Acknowledging Team Peach

Peach,

What a fascinating transition time pregnancy has been! I know what I am leaving behind, but I can only imagine what lies ahead.

Today I was looking at the ultrasound picture of you when you were just 8 weeks old in my uterus. You were 1.7 cm long and the picture really just looks like a fuzzy blob. And then the pictures of you at 18 weeks are super-cute---a great picture of your little toes, another of your hand waving in front of your face. And now here we are. You are a little full grown human rolling around in your watery home that will be home for not more than another 2 weeks, and hopefully less! You are "due" to emerge on Thursday! 

Somehow, as this time comes closer, I keep wondering what you look like. Beautiful, without doubt! I suspect that you will be perfect, as I'm told all new parents have perfectly beautiful children!

Peach, you are loved. I want to tell you some about the love that surrounds you---Team Peach---the friends and family who will gather to welcome you to the open air. 

Team Peach consists of our friend and doula, Sutay, our friend Lisa, as well as Papa Mark and I. Our strong intention is to bring you into this world with love and support. The other part of Team Peach is are the three girlfriends who will be on call to hang out with dear Teacup while we are in Laborland. They are a key part of the team, because it would be very hard to truly let go and be fully present in Laborland knowing that Teacup were not in caring hands. 

I'd like to tell you more about this circle of love because they already love YOU. 

Sutay is an amazingly beautiful strong woman. She is married to our good friend Josh who Papa Mark and I worked with at Outward Bound back in NY. Sutay first saw birth as a women's health Peace Corps volunteer in Africa. Then she trained as a labor and delivery nurse here in the U.S. She then moved in to childbirth education and being a doula (http://www.yogasutay.com/index.html). It was a better fit for her to be part of the magic and mystery of pregnancy and childbirth rather than part of the medical procedures of obstetrics. We first met Sutay when Papa Mark was in the hospital out here in Colorado with his horribly broken leg. Sutay and Josh lived out here and they came to see us. Sutay has been a kind and informed guide for us, Peach. She has been a voice of reason and support when we've come home from prenatal "care" visits wondering if everything is OK. This pregnancy would have been much more stressful without her knowledge and perspective and love. She is eager to meet you!

Sutay with her daughter Zenlana.

The Bermans. Sutay holding Zenlana and Josh holding Shanti. 

 Lisa is a rock. We borrowed Lisa from some other friends, Jim and Claire. When we moved here to Boulder, Jim said we should meet his friend Lisa. We met her and we aren't giving her back. Lisa adores you already, Peach, and is going to be a fun and helpful part of our team. She's been at births with other friends of hers, not to mention at the births of her own three beautiful children (2 births----she has a couple of fabulous twins). Lisa is a smart, fun, creative, extroverted, exuberant, energetic lover of life. She has a beautiful smile that will be shining over your birth, Peach. How lucky we are!

Sarah, Mama Melissa, and Lisa.

And Sarah and Claire and Michelle are all going to be rotating through spending time with Teacup. Ah, Teacup. Peach, Papa and I will be better parents to you for what we've learned from these pooches, Glory and Teacup. Teacup is heroic. She has so many ailments, we really are not even sure how she could possibly still be hanging out here on Planet Earth. It truly seems like perhaps she wants to meet you. And so we are tending to her simultaneously frail and hardy form, giving her lots of love, and waiting to see if she really is going to overlap her life with yours. And what about these amazing gals who are willing to hang with the Teacup?

Sarah is dear. Sarah's partner is David, and David and Mark worked Outward Bound here in Colorado together. I could not be more happy to have met Sarah. Kind, thoughtful, creative, quick to laugh, and strong and deep in so many ways----from being a gifted river-runner and talented skier, to being a steady friend and partner when those close to her need her.

Claire is a law school buddy. What Claire and I have in common is that we both have husbands who work too hard at law school. Her husband is also Mark. Claire has been a good hiking and climbing buddy and is also eager to meet you, Peach. She is thoughtful, generous, sensitive, smart. And that she would come hang with Teacup is a big gift to us.

Michelle! A spark of a woman---from "down under" with so much to give and so much to say. She has been a lover of Teacup and Glory since she stayed with them for a whole week while Papa Mark and I visited the east coast last winter. What a dear friend. Really! These old dogs are not just an easy "dog-sitting" job. Nope. Michelle followed Teacup around with a teaspoon and soft dog food trying to get her to eat for the week. Michelle is a midwife back in her home country. Here in Boulder she is a mom, a nanny, a film editor, a climber, and just a vibrant vibrant soul.

Peach, these people love you and are ready to help us make your way in to this world smooth and joyous. You are loved.