MaryElise is One Month Old Today!

I know she looks like she's All Business in this picture, but we've been getting quite a few little smiles out of her these past few days at Nana's house. This new blue bouncy seat is responsible for a few of them. I got it via Freecycle for Nana's house but I think it's going to make the trip back to NY with us in exchange for the pink one we have there because she just loves this one and well, that one, not so much.

I like this one better, too. For one thing, where on the other model there is a heinous plastic toy bar, on this one there are nice lovely soft moon and stars hanging down. This one alleges it plays classical music but I think we will just let that feature remain untested. I have this thing about lighting up and playing music. Oh, and vibrating. Not big on the whole vibrating baby gear, either.

Of course, just after I snapped this picture, her big brother (or gas) prompted her to grant us the biggest, sweetest smile.
But, I was busy typing this.

Let that be a lesson to me.

Homeschool 2008-2009 Preview

Well, after some degree of back-and-forthedness about what exactly our year is going to look like with regard to work, commuting across state lines and school, Ive decided to continue to homeschool for now. These decisions were complicated by, and most likely caused complication with regard to, my pretty significant bout of post-partum depression which, thankfully, appears to be starting to subside. What helped was:

1. Deciding that making too many changes at once would be detrimental to my emotional well being and that of my family and
2. Deciding that I would have to be crazy to leave my daughter and return to work at six weeks, especially given my current psychological state.

Once I had these realizations, I started feeling better immediately. That's a pretty good sign that they are decisions that are good for me and my family.

I also think it would be beneficial for me to seek out some therapy in the weeks to come. My husband and midwife both agree.

So, the question of what to do this year in terms of school was looming over my admittedly clouded head, making it really difficult for me to make the decisions I needed to make. Im very pleased to be able to say that I have decided on the following in terms of curriculum.

We will continue the Core Curriculum/ What your x-grader needs to know series, moving on to third grade work this year. ()

I have found that the company has re-vamped their approach to be much more inclusive when it comes to homeschoolers, so that's an added bonus. There are resources available on the web and some in print, which I have purchased, such as a daily planner and teacher's handbook for the the third grade level.

Ive also chosen a new math curriculum, as I really feel like Ian has gone beyond what I am able to accomplish with the Waldorf methods we were previously using. We are going with this program:



It's a manipulative-based, real-world math program that stresses the basics and their real-life application. Some of the processes are carried out in ways that are totally different from what I learned at good ol St. Matthew School and the Institute of Notre Dame, so it should be interesting to learn along with Ian. Tim said the package of goodies arrived in New York today. Im excited but also apprehensive as Im hoping I made a good choice and did not invest our money in something we are not going to end up using.

As far as reading goes, we will continue with the Ian-directed reading choices with a few choices thrown in there by Mama as well and we will start doing some simple book reports this year, too. Ian is reading so far beyond his grade level that Im not sure exactly where to begin in terms of choosing the books he will read, but one of the first ones we will read will be "My Side of the Mountain" which Tim suggested based on his childhood relationship with the book.

We're going to follow the Core Curriculum for History and Geography which means we will use the Pearson book () which I managed to score on ebay for half the retail price. Sweet!

Spelling is an area on which I think we need to focus in a more formal manner this year, so Im still looking for a spelling book. Of course, vocabulary words from other subjects will be studied too.

Our neighbor, Onge Warner, recently a new mom as well, will be teaching Ian Art this year. We will do some theory at home, and of course integrate the arts into the rest of the curriculum, but she will be meeting with him once a week or so for formal art lessons, which I think is FANTASTIC!

i want to focus on the human body and its development in Health as well as fulfill all the stranger-danger-wear-your-bike-helmet stuff the state says we have to do.

In terms of music, Im not sure how we will supplement what's in the Core Curriculum but there's always lots of music at our house.

Honestly, Im feeling overwhelmed and trying very hard to put on my game face and move forward into the Fall Semester. That's probably why Im boring you with this post...If I see it all written in front of me, I can convince myself that I do have a handle on things and that we are going to be successful learners this year.

I do have a handle on things.
And we are going to be successful learners this year.

Pray for us.
Thanks.
H

Placentophagy

I wanted to include with this post a link to an article about placentophagy so that people could understand the biology behind the practice of consuming the placenta and how helpful it has been for me in my battle with postpartum depression, but unfortunately, most of the links I found when I googled the word were just blog entries by people talking about how "icky" it is.

Placentophagy is the practice of consuming the placenta after birth. It is practiced as a cultural ritual by some, and taken medicinally as a remedy for postpartum depression by others. I have to admit that when my midwife suggested I consume the placenta from MaryElise's birth, I was not enthusiastic about the idea. For one thing, upon googling it, I found instructions for separating the placenta from the membrane and baking it to produce a resulting meal that resembles liver, to be eaten with knife and fork. The idea of handling the placenta so extensively and then eating it as a liveresque main course squicked me out, I admit it. As Tim put it, it was "Too granola even for [me]."

My first memory of liver is that of my Aunt Gladys basically shoving it into my face encouraging me, in her own special way, to "Try it! Try it!". I remember it smelled bad. I didnt "Try it!". The only other experience I have with liver has to do with medical training. With that in mind, I decided that no, I could not filet and then bake my placenta and then eat it with knife and fork. Then my midwife mentioned eating it a different way, one that I could potentially stomach.

You may be wondering why we had the placenta two weeks after the birth. We had saved it in the freezer because I had hoped to plant a tree over it for MaryElise. What we ended up doing with it instead:

We thawed it in the fridge over night, then Tim, God Bless Him, processed it in the blender (which chose to die midway through the task) and poured the resulting froth into ice cube trays. Every day, I remove two cubes and process them in the blender with other ingredients"I to make a smoothie. And I have to say, the smoothies are really quite delicious. Not a hint of placenta flavor (whatever that may be). Mostly Ive been adding blueberries, juice, vanilla yogurt and bananas. Passion fruit juice is my fave so far.

Okay, so that's the how. "What about the why?" you ask.

Well, it turns out that postpartum depression that comes on quickly after the birth is a result of rapid, dramatic shifts in a mother's hormonal balance after birth. I basically had a huge stockpile of estrogen for nine months and then WHAM! none. It's like PMS a thousand times over. I don't know how else to tell you how bad it was except to say "It got so bad that Im eating my placenta in order to get rid of it." Yeah. That bad.

I will keep searching for a decent link. I want people to know about this because I think it's really important that we acknowledge that once again the body's wisdom is so perfect and once again our culture denies this fact by mocking the idea (I even found an entry on a blog site called "empower her" that did nothing but talk about how ICKY the idea is. How empowering!) or by denying the possibility that it actually works without doing any sort of research whatsoever.

oops, baby's crying.

Peace
Heather

MaryElise Kathleen Noonan, Day One 7-22-08

You must forgive me for not having posted this sooner. For some reason, even attempting to log on to the blog site from home crashes our internet explorer, so while I can access the site for reading (not much good when you're the writer) I can not post anything to the blog from home.

Well, she's here.
MaryElise Kathleen Noonan was born on July 22nd 2008 at 5:45am. She was born at home, just inches above our living room floor, where her Daddy did the catching and the cord cutting. My midwife arrived at around four am, after I had been in what turned out to be pretty rapidly-advancing labor since midnight. No contractions at that time, just water breakage. The contractions started around two, I called her at three, and well, the baby was on her way.

When Jen (my midwife) arrived, I had to confess that I had drunk a really putrid disgusting combination of vodka, orange juice and castor oil beginning around six pm the evening before in order to bring on labor. My mucous plug had been making its way out for days and I knew I was ripe. The Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year had arrived in the mail that day and i decided to go for it once I found the recipe inside. It only works if you are ready to be pushed over the edge, and apparently I was because just like clockwork, after some brief nipple stimulation, my water broke and we were on our way.

I know you are dying to see her as opposed to reading my description, so here is the first-ever picture of MaryElise, taken by Daddy, while the midwife was getting her dressed. She and I had been cuddling all naked and bloody for a while before the midwife cleaned her up a little bit and got her dressed in her tie-dye onesie and a nightgown. We had already nursed at this point, too.

I love homebirth!


The next pictures are of MaryElise and myself taking a Leboyer bath. Google it :-).




And here she is snoozing, looking just like her Mama.


Of course, she is almost a month old as I type this. There is lots more to blog, and I will do so this week, so thank you for your patience and keep checking back!
-heather and maryelise