Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression by Brooke Shields

Author:Brooke Shields [Shields, Brooke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781401382513
Google: XTKZAAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1401308465
Goodreads: 782614
Publisher: Hyperion
Published: 1900-01-01T07:00:00+00:00

C H A P T E R 5

H A D A G R E AT

F A L L

E v e n t h o u g h i wa s s t i l l feeling pretty bad, I believed that all I needed was a change of scenery. Maybe the Los Angeles weather would improve my mood and I would begin to feel better soon. I would forget the past few weeks and start over. The environment there was much more serene than in New York. Although I will forever call New York City home, and I prefer being there over anywhere else, it does have a tendency to be crowded and loud. At night we hear fire trucks and sirens and all the delivery vehicles nois-ily traveling across town. Needless to say, sleeping is more difficult, and the environment is not always conducive to feeling centered.

Where we live in L.A. is incredibly peaceful. I couldn’t wait to settle into the house and to start experiencing the constant sunshine. I looked forward to establishing the same schedule we’d had in New York, which had been working well. I was exhausted after the flight, and my mind was reeling from our encounter with Kate Lear. I was too tired to read the material on postpartum depression and decided I would do so when I was more rested.

Unlike in New York, where friends can drop by easily, in Los Angeles you have to drive everywhere. Therefore, it’s hard to get help from friends, because people don’t live close to one another, and it’s impossible to get around quickly. In addition, none of our family lived there, either, so we felt a bit isolated and thought we could use some assistance sooner rather than later. It was a new environment for Rowan, and I was worried she might feel unsettled.

I had no doubt she’d be affected by the time change, and I wanted to make sure I had help available in case she had trouble adjusting.

So Chris and I decided to hire another baby nurse for one week, to help us get situated.

I assumed we would find someone similar to Gemma. We called the agency in New York, and they had a baby nurse available on the West Coast. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to hire her. The new woman met us at our house, and within ten minutes it became clear that she was the antithesis of Gemma. She had a drastically different, old-school approach to caretaking, and I felt as if I had been transported back to another era. She wore a nurse’s uniform and called me “ma’am.” She prefaced everything with “Well, with my babies I prefer to . . .” She held Rowan like a football and would put the baby over her knee, facedown, and bounce her up and down while looking out of the window, watching TV, or singing songs I didn’t recognize. I got the feeling she expected me to ring some sort

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