Please meet our Peeper, Edith Mae Ryan Gregory! She joined us Sunday, July 7 at 9:19pm, weighing 7 pounds and 14.8 ounces and stretching to 21 inches.
Reciting her stats has become routine–her weight, height, birth date, age in days–but ironically, everything else about her is immeasurable.
Time has taken on a nonlinear quality: I lose hours gazing at her snoozing with her mouth gaped open. Entire days will zip by but some nursing sessions turn into marathons in which we’re running in place at the 26.1 mile mark.
I have been blown away by how much I instantly loved Edith. The feeling consumed, submerged and enveloped me. Meeting her when our midwife placed her on my chest was like jumping to the bottom of a pool: I was immediately surrounded by an overwhelming feeling that both pushed on me from every angle and lifted me up. My heart felt simultaneously like it was wrapped in a bear hug and exploding into a million pieces. Every moment is a practice of contradictions.
I still struggle to describe my transformation into motherhood. “Love” just seems inadequate. Metaphor is the only way I can come close to expressing the tidal wave of emotion.
The most mind-boggling part is how I am full to overflowing with adoration for Edith but I keep getting fuller. The physics of it are a mystery like the ever-expanding universe.
I am awestruck witnessing the impossible. How can infinity get bigger? Edith is teaching my heart that lesson every day.
