Daughter was born at home on February 13th. It was a fucking marvelous day, and I am working on mustering the sustained attention to write the birth story down down, after which it'll be posted here. Highlights: castor oil, shiatsu, the Happy Noodle House, crying in public, bumpy canyon road in the back seat of Joe's JEEP.
More soon, beloveds...
Monday, February 22, 2010
Friday, February 05, 2010
Permaculture - Geoff Lawton Video - Springtime is closer than Wintertime
Here we are, 3 days post the goddess Brigid's celebrated day (halfway between the solstice and equinox) and, as spring approaches, I'm happily thinking about gardening. Starting seeds indoors, growing stuff out of yogurt containers on the sunny cill in our kitchen, harvesting lettuces and basil and fresh sweet peas again. I am such a novice in the ways of edible landscape, but I want to get better. I have dreams and I want more inspired friends and land lovers in my life...like Treesa (ecobydesign.net).
I was inspired this morning by this video...and always, of course, by Permaculture. It's sensible, like eating protein for breakfast. The more you read, the more you think, then the more you feel integrated into a nicer, broader more giving world and willing to work within its natural suggestions and dynamics...
Geoff Lawton of Australia
"Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order."
Thursday, February 04, 2010
The wait apres the due date and Groundhog Day robot?
No baby yet, although I'm 2cm dilated and 25% effaced, and so far all of this pre-pre early labor rig has been effortless and floaty. I feel truly good, and I almost wonder if I need to be feeling more miserable to have my bebe? It's been a funny pregnancy for me. Month 8, for example, was total hell. Month 9 has been heaven. All in all though, I'm still of the I Love Being Pregnant camp, and for that I consider myself lucky. I am almost finished.
I want to write, however, about what it feels like to be waiting around for your baby to come after she's "due".
So you get knocked up and you immediately have this anchor of a date in mind. January 30th (that HUGE, perigean full moon – the largest it will be this year) was my due date. The date is announced, advertised, it's rolling around in your head making its way into your plans, your family's plans, etc. etc. but it's all sort of bullshit, because the margin of "error" associated with that date is so vast. What midwives and docs do, as far as I understand, is choose and chart a middle date within four weeks of the possible birth. I was told today that first babies are born, on average, 10 days after their due date and that second babies come around 7 after. My first kid, Willoree, was a week "late". This round I'm now three days "late".
The date (or choosing one, whether it's right on or a month off) isn't the problem, of course; it's a lady's strange attachment to it. And with attachment (specifically to a due date) there may come expectation, disappointment, second guessing, impatience. And with those things may come unnecessary physical discomforts...along with the discomforts of being 9+ months pregnant.
Attachment is probably the underlying cause of all suffering, and that's why I'm writing. To play around in the feeling of being attached to a due date. And maybe I'll stumble upon a suitable adjective to describe it. Or at least one good, concise sentence. So far no dice though huh.
So you pass your due date, you're still pregnant, and so you find yourself bumbling about in this mysterious, marginal land where all things are tinged with a strange hue of after wait. It's close to the way you feel when exams are done, but there are still 3 days of school left. It's the sweet pause after a completion of sorts, but it's more exciting...
So what have these three days been like?
Clearly I have a lot of free time on my hands. I can't concentrate on work. Sex. Answering a lot of phone calls. Feeling readier and readier, but actually not as "ready" as I did on the evening of the 29th. Sex. Or, better put, just as ready but less anticipatory. There indeed is a psychological shift that happens after the due date has come and gone. It would be easy to pitch it as anti-climactic, and while it is that, sort or, it's also kind of relaxing, and fun. Sex. I have a slot of lawless and unpredictable free time. Sex.
My friend Dug and I sat around in a Chapel Hill roof top bar one evening and talked about inventions, like many of you did over drinks back when we all thought we were smarter than we actually are. One of these inventions was an ATM dealing time. Like you could go to the ATM, deduct 5 hours when you needed it to study, or elongate a date, or...and conversely you could cash in a really lame day, deposit all that time, and just ff to later. Checks and balances; more like a debit card than a credit card of course.
Does this exist?
And then there's this baby I'm about to have, any day now.
I totally am missing my long hair.
And finally, what in the hole is up with PETA wanting to trade out the real groundhog for a robot? Have you heard about this? This might beat Cookie Monster's potentially turning into Carrot Monster to curtail the nation's immoderate percentage of fat kids. See ya, Phil.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/01/peta_demands_ro.php
I want to write, however, about what it feels like to be waiting around for your baby to come after she's "due".
So you get knocked up and you immediately have this anchor of a date in mind. January 30th (that HUGE, perigean full moon – the largest it will be this year) was my due date. The date is announced, advertised, it's rolling around in your head making its way into your plans, your family's plans, etc. etc. but it's all sort of bullshit, because the margin of "error" associated with that date is so vast. What midwives and docs do, as far as I understand, is choose and chart a middle date within four weeks of the possible birth. I was told today that first babies are born, on average, 10 days after their due date and that second babies come around 7 after. My first kid, Willoree, was a week "late". This round I'm now three days "late". The date (or choosing one, whether it's right on or a month off) isn't the problem, of course; it's a lady's strange attachment to it. And with attachment (specifically to a due date) there may come expectation, disappointment, second guessing, impatience. And with those things may come unnecessary physical discomforts...along with the discomforts of being 9+ months pregnant.
Attachment is probably the underlying cause of all suffering, and that's why I'm writing. To play around in the feeling of being attached to a due date. And maybe I'll stumble upon a suitable adjective to describe it. Or at least one good, concise sentence. So far no dice though huh.
So you pass your due date, you're still pregnant, and so you find yourself bumbling about in this mysterious, marginal land where all things are tinged with a strange hue of after wait. It's close to the way you feel when exams are done, but there are still 3 days of school left. It's the sweet pause after a completion of sorts, but it's more exciting...
So what have these three days been like?
Clearly I have a lot of free time on my hands. I can't concentrate on work. Sex. Answering a lot of phone calls. Feeling readier and readier, but actually not as "ready" as I did on the evening of the 29th. Sex. Or, better put, just as ready but less anticipatory. There indeed is a psychological shift that happens after the due date has come and gone. It would be easy to pitch it as anti-climactic, and while it is that, sort or, it's also kind of relaxing, and fun. Sex. I have a slot of lawless and unpredictable free time. Sex.
My friend Dug and I sat around in a Chapel Hill roof top bar one evening and talked about inventions, like many of you did over drinks back when we all thought we were smarter than we actually are. One of these inventions was an ATM dealing time. Like you could go to the ATM, deduct 5 hours when you needed it to study, or elongate a date, or...and conversely you could cash in a really lame day, deposit all that time, and just ff to later. Checks and balances; more like a debit card than a credit card of course.
Does this exist?
And then there's this baby I'm about to have, any day now.
I totally am missing my long hair.
And finally, what in the hole is up with PETA wanting to trade out the real groundhog for a robot? Have you heard about this? This might beat Cookie Monster's potentially turning into Carrot Monster to curtail the nation's immoderate percentage of fat kids. See ya, Phil.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/01/peta_demands_ro.php
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