I shared our story of losing our third baby on a 1 in 10, a blog dedicated to raising awareness to pregnancy terminations for medical reasons. Many of you have read my original post, Owning Our Darkest Moment, but I want to share this link for those who have not.
Wife, professional, animal lover and mother to five babies lost too early.
We have lost five babies much too early to Recurrent Pregnancy Loss. Although each one has been devastating and heartbreaking, today I will share the story of our third baby, our little baby girl.
From the start, the doctors knew in all likelihood she would eventually die. It was just a matter of time, and therefore a matter of waiting. We waited for weeks on end for her little heart to stop beating, watching at each ultrasound as her heart rate just kept dropping, too scared to even consider a medical termination. Then, one day everything changed when I developed a septic infection and the situation put my life at high risk. Full story.
Yes, tomorrow, November 29 is a big day around here.
While the rest of the world is already in the throws of the Christmas / holiday season, and most of the USA is recovering from Thanksgiving and Black Friday, that’s just not the case here. You see, we have another big day that has to be celebrated before we really get into the Christmas season.
Before any Christmas anything can occur in our lives, we have to celebrate the importance of November 29th first.
Oh, and how I love November 29. In fact, it is one of my favourite days of the year because it revolves around my favourite man:
It’s Mr. MPB’s birthday!
This means I get to make sure he feels extra special today! I get to shower him with happiness and love. This means gifts; yummy food; lots of phone calls from his friends and family; and, pretty much doing anything he wants to do. And this year it’s extra special because it’s a Saturday, which means he shouldn’t work much (or at all if I have my way) and I can spend the whole day making sure he feels loved!
I suspect our day will include these highlights:
At 12:01am, he will ask to open his gift since you know, at 12:01 it is his officially his birthday and there is no reason to wait any longer. And since I cannot say no, he will open his present.
After sleeping in, I’ll make him a great breakfast. Maybe waffles? Or eggs and venison sausage? It will be a game time decision since we have all the typical breakfast ingredients in the house.
I have no doubt we will spend some time just relaxing. He’ll get control of the remote, so I suspect it will be a morning of cartoons – Pinky and the Brain or maybe American Dad.
There will be a second gift opening. See, after celebrating 14 birthdays with this man, I know I need to have two gifts ready. One for opening at midnight and one to wake up to on his birthday – I loved having a present to open the morning of my birthday as a kid, so I make sure he can enjoy this too.
If the weather cooperates there will probably be a family dog walk at some point during the day. Hopefully by the river so that we can enjoy the beautiful scenery. That said, the current forecast is calling for high of -24 C (-11 F), so we may stay tucked inside all day long.
There are no big party plans this year, but I’m sure we will have an epic meal. I presented the options of going out, or staying home and I can cook or he can cook. And, as I suspect, Mr. MPB elected to stay in and cook himself, because that’s what he loves to do. So assuming I can find all the ingredients today, his birthday dinner will include fresh prawns and oysters and a vegetable or two. Also, cheese cake from the Cheese Cake Factory will be served. I know what this man likes, and he gets whatever he wants on his birthday.
I can also assure you that there will be no dwelling on all the things that should have been, or could have been as he turns yet another year older. Clearly our lives have not gone as expected in the last few years, yet we will not dwell in our sorrow or sit in our frustrations or even focus on our new found hope. Instead we will try to live in the moment and focus on the day for what it is – a celebration of him. (Now if only implementing this strategy were as easy as writing it….wish us luck!).
Anyways, I hope everyone enjoys the weekend just as much as we will!
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