OTMAA's birthdays/birthplaces

[Sarai_Porretta]

I have read that she nursed Olga and Alexei herself, those having had the special status of being her firstborn child and her long-awaited son, respectively.

I don't know if she nursed the other children, although I did read in Nicholas & Alexandra that, while under house arrest in the Alexander Palace, an inquiring soldier asked her why she did not travel throughout Russia and accused her of not having an interest in her country because of it. She explained to him that in her youth she had been occupied with five children and that she had nursed all of her children herself.

Somehow I don't think that she would have nursed all of the children for the entire period of time that a child should be breastfed, and while she may have nursed them at first, at some point they may have been given over to a wet nurse.

[grandduchessella]

I read that also Grand Duchess Ella Feodorowna stayed with Alix and the Dowager Empress during Olga's birth.
.

Grand Duchess Elizabeth to Queen Victoria, 13 November 1895

[edited]
Alix is looking well and her nursing the Baby does her
the greatest good possible. She is not woken in the
night so as to have a good rest. The Baby is too
sweet. All the good counsels you gave me to tell
(Grevst) have been done from the beginning as here the
treatment of women in confinement is perfect. Always
the most perfect air in the rooms and as to
cleanliness that is perfection so that you never would
believe that there was a sick person in the room.

The joy of having their Baby has never one moment let
them regret little Olga being a girl and they are too
dear with their little child. You know the dreadful
nonsense which had got spread God knows how that Alix
was dangerously ill that she could not have a child
that there would have to be [an] operation lots of
bosh but in everything there is a good side and the
result is that now all know she is well the Baby too
that she nurses so that the joy is intense and the
disappointment of its being a girl washed out through
the pleasure of knowing all is well.

Nicholas II to Maria Fyodorovna, 28 September 1895
Tsarskoe Selo, 28th September, 1895.

Dear darling Mama,

......The pain in her abdomen was fairly acute,
especially when the baby kicked inside. We both
decided to send for Gunz. For safety's sake we stayed
overnight in our house. She, Gunz, in turn summoned
Doctor Ott, who paid Alix two visits, and quite
reassured us both. According to him, thank God,
everything is quite normal with Alix and she herself
looks well. He only asked her to move about as little
as possible for another few days, as both he and Gunz
are of the opinion that "everything is ready" for the
child's appearance into this world. It has become very
big and kicks about and fights a good deal inside!

I have given you full details of this incident because, darling Mama, I was afraid of various foolish rumors
which will most likely reach you. Everything, thank
God, is alright and quiet! We expect the happy event
in two or three weeks' time-- about the 15th October.

[Sarai_Porretta]

Ps-- could anyone explain the difference between a name day and a birthday in Orthodoxy?

As I understand it, a name day is a day which commemorates the saint whom you are named after. I would like to know, however, whether that is the saint's death date or otherwise what it is.

With regards to birthdays, I find it interesting that the parents congratulated each other on their children's birthdays, as well as congratulating the children themselves, as is evident from their letters. On the AP site, under Tatiana's birthday, it says that in the morning a tiered cake and sweet pie were brought to Alexandra's sitting room on the occasion of Tatiana's birthday. I also recall, from memory, that on other such occasions Alix was also congratulated and given honors along with the birthday child. I just thought that it was an interesting custom, as we are used to making a birthday all about the birthday person themselves, but I suppose that honoring the mother who actually gave birth to them is a nice gesture too. In any case, it seems the children's birthdays were spent pleasantly enough, with luncheons in their honour and gifts of jewelry and other beautiful things.

[grandduchessella]

Courtesy of the main Alexander Palace website:

Extracts from the Diaries of Nicholas II
Jan.15. "...Our obstetrician in ordinary Ott suggested that Alix should be brought out to the balcony right in her bed to breathe some fresh air for half an hour which she liked very much..."

(this was post-birth)

[Sarai_Porretta]

grandduchessella,
Thank you for posting those two letters regarding Olga's birth - I had never read them before! Interesting that Olga was originally expected around October 15th. The parents must have been very impatient for her to be born after waiting nearly 3 weeks after her supposed due date. I wonder if the doctors just miscalculated when she would be born or if she was just really such a late-term baby. Being born so much later than her due date may explain why she was such a big baby (10 lbs.!) and had a full head of hair when she was born. I myself was late by about a week and was born with dark hair covering my head and fingernails that were a bit longer than usual for a newborn, although I weighed in at less than Olga (around 8 lbs.).

[Janet_W.]

Regarding Alix breastfeeding, here is a section from my article about her oldest daughter. It repeats some of the information already posted, but also contains a bit more explanation.

(Those of us familiar with Queen Victoria's likes and dislikes know that she abhored breastfeeding so much that her oldest daughters, Vicky and Alice, kept it secret from her as much as possible that they were doing so!)


. . . the doting young Tsar recorded another entry: “In the morning I admired our delightful little daughter; she does not at all look new-born, because she is such a big baby with a full head of hair . . . Thank God is all well; but the baby does not want to take her breast, so we had to call the wet-nurse again.”  

The matter of the wet-nurse, in fact, had inspired some amusement.  At Alix’s first attempt, she succeeded only in nursing the wet nurse’s son, while the wet-nurse fed little Olga. The Grand Duke Alexander and Grand Duchess Xenia were also in on the joke, for as Xenia recorded November 5, “Alix started feeding [Olga] herself. During dinner, the wet-nurse’s son started to take her breast, and we all took turns to go in and watch the spectacle!”

Amidst all this domesticity, Alix’s grandmother, Queen Victoria of England, was not to be denied. On November 12 Nicholas wrote his grandmother-in-law an affectionate letter about the days following the birth of his daughter. Aware of the Queen’s adversity to her own daughters and granddaughters engaging in breastfeeding, Nicholas was pleasant but firm regarding his wife’s preference in the matter. “Dearest Alicky, who is lying near me in bed, begs to thank you most tenderly for your letter and good wishes. Thank God everything went off happily and both she and the little child are progressing most satisfactorily. She finds such a pleasure in nursing our sweet baby herself. For my part I consider it the most natural thing a mother can do and I think the example an excellent one! We are both so pleased that you accepted to be Godmother of our first child, because I am sure it will prove a happiness to her after your constant signs of kindness and of motherly affection towards us.” Then, as if to allay any protestations the Queen might have that the child had not been named for her English maternal line, Nicholas wrote, “The name of Olga we chose as it has already been several times in our family and is an ancient Russian name.”

The following day Alix’s sister Ella, wife of Grand Duke Serge, also wrote to her Grandmama Queen. “Alix is looking well and her nursing the Baby does her the greatest good possible . . . The joy of having their Baby has never one moment let them regret little Olga being a girl.”

[rskkiya]

Thanks everyone for the information about namedays and nursing! One thing I have discovered about this wedsite is that the people here are always so helpful!  
Spasiba!

[Sarai_Porretta]

I must say, I also love this forum so much partly because everyone is so friendly and helpful. People usually behave in a civilized and polite manner, and they are eager to share their knowledge to help answer your questions. I love the fact that you can ask just about anything and get a response, no matter how trivial or insignificant the question may seem to you. All these little burning questions that one has had over the years but has not had the chance to ask can be asked freely here and you are almost guaranteed to get a good answer.

[grandduchessella]

A few other tidbits gleaned from our very own Greg King's The Last Empress:

Nicholas recorded that "It (Olga) has become very big and kicks about a good deal inside"

If it had been a boy, it would've been named Paul which worred the Dowager Empress since the name was linked with such an unlucky Emperor

Marie asked to be notified as soon as the first symptoms of labor appeared so that she "shall fly to you, my dear children, and not be a nuisance, except, perhaps, by acting as policeman, to keep everybody else away"

Alexandra went into labor a little after 1:00 am and it went on for almost 20 hours

Alexandra fed & bathed Olga herself (the Tsar in his diary also makes many notes of giving the baby her bath), knitting her socks & sweaters

Each new baby had its bassinet set up in her bedroom so she could tend to them herself, even in the middle of the night

Tatiana:
came after a miscarriage during the time of the Coronation

difficult pregnancy; Alexandra confined to bed for 7 weeks and even after needed a wheelchair to get around

MF recommended that she eat raw ham in bed in the morning to help with the nausea; she had done it and found it helpful and nourishing and entreated Nicholas to take good care of her as his duty and look after her in every way, including warming her feet

One thing I've always found infuriating is that so much pressure was placed on Alexandra re: an heir. I mean she cranked out 4 children in 5-6 yrs! Sure the fact that they were all girls would've been disappointing but since she was so young and the public probably unaware of her health, it would've seemed she was perfectly capable of bearing a child--why the frenzy? Also if the Tsar had so much power, why couldn't he have revoked Paul's order barring women from succeeding? It seems Olga would've made a fine Empress--better than Michael or Kyril or any other claimant in the event of Alexei's death.

[grandduchessella]

I thought of that too, but I don't know how much was known about genetics back then. Men used to be able to divorce their wives on such grounds, even though it was their own fault!

[rskkiya]

Well... I understand you - but I believe this couple loved each other so much that divorcing due to any sort of biological/reproductive problems would have really been out of the question - emotionally - if not legally.

As I understand it, if Alexie had not been born, the crown would have gone to Micheal...

But I might be wrong.

[Janet_Ashton]

Tatiana:
came after a miscarriage during the time of the Coronation

This information (about the coronation pregnancy) comes ultimately from Marfa Mouchanow; but I don't think she was correct, because within days of the coronation A. was riding at Ilinskoe - very unikely if she'd just had a miscarriage....

The newspapers were speculating that she was pregnant at the time of the coronation; whoever wrote the Mouchanow book may perhaps have extrapolated from that, wondering what had happened to the baby?

Janet

[grandduchessella]

Well... I understand you - but I believe this couple loved each other so much that divorcing due to any sort of biological/reproductive problems would have really been out of the question - emotionally - if not legally.

As I understand it, if Alexie had not been born, the crown would have gone to Micheal...

But I might be wrong.

Hi, I wasn't talking in this respect about N&A but in response to the previous posters' mentioning of how women got the blame at the time for the sex of the baby even though men determine it. I was making a general statement about how men used to be able to use this as grounds for a divorce, even though divorces were hard to obtain back then. Certainly N&A NEVER would've considered divorce regardless of whether she'd had 10 girls.

[grandduchessella]

This information (about the coronation pregnancy) comes ultimately from Marfa Mouchanow; but I don't think she was correct, because within days of the coronation A. was riding at Ilinskoe - very unikely if she'd just had a miscarriage....

The newspapers were speculating that she was pregnant at the time of the coronation; whoever wrote the Mouchanow book may perhaps have extrapolated from that, wondering what had happened to the baby?

Janet

I don't know whether or not it's true, I was just listing items relating to pregnancies/childbirth that were listed in Greg King's The Last Empress. He and Penny have had tons of experience in this field--maybe they can clarify the information?

[Janet_Ashton]

I don't know whether or not it's true, I was just listing items relating to pregnancies/childbirth that were listed in Greg King's The Last Empress. He and Penny have had tons of experience in this field--maybe they can clarify the information?

Perhaps I can clarify what I wrote in my previous post!   I realise you probably didn't know whether it was true or not, so I just sort of added a few thoughts on this in case they might be of interest.

The book "My empress" by Marfa (sometimes also called Marie) Mouchanow, which contains the information that Alix was pregnant and miscarried in 1896, was written by someone who didn't exist. You may know this, but then again I'm aware I often write in shorthand and assume too much - so sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs! Some think she was an insider writing under an assumed name; others think she cobbled it together from previously published information she'd found. Personally I am inclined to think that it may have been a mixture of both insider stuff and published material.

Because of primary evidence (letters by Nicky about riding at Ilinskoe) which has emerged since my dear friend Greg King (who like all good historians constantly re-evaluates his opinions and material as more evidence becomes available) wrote his biography of Alix, I don't think A. CAN have been pregnant at the time of the coronation; Mouchanow - who Greg cites - has to have been mistaken about that. When G and I discussed this a while ago he didn't disagree with me on this point.

I think I've quoted Mouchanow before now too in things I've written about Alix - so if she was wrong when she wrote that "The origin of species" was one of A's favourite books, I'll be very disgruntled!  

Janet