Tuesday, September 23, 2008

It's All Rather Anticlimactic, Actually

Chapter XI

Dr. Miracle recommended we not tell anyone of our fragile pregnancy. We didn't.

My neighbors figured it out rather quickly as I quit drinking with them on the weekends, but we told none of our family. None of our friends.

The twelve week marker came and went. Everything was textbook. My progesterone was fine. Those nasty cysts? Had disappeared just as they should have. I went from high risk fertility patient to totally run-of-the-mill pregnancy. We were fine with that.

My transition from the first trimester to the second coincided with my mother's birthday. We bought her a birthday card that read Happy Birthday Grandma and took it to her the afternoon we celebrated at their house.

My heart was pounding when I handed her the card. I had kept my mouth shut for so long, and it was finally going to be my moment to celebrate with my family. My mom held the card in her hand and talked and talked until I had to finally tell her to open the damned thing already.

I was absolutely sweating as she opened the envelope.

She read the front of the card and made a bit of a sarcastic face. It looked as though she believed I had bought the wrong card. I started to laugh. She looked so confused.

I inclined my head at her to get her to read it again, but you could tell things just weren't processing. Until the light in her eyes changed. She looked at me and burst into tears. I told her this was her birthday present because I was too cheap to buy her anything else.

I don't think she cared.

From this pregnancy was born LittleBird. For all intents and purposes I had a textbook pregnancy. Everything went smoothly. I never puked. I never had any trouble. In retrospect it all seems rather anticlimactic. Just what was the big deal again?

I will save the stories of my C-section and VBAC comeback for another time.

I hope you have hung with me through this story. There are lots of other bits I was not able to fit in. I am sure they will come out as independent posts sometime in the future. This whole phase in my life is just a piece of who I am. I do not define myself by these events, but they have shaped who I am and how I perceive the world.

I promise to return and regale you with stories of my in-laws and our vacation. See you Saturday!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

really nice story, but you have another child, right, so looking forward to the next story somewhere down the line. and of course the more imminent MIL stories, I mean, they can't be funny at the time, but afterwards we can laugh about them! Hope you had a "good" holiday!

Mouthy Girl said...

Holy crapola.

What a great story.

I had tears in my eyes when I read about your mom's card.

You started my day with a smile today, woman!

Irrational Dad said...

*applause*

The card was awesome. Letting them figure it out for themselves is such a fun thing. I won't bore you with how Sarah and I did that, but it was the coolest thing to see who figured it out first.

RiverPoet said...

Honey, that's not anticlimactic. That's a beautiful little girl. She is indeed a miracle! I'm so glad to know you and her (with her beautiful smile that just lights up her whole face).

Love how you told your mom! That's wonderful.

Peace - D

Anonymous said...

I'm with sag...curious about the story of your son, too. Could he be that urban legend "oops" after being told it's nearly impossible to have kids?

D

Candy said...

That was a great story, thanks for sharing it.

Coal Miner's Granddaughter said...

LittleBird and BamBam are the perfect endings to this story. Saw Dr. Miracle today and he told me to tell you "Hello!" and loves that you're blogging about your story! I think he was amused by his alias. :)

Patois42 said...

Beautiful. Pure beauty.

Gypsy said...

I loved this series. Thanks for sharing it with us.

KJ said...

Awesome!
Love the way you told your mom, and the sarcastic look. Ha.
Great story. Beautiful kid.

Toasty said...

What a fantastic story! I followed the saga day after day... it's been the soap opera d'jour around here. Thanks for sharing it.

holly* said...

i'm so glad that, in the end, your babymaker worked A-OK! (like i didnt know the outcome...)

i too welled up with tears as i read about the bday card, but i'm hormonal lately. (not pregnant) so, meh.

<3!

Shelley Jaffe said...

I have loved, loved, LOVED this story - and for you being open and brave enough to share it with us all.

You are an amazingly strong woman, and I'm so honored our blog paths crossed.

Anonymous said...

I have been away and this was just an AWESOME story to read. After going through the infertility trial and tribulations with a friend, you are so incredibly lucky the way it turned out. And that you and your hubby made it through it together, more so because you almost didn't.

I feel warm and fuzzy. And I just want to go home and smother my niece in hugs.

Kelly said...

This story brought me to tears more than once. I'm so glad everything turned out okay.

What a beautiful series of posts!