Newborns

My husband's sister gave birth last week, and we got to see Baby Mae at 4 days old, as soon as the family was up to having company.  I got to hold her and she is sweet and perfect.  A little too perfect actually. 

When I think of newborns, I think of a fragile swolen little thing with quivering arms and closed eyes, swaddled in warm but absorbant blankets so they won't hurt themselves by moving around too much.

I don't know, I guess I thought it was like having prune fingers after swimming, just that babies had it for longer cause they were in all that fluid for 9 months rather than a few hours.

Mae was a c-section.  She got too big too fast in her momma's belly. 
Several of my college friends have been giving birth in the last month, and while reviewing facebook pictures, etc, I found what my previous schema of child birth has been: wrinkled, white and pink all over the place, etc.
 
I came to the conclusion that vaginal child birth is harder on the baby than I had previously supposed.  Maybe they're both equally hard.  It's entirely possible.  But squooshing a baby through a space that is not supposed to be baby sized never hit me as traumatic for the child until I felt suprized at seeing a baby who didn't have the signs of child birth as I had expected them. 
 
It then occurred to me that babies are formed pretty perfectly in a momma's belly... it's just the method of exit.  Poor babies.  Let's be nice to them.

Dale, Alana, and All

1. Dale had 5 interviews in the first week of October for jobs that were better than Tech Support at Teleperformance!

2. Among those was one IDEAL position that Dale fit 98% of what Dale had been hoping for.

3. Dale got hired on his second interview with Eleutian Technologies as an HR Assistant Manager! Hired on Friday at 4:30pm, started on Monday at 9:00am.

4.  Dale got to quit Teleperformance and shift work.

5. Dale begins to leave for work an hour early in the morning because he's so excited to get to work and get things moving.

1. Alana is at Midterms of Grad school for Social work.  I have a week off for Fall Break, but can't bring myself to do homework like I probably should.  Really, I only need a 3.0, and I'm fairly confident that my half-effort work is still a C in half of my classes, and an A in the other half.

2. Alana gets her first client on her own caseload this week.  Practicing Therapist, here I come!

1. We find out we're not alone in the Activities Committee Calling, and that the Ward is really excited for any party we can invite them to.  Hurrah for an entertainment starved audience!

2. We've had house guests every weekend for the past four weeks.  Upcoming weekend: Just us. Quite an adventure, but it'll be nice to sleep in again.



Biggest things for Dale, i guess, but it really affects both of us.  We're still trying to calculate what this will mean for our budding family.  Trying to go to London in May, now actually a possibility for us, but waiting on the travel arrangements to confirm.  I still have class, calling, and husband to work on and with, so I haven't really been able to slow down and look at our life plans.  I graduate with my MSW in 10 months... although it seems to really be creeping by.  I need to find a hobby or get back into running or something.  Seems like all responsibilities and no interests right now.  If there are any suggestions let me know.  I'm not complaining, just describing.  Really...