School!

August was the greatest month ever! Here's how our summer looked.

In May I made desperate attempts to finish papers in my postpartum delirium. I finished my remaining requirements for my graduate minor in Complimentary Medicine from the Center for Spirituality and Healing.  Another step closer to my master's.  Even more exciting, Nick finished and graduated from law school!  I threw him a fancy-fun graduation party and hosted our families.

I considered taking some credits over the summer but am so glad I didn't.  In June we focused on the baby, with some time for the garden and his study for the bar exam.  In July I went back to work at the University, part time.  Everything people told me to expect was true:  my tears, her increased nightime nursing, difficulty finding time to pump at work, increased stress, missing baby, gradual transition until eventually it all felt routine.  For the month of July, my mom and my friend Michaela (Madeline's godmother!) generously helped to watch the baby some days while I worked.  Nick was able to study full-time in preparation for the bar exam at the end of July.  The day before my birthday, he finished his law studies/exams -- hallelujah!

August was our first month - ever since living in Minnesota - to be completely without responsibilities to school and homework!  We felt so free.  We picked berries, played with the baby, and harvested our garden.  Oh yeah, I returned to work full-time.  But whatever!  Our nights and weekends were ours!  Delicious.

Now, September is showing to be increasingly complex.  Nick's business class is a pain in the patootey.  Thankfully my class on healthcare management doesn't begin until October.  Madeline is rolling over and will be crawling soon (and she's not even five months old!).  In addition, we've signed up for ECFE (early childhood family education) through St. Paul schools.  Today was Madeline's first day of "school".  Parents and babies will attend class weekly to sing, play games, hear about childhood development, learn sign language, etc.

Now all three of us are in school!

Madeline

Madeline Claire was born on April 18th, healthy and whole.  The birth was a great experience, assisted by Nick, a doula and a midwife, born in a hospital in a huge birthing tub.  She has lots of dark hair, a narrow torso, long limbs, and darker tawny skin (likely inherited from her paternal grandmother, 'Nonni').  We think she looks a lot like her Daddy, but some of my aunts say that her narrow face might look like some of my uncles.  She tipped the scale over ten pounds in early June, but is still wearing newborn-sized clothes due to her narrow frame.  Lots of people call her 'a peanut'!  We carry her around in a sling and she is quite content to study her surroundings or sleep.  She sleeps well in particularly noisy environments like restaurants, parties, or church.  

At seven weeks she is expressive, smiley, and still sleeps a lot.  It's hard to capture her smile on film because she gets distracted by the camera; she wants me to be looking directly at her!  But trust me, she's a smiley, laughing little kicker.  Happy baby!

Pregnancy Preparations

Oh, the list-making! The hunting and gathering! The painting and purchasing, imagining and expanding, reading and remodeling. Prior to the arrival of baby we have been:

• working our jobs at Midwest Disability and the University of Minnesota
• Nick's first class in Hamline's business school (to start the MBA)
• Teresa's last class in the Center for Spirituality and Healing (to finish the graduate minor), and a statistics class from the Humphrey School
• prenatal yoga at Blooma
• meeting midwives and doctors and doulas
• attending classes at the Childbirth Collective
• arranging diaper service
• touring hospitals and birth centers
• pondering names for this being who will enter our world
• writing thank-you letters in response to incredible generosity
• cooking to pre-stock our freezer for a busy summer
• weeding and lawn care in this early spring bloom
• cleaning out the garden beds in preparation for seed-planting
• washing baby clothes and diapers
• remodeling the upstairs 'swan bathroom' with new vanity and cabinets
• painting and setting up the baby room with crib, dressers, wall decorations
• moving our bedroom from the first floor to the second, across the hall from the baby room
• dreaming, reading and journaling
• quieting

As I write this, I am a few days from the "guess date" (due date), so the baby could come anytime... tomorrow or two weeks from now.

Our Charge

This image by Ferdi Rizkiyanto struck me, and then a poem heard at our church this morning brought it home. Our charge, as parents, as citiczens, as consumers, as beings, is to care for one another.

Inventing Sin by George Ella Lyon (from Life Prayers, ed. by E. Roberts and E. Amidon)

God signs to us
we cannot read
She shouts
and we take cover
She shrugs
and trains leave
the tracks

Our schedules! we moan
Our loved ones

God is fed up
All the oceans she gave us
All the fields
All the acres of steep seedful forests
And we did what
Invented the Great Chain
of Being and
the chain saw
Invented sin

God sees us now
gorging ourselves &
starving our neighbors
starving ourselves
and storing our grain
& She says
I've had it
you cast your trash
upon the waters-
it's rolling in

You stuck your fine fine finger
into the mystery of life
to find death

& you did
you learned how to end
the world
in nothing flat

Now you come crying
to your Mommy
Send us a miracle
Prove that you exist

Look at your hand, I say
Listen to your sacred heart
Do you have to haul the tide in
sweeten the berries on the vine

I set you down
a miracle upon miracles
You want more
It's your turn
You show me