Year Three from 12/28/1984 – 12/28/1985
New Baby
At the end of the school year, I traveled to Alaska for a last, grand adventure before kids; tagged humpbacks, compiled whale research, hiked bear country, and photographed icebergs. We skied Yosemite during Thanksgiving break, slept in a Curry tent for one night, so cold you could see your breath. Thankfully, after skiing on the second day, we stayed in Yosemite Lodge, where the floor heating was like walking on hot coals, so hot it burned. I was five months pregnant with our first due in April.
Dale studied evenings solving computer or calculus problems, while I readied the nursery. Predictably, he had a second year calculus exam scheduled during my last week of pregnancy. Since our classrooms were three doors apart, I taught until my due date. We could leave directly from school; of course, nothing happened until the weekend. One of my senior girls also had a baby due about the same time. Although we never discussed our pregnancies during class, Stacy delivered her baby girl the same day, in an adjacent delivery room, and named her baby Megan Elizabeth with a slightly different spelling. Such a coincidence. Of course, this was the year of “The Thorn Birds” and Meggie was a popular name. Our Meghan Elizabeth was born April 30 at 2:30 p.m. in a quiet birthing room to soft music and dim lights. Dale bathed her in the LeBoyer method, then sang “Saint Judy’s Comet” as she gazed lovingly back at him. He changed the song to “little girl” instead of little boy. She was calm yet alert. It was magic.
Dale rescheduled his exam and Meghan attended his graduation at the Fort Ord Officer’s Club a month later.
We traveled during vacations to Southern California to “show off” Meghan. Each trip was a struggle, since she did not sleep during the long ten-hour drive. Our baby hated car seats, hated traveling, especially when windshield wipers were on. Intermittent wipers were the worst! These startled her and then the wailing continued until we shut them off and could not see where the heck we headed. In retrospect, Meghan was an “easy” baby, our lives were blessed, we were simply sleep deprived.
Love is Complicated 