Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Worries

The panic doesn’t take hold of you all at once. At first, it’s just a numbness, a lack of understanding, as if someone has just spoken to you in a foreign language.

You are on an exam table in a dim room. On the ultrasound screen, your baby floats and kicks and sucks her thumb.

The doctor speaks, and you try to process the words and possible outcomes: Single umbilical artery. Kidney problems. Fetal growth restriction. Pre-term labor. 1 in 100 babies.

You glance at your husband. His face is carefully blank. He squeezes your hand.

The panic finally sets in a few days later, when you’re sitting at your desk at work. The feeling is swift, absolute, terrible.

What if the baby is not okay?

You call your husband and cry a little bit, and the tone in his voice makes you cry a little more. This is the first time that, as a couple, you’ve had the occasion to be scared about something that is this big, this real.

You comfort each other with the facts. Statistics are on your side, but the situation is something you can’t control or predict. There will be more ultrasounds and measuring and monitoring. And all you can do is wait for the next test. The weeks stretch out before you.

For better or worse, this is the strange process of becoming a family. You are more bonded now to your husband and child than you have ever been. You will hold hands and move forward, because that’s what families do.

Your husband whispers secrets to his little girl, his lips moving against your belly.

You know what he is telling her. It’s the same thing you whisper to her every night before you fall asleep:

Be strong, little girl. Be strong.

6 Comments:

Blogger Alexandrialeigh said...

Good vibes from a fellow Pittsburgh girl are coming your way from me...

11:39 AM  
Blogger Rebecca said...

Yes, scary. Big hugs to you both.

Best possible outcome… Spice Baby will be fine. Focus on that, even though I KNOW it’s hard.

Be strong for your mommy and daddy, baby girl.

12:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Come on big, strong, beautiful spice baby! Stop worrying your parents;-)
Hugs and all that to you both. Keep us updated - we're all pulling for you!

4:19 PM  
Blogger Erin said...

Hang in there, you three. Know that folks all over the place are whispering the same thing: be strong, little girl!

11:17 PM  
Blogger Kitty said...

thinking of you in Boston...sending you lots of love & good vibes and supportive whispers to spicebabygirl...

xoxoxoxo

12:52 PM  
Blogger Erin said...

Lots of love, Spices. Lots of love.

2:17 PM  

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