Certified Professional Midwife, and today, a recluse

I have big news. Very big news.
I finally received my letter from the North American Registry of Midwives telling me I passed my written exam and I am now a CPM!!!
Woo-hoo!
I finally received my letter in the mail yesterday after an agonizing 5 weeks of waiting, doubting, feeling confident, then doubting again, etc.

It is DONE. The last 5 years of my life have been focused on those three little letters.
After the initial whooping an hollering and hugs and kisses from my family, we got on with dinner and playing and homework. I was alone in the kitchen cooking when I was overwhelmed by great, big, gulping, snotty waves of weeping.
Perhaps this letter took the top off of my pressure cooker. The heat had been turned down, then maybe even turned off for a while. A little steam has been escaping, but yesterday the whole lid was removed and I lost my shit.

I feel like I'm on day 3 or 4 of post partum-ness. My milk is in, the birth went well, baby is nursing, but I just want to cry and sleep a bit. Everyone is congratulating me and I feel a little out-of-body about it all.
I suppose that's how it goes when these big milestones occur.
You're left saying, "That's it? We're done? You're going home now? I suppose I'll stay in and fold some laundry..."

I'm not meaning to be a downer. I'm sincerely happy and also very grateful to all those people in my life who have made apprenticing possible, and to everyone who helped me get up the funds to send in my portfolio and take the exams.

We need a celebration party, which will happen. Right now, I'm starting my period and I just want to read my novel.

(and I'm not really a recluse. It's 2pm, today I've dropped S at school, drove 30 miles for a consult, drove to another midwife's office to borrow something, visited a friend... I just FEEL like if given the choice, I'd be laying in bed reading!)