Knowing and Honouring Our Baby Dates
One thing I’ve learned from the infertility community is that we all have dates. Most remember the date they pulled the goalie (i.e. started trying). For those of us who have gone through miscarriage(s), most remember the expected due dates of their lost babies. Some remember the dates of devastating ultrasound news.
For me, I have a weird relationship with our dates.
I have a list in my phone of all my CD1’s, beta levels with each pregnancy, fetal heart rates with each pregnancy, date of confirmed fetal demise, etc. But, without looking, I don’t know any dates except for my current cycle date.
But, here’s the odd thing. I have never really known any of our expected due dates, and I have never really kept track of our daily/weekly progress. I knew the first one’s due date, but then deleted everything from my phone and scratched it from my memory in the aftermath of our loss. I was told our second due date, but then never paid attention to it. I never even bothered to learn our 3rd, 4th or 5th due dates. With the exception of our first loss, I have all the CD1 dates in my phone still, so I know I could figure it out with a couple quick Google searches if I really wanted to. But, I have not bothered and don’t expect to now. At the time, for better or worse my thought process was to just take it it week by week and focus on the one in front of us. And now, I don’t look them up because I just don’t see the point on marking multiple days out of every year with sad memories. I would rather hold onto the happy memories that we do have, then to dwell on the negative.
Some might say not knowing these dates is a practical approach that is true to my personality; others might say it’s sad that I don’t know these dates to honour our babies; and, others might say that it’s about self-protection. I would venture the guess that all these perspectives are at least partially true.
See, just like I said, I have a weird relationship with our dates, mainly because I don’t really have a relationship at all. From what I can tell, nearly every other person in the infertility community knows there dates, particularly their expected due dates that never happened.
But, I have to share that I out of all of our experiences and all of our losses, I have engrained only three dates into my mind and my heart. Yes, that’s right, only three.
First, I know the date of our emergency D&C that was the end of our second pregnancy. I know it because it was also the very first surgery I ever had and it was also just before my 30th birthday. I don’t really hold onto that date as important – in fact, we’ve already had the first anniversary of the date and it really didn’t bother either of us. At the point of the D&C we had already experienced waiting for our baby die and learning that it was actually dead. So, the D&C was more of a necessary evil, and little emotion was wrapped up with it. For me there was no fear on the surgery day, probably because I was so emotionally drained by then that I just want it to be over (although I think my husband suffered miserably as he waited at the hospital without being able to help).
The second date I remember is the day we found out we lost our 4th baby. You see, for the first time ever with this baby we had a healthy fetal heart rate. My husband was over the moon excited. I was convinced something was wrong from day 1 to the point of annoying the heck of my husband. This gut feeling prevented me from really embrace the good news of the fetal heart rate. I couldn’t, call it mother’s intuition, but I just knew something was wrong. In the end, I was right and our baby died without us knowing it. Anyways, we found out this baby died 3 days after my 31st birthday. For 2 years in a row, my birthday has been marred by absolutely horrible experiences. So, now I know, for the rest of my life, I will always remember these two babies when we celebrate my birthday.
The third date I remember is our darkest moment – the day we terminated our third baby. The first anniversary of that date is today. It has been one year since we made the decision to let our little baby go. A decision I would never wish upon anyone. A decision that still hurts, even though we felt compelled to make in order to potentially save my life while knowing that our baby would eventually die regardless. A decision that will undoubtedly stay with us for the rest of my life. A decision that no parent should ever have to make. My husband, he’s much more clinical about this decision because the possibility of losing me simply wasn’t an option in his mind. Me, I know, I absolutely know, it was the right decision. But, I was and am much more emotional about it. Regardless, we both loved that baby so incredibly much. I will continue to love her, and hold her in my heart for the rest of time.
So, today, I will not dwell on this anniversary. I learned long ago that for me the anticipation of hard anniversaries (i.e. April 7), is actually harder than the day itself. So, I am confident that the worst of the anxiety is behind me. I will silently honour our memory of our baby girl (I have no idea how, but I’m sure I will even if it’s just within my own thoughts). I will cherish the conversations I had with her when she was still with us, and the glimmers of hope that we had when she was part of our lives.
And, just in case the day is harder than I anticipated, I should be okay as by some coincidence, we have out of town family who stayed with us last night and we are off to celebrate my Great Uncles 80th birthday tonight. For me, this means that I have a great distraction, and will be surrounded by mostly unknowing family members who will double as a great distraction. And, I highly doubt the only two people at the party outside of my husband and I who know about this anniversary, will remember the actual date.
Anyways, that’s it for today. I’m off to keep myself busy and to find a few happy moments where I can.
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My Perfect Breakdown 
First of all, I’m sorry about the anniversary you have to remember today. No one should have an anniversary for that.
Second – I’m the same way with dates. I’m 4 or 5 miscarriages in and I couldn’t tell you a date on any of them. I remember the due date of my 3rd because that was the one I got the farthest with and it was shared with a friend’s birthday. Otherwise I scratch them out of my memory. Similarly, I can’t tell you the day my mom died. I know it was either the 30th or 31st of July and inevitably every year on that day someone will remind me, but I instantly forget. It was barely two weeks ago and I already pushed it out of my memory. I think i do it to protect myself. If I tried hard enough I’m sure I could recall a date or two but I don’t let myself spend the time.
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First, I am sorry that you too have all these crappy experiences lodged in your memory. I too think I have chosen to never find out due dates as a way to protect myself. I think its part of my survival.
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I’m sorry that you had to go through so much pain. I remember the dates my babies were due and the days I lost them. Baby 1 was due on Easter. I had just had surgery so I slept through it. Baby 2 was due right after our first anniversary. I had surgery and couldn’t celebrate this one either. Baby 3 would have been due on my husbands 31st birthday. That day hasn’t come yet.
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I am so sorry that you too have so many hard dates to mark your calendar with. It’s just wish this wasn’t our circumstance…
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I am so sorry for the horrific measures that had to be taken in order to save your life! Thanks for sharing your story; her story. What a fighter she was! Thinking of you today.
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Thank you so much for your kind words.
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You blow me away. I think you were the one who made the distinction for me between RPL and infertility (I’m in the latter group). I honestly hadn’t been aware of it until I found your beautiful writing in this space. At 36 years old, I have only had one loss but it was devastating. The baby would have been due on Valentine’s Day. I am thinking of you today.
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First, thank you for such a beautiful compliment on my writing.
Second, I’m so sorry you have experienced a loss. One loss, is one loss to many for anyone to have to experience. I am sorry that you too have dates like this.
Lastly, although there is a clear distinction between RPL and infertility, I think we share a lot of the same emotions – disappointment, hurt, anger, frustration, hope, etc. As there are so few people who experience RPL, I am thankful for people like yourself who are sharing there infertility experiences.
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I’m so sorry about this horrible date. I hope eventually you have positive dates to remember and these sad dates of grieving will fade.
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Thank you. I do appreciate your kind words of support and also hope that we get some positive dates to remember eventually! 🙂
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I’m so incredibly sorry for your losses and inevitable but just, sadness. I hope you don’t feel any guilt about not remembering dates because you shouldn’t. Wishing you lots of smiles and light today.
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Thank you. I do appreciate your words of support and encouragement to not feel guilt. I think in some ways I will always feel guilt for the decision we made one year ago. But, I also know I would make the decision again in the same circumstances, so this helps me remember not to hold onto the guilt too much.
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I think about my dates as well…I get all dark and stormy leading up to a due date or failed IUI date. Unfortunately grief isn’t linear and I think the pain of loss will always keep a part of our hearts broken. Some things simply can’t be fixed; the ache just dulls a little over time. Sending you strength, light and love. I’m so sorry you are reliving this pain.
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Thank you so much for sharing your perspective. I agree, I think the ache dulls over time, but never fully goes away.
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The dates are always so hard. Sending you a big hug sweetie. Thinking about you and your angels. ❤
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Thank you so much! But, as much as some dates are horrible, I love that you have just crossed the 20 week mark – that’s an awesome date in my book! 🙂
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🙂 I think so too! Thanks hon ❤
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Praying for you! ❤
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Thank you.
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I am so with you on this. It is hard to remember the dates and it is also hard not to remember them! I had those days and still having them time to time, moments to moments! Like you, I try to focus on distraction in life and live in the present moment.
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Thank you for sharing. It sucks that we both have dates like these that will haunt us if we let them.
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(((hug)))
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Thank you!
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