Beatrice Marie Youngson Carchrae
it’s hard to know where to start.
we have gone back to the very basic things of life, back to where pooing is a big event. back to the very fundamentals, eat sleep poo clean up repeat. and not just for Beatrice, (Beatrice Marie Youngson Carchrae, but more on her name later) but for all of us. after the soaring giddy heights of the birthing high, this is a little humbling, but it is good.
i am so thankful to have all the wonderful support that is around me – from friends sending reiki and a monastery full of nuns praying for me during labour and delivery, to tom who has been waiting on me hand and foot and repeatedly sending me back to bed to lie down. I felt like I could do anything after giving birth, why not just stand up and walk to the kitchen for what I needed? the mind is strong, but the body needs time to recover.
her name is a bit unusual, but something about it just clicked. I adore the meanings – bringer of blessings and joy, and it’s a classic name. we sung all the names we were considering to her one evening while dinner was being cooked, and beatrice got a big smile so we thought she must like it too. marie is my mom’s middle name, so she has a family connection on my side, and youngson is a name that has been passed down onto the firstborn of the firstborn in tom’s family for several generations. we decided that if there is indeed the inheritance of a castle in scotland attached to the name then beatrice shouldn’t miss out just because she’s a daughter.
we are settling in, routines are being established (by beatrice, of course) and we’re all getting just about enough sleep to function. when I let go of whatever ideas I might have had about how life with a newborn should be and take my cues from her everything goes so much better. the little things make it all worthwhile, like a fleeting smile at 5am when I kissed her nose. i’d give up several hours more sleep for that smile.
