A Little Wave Washes Ashore: Ondine, aka Lolli (Dispatch 2)

Commune with Jeff Krasno · Jun 23, 2026 · 28m

When the contractions were two minutes apart, Jeff's phone chirped out the opening riff of Ice Ice Baby. That was the ringtone for Kara, the midwife. He picked up and she said, "Are you sitting down?"

She wasn't coming.

This week, Jeff tells the birth story of his second daughter, Ondine, aka Lolli — born in a Brooklyn basement that wasn't exactly Gatsby. When the model-turned-midwife got swept up in a home birth documentary and the backup landed two hours north on I-87, Jeff took off his clothes, got in the tub, and resolved to deliver his own baby — until Miriam walked through the door in…