Emirati mother tells of joy at having baby boy on first day of Eid

ABU DHABI // Cradling her newborn son as he let out a yawn, Meera Al Remeithi showed off her greatest blessing this Eid Al Adha.

Khalid Al Sharqi, her second child, arrived at 8.11am on Tuesday, when she was 39 weeks and five days pregnant.

He was the fourth Eid baby born at Abu Dhabi's Corniche Hospital, where there was a boy boom. All of the infants born by midday were male.

“This is a perfect birthday for my newborn,” said Meera, 25, an Emirati. “It is truly a blessing.”

She knew she was having a boy, so she had already stocked up on the blue essentials.

She was admitted to hospital at about 2.30am yesterday after experiencing abdominal pain. Her waters broke at 6.30am.

Meera was nervous because her first child, also a boy, was delivered by caesarean section.

“With my first baby, I did not feel the labour pains, so this time I was just thinking about how it would come out. I was worried that it would be painful,” she said.

“But I forgot everything as soon as I saw my baby. It was all worth it.”

Meera said having her baby on the first day of Eid made his birth all the more special.

“I was not expecting him to arrive this early but I am thankful to Allah and delighted that he is a healthy baby and born on the Eid day,” she said.

Meera, from Abu Dhabi, said her firstborn, Ali, 3, chose his new baby brother’s name and had been eagerly anticipating his arrival.

“All the time he was talking to my stomach saying, ‘I am going to let you play with my toys if you are good. But if you are not good, then no toys’,” she said. “He has been very excited.”

Khalid was born weighing a healthy 3.2 kilograms.

Meera is an identical twin and her family had joked that she could be expecting a double bundle, but she said she could not be happier with her baby boy.

Khalid’s arrival was unexpected, so her husband of five years, Hussain Al Sharqi, a policeman in Dubai, missed the birth because he was on duty.

He rushed to be by his wife’s bedside by midday yesterday.

Meera’s mother, Sharifa Al Balushi, 43, was with her daughter and cried as soon as she laid eyes on her second grandson.

“It was a wonderful experience the moment you see the baby,” Ms Al Balushi said. “I was so scared but it was wonderful.”

As one of eight children, Meera said she wanted a big family but would wait three years until her next baby.

Staff at Corniche Hospital’s maternity ward described their delivery suites during yesterday’s Eid as the quietest in more than a decade.

“We have had very few babies on the ward on Eid. It is very unusual,” said Micheline Baakini, the unit manager

The first three to be born were premature and were taken to the intensive-care unit.

The first baby was born at 1.32am, 33 weeks into the pregnancy, the second at 2.49am and 23 weeks, and the third at 6.56am and 34 weeks.

Ms Baakini said a few more babies were expected by the end of yesterday.

To mark the Eid celebrations, new mothers were given a huge, colourful bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates and a basket full of baby essentials, including tiny baby suits and socks.

jbell@thenational.ae