
“When I saw it was getting close to midnight I started pushing really hard,” said Kristin, “I wanted her to have the day off on her birthday for her whole life.”
Kristin is a research scientist at University of Washington while David is a biomedical research engineer at Archus Orthopedics. The couple belongs to Kol HaNeshamah in West Seattle. Kristin tells about the ceremony Kol HaNeshamah held for three of the congregation’s expecting mothers. A group of 15 experienced moms had a luncheon and prayer circle. Each woman told a birth story and put a bead on a bracelet, which was given to each new mother at the end of the ceremony. Kristin says she wore her bracelet throughout the entire difficult delivery and said it reminded her of all the women who had been through what she was going through. She says she won’t be taking it off until all three of the women have given birth.
From everyone at JTNews to the moms and dads and three first babies, a hearty Mazel Tov!