Birth Roots!

I mentioned Birth Roots many times during pregnancy - this is the Perinatal Resource Center here in Portland which offered the childbirth education, breastfeeding, parenting, and newborn classes in which Dan and I participated. This is the place co-founded by our awesome doula, Leah and her amazing business partner, Emily.

Birth Roots recently re-located, due in part to the closure of Portland's only free-standing birthing center, the Ballard House, which had leased space to perinatal resource groups through the years. Their new location is larger and more functional for the types of classes and services offered. On Sunday, I attended the grand opening of the new location. Here's a clip from the local news:

http://www.wcsh6.com/video/default.aspx?mid=895208689

I strongly encourage any family preparing for birth in the Portland area to see what Birth Roots is all about. I really liked the independent nature of the courses, which allowed for more open discussion on the shared experience. Rather than taking a course hosted by the hospital where we gave birth-which, I'm sure, is a fine course- we were able talk about how I wanted give birth, not just what it would be like at that particular facility. In our Birthing from Within class there was couple who started out planning to birth at Mercy Hospital, decided do home birth instead, and, in the end, finished up delivering at Maine Medical Center. In my Blossoming Newborns class, there babies born at home, at Ballard House, at Maine Med, at Mercy...in tubs, squatting, in beds, by cesaerean birth... A wide variety of experiences, and we were brought together to help each other through the strange, tumultuous, scary, frustrating, joyous, wonderful and humbling experience of being a new mother.

Thank you, Birth Roots, for all you have done for my family and friends! Congratulations on your new space - it's beautiful, open, welcoming, functional, and perfectly YOU!

First day of day care

Vi had her first day of day care last Wednesday, and she loved it. Her teacher sent us this picture:
On her daily report (the piece of paper which tells us if she ate, pooped, slept, or learned anything new each day), it said "Vi had fun Playing with Cassy (the dog)."

This isn't going to be so hard, after all. Now I know the hard part will be the separation...for ME. I am going to miss so much of her development; I'll have to find a way to deal with the incongruity between my ideals as a mother, a feminist, and someone who can't afford to not work.

Post 101

Today was a perfect, wonderful day.


Preceded, of course, by a delightully long night of sleep, gifted to me by my precious daughter who went 7 (SEVEN!!) hours without needing us.

It's getting cold here, in Maine. Dan and I have been using a blanket and two comforters at night to stay warm - which has been, I admit, overkill to the point that we kick the top comforter off in a sweaty fit around 2 am. Still, it's cold enough that we THINK we need two comforters. Vi, like most babies, I'm told, kicks her blankets off. Dan's theory is that she's waking up cold. So, we purchased a "sleep sack" last night. Here is a picture of someone else's baby sleeping soundly in the sack.

You already know that Vi's first night in a sleep sack went very well.

This morning, Dan went to the kitchen to make cofee around 7:30, and took Vi with him. They snuggled and read books while the coffee brewed and I snoozed. We had warm beverages in bed together, snuggled, giggled, and loved the pets. When we were ready to get up (read: Vi started climbing down from the bed on her own), we all padded around in PJs and Dan made buckwheat pancakes.

**IS THAT NOT THE PERFECT START TO A DAY? Coffee/Bottle in bed, DaddyCakes in PJs. PERFECT.**

We then went about our typical morning routine of books and percussion instruments, intermingled with dog-kissing and shrieking. We ran a few errands, then headed up to Wolfe's Neck Farm for a pumpkin hay ride. We saw chickens, turkeys, sheep, and cows. We even saw what one woman described as a "bunny mixed with a bison," but in reality was just an extremely ugly and fuzzy rabbit. The hay ride was on a big wagon pulled by a tractor (I was hoping for horses), and we went by the cow's pastures and past a wonderful view of Casco Bay. Today was a crystal-clear, warm yet crisp, blue-sky Autumn day. We ate apples and picked pumpkins and ended up watching brand-new baby cow learning to walk by its mother.

We went to Brunswick to have lunch with my dad and help him move some heavy stuff around the house, then came home for work/naptime. Vi slept for a good two hours while Dan and I took care of housework/work-work. I made the best pizza ever, talked to my grandmother on the phone, then sent Vi off to bed happily.

Now, once I'm done posting these photos, Dan and I are going to watch Miami Vice. Ooh. Not a great date movie, but hopefully it will be fun in some way. Here are some photos from the last few weeks.

(Oh, you may notice that Vi now has bangs. I got tired of the losing battle with barrettes.)

http://picasaweb.google.com/linzwalsh/October2008#

Ah-choo!

I don't understand some kinds of perfume or cologne, or at least the level of application thereof.

Why would one want to smell like a bed of roses that just did ten tequila shots? Smell-able FROM ACROSS THE ROOM?!?


(This crazy venting inspired by the UPS delivery man who just left me in a sneezing fit over his apparent love for what seems to be women's perfume.)