Reflections on Graduation:

On May 16^th I graduated from George Washington University with a Masters in European and Eurasian Studies. It was a busy two years for me and Kim, what with both of us working most of the time and my evenings taken up with classes and studying.

The graduation weekend itself was fun. My parents came to town and saw my Elliott School graduation on Friday and the full school graduation on Sunday. The idea behind the two ceremonies (near as I can tell) is that with the full school graduating together it would be too time consuming to march everyone across the stage and hand them a diploma. Of course this doesn’t stop other schools (UW, I’m looking your direction) from holding interminable ceremonies that can only be survived with a thick book and a comfortable bleacher to sleep on. Anyway, the Elliott School holds a separate graduation ceremony where we get our names called and are handed a medal and shake someone’s hand. It was fine, but I’m not sure why they feel compelled to have so many speakers. Also, each speaker’s credentials have to be read out loud before he or she speaks. Am I more likely to listen if you tell me what journals he’s written for? In fact I’m trapped and would listen if he were the night janitor reading the day’s stock report.

Two days later the full school graduation was held on the National Mall with the Capitol in the background. We began by processing in. Wait, no we didn’t. Instead of dealing with the logistical difficulties of walking everyone in, they simply had us all sit down and then played processional music for 20 minutes. Why? I don’t mind not walking in, but let’s get on with things. Michelle Obama was the keynote speaker and discussed community service as a continuing lifestyle. It was a good address and cool to hear her speak.

I think the weekend really did sum up my feelings about grad school: I enjoyed my time here but I never felt emotionally connected to the school. It was more of a business transaction or a professional relationship. I gave them an ungodly amount of money, performed the requested tasks, and they gave me a good base of knowledge, some professional skills, and a degree. During my undergrad degree I never felt like I learned much (although I probably did) but I connected with the school, the campus, the clubs, and all the people there. At GW it was the other way around. I know I learned but I don’t think I really connected. I like visiting WWU- the campus holds so many memories and good times. I don’t imagine I’ll be nostalgic when I return to GW’s campus in the future. This might be the simple difference between undergrad and grad school and I certainly didn’t expect a similar experience, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

College was a unique experience that really laid a foundation for friendships and behavior patterns that I expect will last the rest of my life. Grad school seems to have served a more utilitarian purpose restricted to my professional life. Not that I didn’t make friends or grow as a person over the past two years, just that it’s been a different experience from college in almost every way. And while I did enjoy it in way, I’m glad to be moving on.

Patrick and the other EES students.

Aydan is cheering for Dad in this picture.

Aydan's First Month of Life

It's not the best quality but it's still nice.

A Little Perfect Life

It's been a bit over a month now and I'm finally at the place where I can sit back and document the birth of our little girl.  So skip this post if it's boring to you. It's long but I wanted to write it out for our memories.

For weeks before the birth I had been going to a hematologist weekly for blood testing. My platelet levels were low and my doctor wanted to have them monitored because if they dropped too low I could have some problems with bleeding and getting an epidural, which in turn would be a major problem if I needed a C-section. Because of this issue and because the baby was getting pretty big my doctor wanted to induce me on Tuesday March 30th.  This worked well as our parents would be in town.

My parents arrived on Saturday, March 27th and the Connallys arrived on Monday, March 29th. Tuesday morning my dad drove me and Patrick to the hospital to have our baby.

We arrived, checked in and went to our perfect delivery room.  Our amazing nurse, Helen, drew my blood to check the platelet levels.  Good news: they had dropped but not too far.  Knowing that they might keep dropping, they wanted to place the epidural catheter in my back before there were problems incase I needed a C-section later and my platelets were too low to give me the epidural.  Before putting that in, they started the Petosin at about 10 am. They then placed the epidural catheter into my back.  It was not hooked up to any medicine, it was just the catheter all ready for the medicine incase I needed or wanted it.

At 11AM I was in bed, swollen, huge and ready to have this baby. Our parents and Susan, Jack's mom,  came to the hospital so they could be there for the birth, little did they know they'd be spending their entire day there. We waited and waited and waited... I was having major contractions the whole time, or so the monitor told us.  I would never had known because I did not feel anything even though I wasn't hooked up to any medicine. It was shocking and beautiful.

The doctor came in every few hours and told me that I was still not ready and to keep up the good work. So we all hung out and talked, played cards and watched TV.  At 4:30 the doctor broke my water which we hoped would speed up the process but it didn't seem to.  So we kept on waiting. I really was having a good time, pain free, making progress (very slowly but it was progress) and I had great people around to chat with.  The only sucky part was that I hadn't eaten for hours, but I guess that's how it goes.

It wasn't until 12:30 AM that the contractions started getting overwhelming.  I kicked everyone except Patrick and my mom out and they went home and took a nap.  My dad stayed at the hospital but slept on a couch in the waiting room. I asked for the epidural medicine at this point and because I already had the catheter in it was quick and easy to get the relief I was wanting. The epidural was a good one though, I could still feel the contractions and pressure but didn't have as much pain. A little after 2:00AM I was ready to push. Mom called the Connallys and Susan who all came rushing back to the hospital to be there for the birth. Everyone but Patrick and my mom stood in the hallway and waited. Susan layed on the floor outside my door listening to what was going on inside through the crack in the floor and gave my dad, Rory and Connie a play by play.

Aydan was born at 3:41 AM on March 31st. She was beautiful. Purple, but beautiful. I looked into her eyes and fell in love with her. Patrick was an amazing coach and husband, he cried and spoke quietly to our little girl, seeing him love her was amazing. My mom was in the room with us, and I would not have wanted it any other way.  The nurses were super supportive and all around great. It was the perfect moment.

As soon as she was born Susan and Connie came into the room to meet her. Soon after the nurses took Aydan off my chest and took her behind a curtain in our room to clean her up, weigh her and let her meet her grandpas.

While that was happening the doctor and nurses were dealing with me. Because of my low platelets my bleeding got pretty bad. I won't go into the gory details but know that it was very scary for awhile but the nurses and doctor acted quickly and the bleeding finally stopped.

After I was all fixed up I got my little girl back, we all said good bye to the family and she and I snuggled down and she nursed for the first time. After that she slept in her little bassinet next to my bed and Patrick slept in the fold out bed next to me. It was a nice hour of sleep.

We were woken up an hour later because my heart rate, which was high the entire labor, was still really high, ranging from 150-160.  So the doctor ordered a chest x-ray and some kind of sonogram of my heart.  So, after being awake for 24 hours, not eating (I still wasn't allowed to eat by this time because I was throwing up after I had Aydan), loosing lots of blood and not to mention just giving birth, I was pushed to the x-ray room where I nearly passed out trying to stand for the x-ray.  After that they took me back to our room, let me eat and sleep for another hour and then took me away for my sonogram test.   All the tests came back fine so that is good. It wasn't the best way to feel bonded with my daughter but I'm glad they were being proactive with my health.

It was a tiring 26 hours but so worth it.