This Jewish Comedian Live-Tweeted Her 48-Hour Labor – Kveller
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This Jewish Comedian Live-Tweeted Her 48-Hour Labor

By Evelyn Frick

I spent the majority of this past weekend hyper-fixated on my phone, anxiously awaiting any and all updates on the birth of Ely’s baby. No, Ely is not my relative or my close friend. Actually, she isn’t even someone I’ve ever met in person.

Ely Kreimendahl is a hilarious queer, Jewish comedian I follow on Twitter. She’s won “Funny or Die’s” Best of the Web competition Vol. 3 with her sketch “Women for Biden” and was featured on Vulture’s Follow Friday series with her husband, Basil (and their dog Moishe!).

She also has plenty of hilarious content on social media, including multiple viral tweets like this gem:

Currently, she’s in residence at Ars Nova’s CAMP program, through which she’s putting up her solo comedy show, “How Does That Make You Feel?” on July 1. You can buy tickets to see this virtual performance about queer motherhood, pregnancy, and identity here.

But back to the baby. It all started last Thursday evening when I happened upon this tweet:

And this tweet, from Basil:

Like most young people who’ve never had a baby or been intimately close to the birthing process, I assumed that since Ely was getting induced on Friday, that meant her baby would be born on Friday.

(I’ll pause a minute for any more knowledgable folks to finish laughing.)

Needless to say, I was extremely incorrect. Instead, what transpired was a days-long  journey that I experienced as refracted through the screen of my phone. When it came to her tweets, Ely focused on the humor in the situation, but from what I could tell, her birthing journey was a long and painful experience that included an induction, several bouts of stalled labor, pain medication and an epidural and, finally, the birth of a healthy baby.

Over the course of three days, I felt like part of a small community that was virtually brought into Ely’s hospital room to laugh, rally and rejoice with her and her family. What follows are some highlights from Ely’s witty and extremely authentic live-tweeting of the birth of her second child. Please enjoy.

The birth live-tweeting had a very auspicious start:

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community myself, I couldn’t agree more with this sentiment:

We’ve now reached the part of the labor where Ely was given pain medication and proceeded to write some of my favorite tweets from labor, like this one:

And the important follow-up:

Seemingly normal interaction with a nurse, right?

WRONG!

OK, I know I said that the “stoned” Ely tweets were some of my favorite tweets, but this one actually takes the cake as my favorite tweet:

At this point, there seemed to be quite a few people following Ely’s birth saga and she sent out an extremely important plea:

Like any good narrative, some drama or conflict is added. Notice, if you will, how this saga began on June 11, but it is now June 13:

OK wait — this one might be my favorite? I’m not sure anymore.

What’s an extremely protracted labor if not the perfect time to hop on a popular meme trend?

And then, there was radio silence. Even as I got drinks with vaccinated friends on Sunday evening, I couldn’t help but check my Twitter every couple thirty minutes to see if there was any news on baby. I hoped that perhaps because Ely wasn’t tweeting that meant she was in the thick of delivery, or perhaps had already given birth and was spending precious time with her newborn.

To my delight, less than an hour before midnight, Ely provided the update I had long been waiting for:

Mazel tov, Ely and Basil! (And for anyone wondering, Ely did get to 50K followers.) If you haven’t yet picked out a name for you little one, might we suggest you take a look at Kveller’s Jewish Baby Name Finder?

Thank you, Ely, for including me and so many others on your birthing journey. I can’t wait to see whatever content — whether it’s comedy, a baby, or both —  you put out next!

Header image courtesy of Ely Kreimendahl

Evelyn Frick

Evelyn Frick (she/her or they/them) is a writer and comedian and an editorial assistant for Kveller's sister site Alma.

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