chrysalis

To keep things fairly simple, since I have an exam coming up for Normal Postnatal tomorrow -- behold the neat brevity (or rather, the failed attempt at brevity) that is my numbered list below.

The Week (in Brief) Since Last Thursday's Post:

1) Friday: I had Group Process with my sister-students in the morning. This time together is intended to help us explore our inter-personal and group dynamics outside of the normal, structured class hours. In the afternoon, I took an elective course on how to write reviews of midwifery-related literature for the purposes of publication.

2) Friday early evening: I settled down for two hours to study haemotology (= blood) and finish up the relevant pages of my A&P workbook so that I wouldn't have to worry about that over the weekend.

3) Friday late evening: Ah, the cacophony of 6 chuckling student midwives, all crammed into a tiny kitchen scented with the steam of cinnamon-spice tea and turkey chili on the stovetop.

4) Saturday: Hung out in Portland, finally getting a chance to explore the city (having only been through there twice before, either coming out of the airport or travelling via Portland into New Hampshire with K). Brunch was an omelette and blueberry pancakes at the water's edge, and then a walk along part of Casco Bay in the afternoon. It was worth stopping to watch the boats on the water from the Eastern Promenade, its hilltop punctuated with majestic old sea-captains' homes. That evening, friends kept my glass topped up with organic merlot and my belly full of Thai red curry and vanilla/dark chocolate brownies. We spent a toe-chilling hour outside at a bar after dinner, discussing politics and film and my friend A's job (she is an elementary-school teacher who works with developmentally delayed children).

5) Sunday: I woke up ridiculously early to be chauffeured back to Bridgton (an hour away from Portland) by 7am since the kind person giving me a ride needed to make it to a family outing to climb Mt Washington (the highest peak in the northeastern United States). I immediately went to bed and slept for two more hours. After I woke up, it was time to launch myself into researching the mechanism of blood clotting, which is way more complicated than I thought it'd be, to prepare for a class presentation this week. I finished an informed choice document for my future clients about Hepatitis C screening during pregnancy, and also took care of a large section of my A&P workbook on the reproductive system. I was more than exhausted by day's end.

6) Monday: Spent the day in an A&P class, which concluded with an exam on the nervous system, and all the muscles and bones of the body (particularly those of the pelvis, for obvious reasons). I felt very comfortable throughout the test, although my grade will be the final telling of how comfortable that really was...

7) Tuesday: On the one hand, I needed a mental rest; on the other, I needed physical activity. So -- I headed to B's apartment for our usual tea-date on Tuesday mornings, and she guided us both through some energising yoga postures. In the afternoon, I organised my room (needed to get to grips with a heap of school papers and a growing pile of 'homeless' clothes on the floor) and cooked myself a nourishing lunch before heading out to the gym to face a loaded Olympic bar for my half-hour series of squats and deadlifts. The so-called runner's high doesn't even come close to a powerlifter's elation -- apologies to my tarmac-pounding friends.

8) Wednesday: I discovered early this morning, via a note from P, that my beautiful friend N had given birth to her son in Johannesburg on October 6th (at around the same time as I was finishing off my anatomy exam, I later calculated). I'd last heard from N on Monday via another of her characteristically wonderful emails, in which she'd said she thought her boy would be making his way into our earthly dimension fairly soon. But in the frenzy of my week, I'd been lax about checking Facebook for updates, and understandably hadn't heard anything else by phone or email while she'd been labouring, so I figure I was one of the last in her circle to hear the incredible news that E had been born. I, of course, am ecstatic for her.

It does make me feel all the more disconnected from everything back home, knowing how far away I am in terms of actual distance but also that I've unintentionally isolated myself from some of my best friends in Jo'burg over the past two weeks, particularly. It's nobody's fault, it just is. I have thrown myself with fire and energy and abandon into my life here in New England -- and the connections I made in South Africa have hardly been severed, of course, but they are stretched more than usual and it's a struggle for me to pick up the slack sometimes.

But that is all blah, blah, blah -- because there is something more important to say! There is a new person in the world! A delicious, demanding, tiny human, a dewy young changeling who is opening his eyes on a loving family every time he wakes up. This is another victory for woman-centric childbirth, for the precious institution of the family, for the profession of midwifery, and no doubt a personal triumph for the magnificent birthing mama, whom I love with all my heart. Congratulations to you!