Some times technology cant help you…

Day 65 in my miracles life

I learned something last night….

I learned that sometimes technology as awesome as it is, sometimes cant really help you, sometimes it is more of a burden than a blessing, and i learned that sometimes, just as many people have told me before, sometimes you just need to have a little faith and put your trust in the Lord & yourself…

You see, last night was the second night my little miracle slept in her own room…

It was the hardest most pondered on decision of my life.  Ok so maybe not as hard as the decision to do IVF, hmm and maybe not as hard as the decision to put one or two embies back in… But it was hard!

I have spent the past few weeks debating whether it was time or not, and having an internal debate about baby monitors, thoughts and ideas swirling round my head, horror stories creeping into my dreams, yet at the same time dreams of a full nights sleep, and dreams that one day soon my husband and i can be more like partners rather than friends…

I wanted to do this right, i wanted to make sure i didnt desert my little one, and leave her in her own room for something dreadful to happen…. Because like every new parent, and maybe a little more because of what we have been through, i am so scared that something is going to happen, scared that my miracle will be taken away from me, and with all that they tell you with all the new information out there on SIDS, i wanted to make sure i was doing this right.

So i bought a monitor with sensor pads.

And for me, it didnt work…

The technology worked, but the fears were still there, the technology did not take my fears away, it did not help me get through the night without checking on my daughter a thousand times, the technology did not help me through the night without worrying that something was wrong, without thinking that the worst was to happen…

So i took it back.

Yup i took the fancy pants monitor back to the shop, and last night my daughter slept unasisted in her own room… Still in the basanett – but none the less, in her own room.

And guess what?

We made it, both of us.

Now tonight is another night, tomorrow is another day, but today i feel ok about it.  I am starting to believe that she will be ok in her own room, that after nine long months inside me and after nine short weeks by my side i am ready to close my eye of a night and know that she will be ok.

Maybe it seems a little dramatic, all this fuss over moving her 6 meters away (no seriously its about 6 meters) but after all that we went through, and through all the pain that will forever remain in my heart….  This is huge.

And from this experience i will know in my heart for the rest of my life that technology in all its glory, will never take away the fears we hold onto, that fear is something that we have to pass on, something we have to overcome in our own time and in our own ways.

Day 301 – If i could just make it through another day…

Thirty Three Weeks. 49 Days to go…

Plain and simply this is hard.

Harder than i thought it would be.

Today i went back to work.  I thought it would be a good distraction, and i thought that it would ease my mind to know that i was being productive….

But today was hard.

I am scared… Well maybe not so much as scared but worried.  I am worried that i am going to miss the signs, that i am not going to be in the right place at the right time… Worried that i diagnose my back pain as back pain rather than labor, worried that if something happens i will not be prepared…

I am sitting here worried that i have got everything wrong, that i cant do this, that i am once again going to stuff up…

I guess i am just second guessing myself, my faith and my instincts… I dont want to, but reality has hit and i am.

Maybe it will be better tomorrow.  Maybe i wont have back pain tomorrow, maybe i will feel more comfortable, maybe if i can just get through today, tomorrow it will be better.

Maybe it wont.

I dont know…. I just dont know up from down, left from right anymore… Plain and simply, i am confused about everything, and just want the next 7 weeks to pass and to have my little miracle in my arms safe and sound…

Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you. Roger Ebert

Day 296 – The rollercoaster that is this journey

Thirty-Two weeks. Two Days. 54 days to go.

Everything in life has its ups and downs, i definitely wont deny that. And i cant deny that everything in life sometimes makes us scared… I thought i was over reacting and that if i just saw the doctor i would be reassured and sent home. I was almost too embarrassed to call, and i almost convinced myself that i was being silly, but this time i am glad i did call, and i am glad that i got over my shame and saw the doctor, for once in my life i made the right call.

Like everything else on this journey it is uncertain what is going to happen, what may or may not be. And like everything else on this journey there are so many varied outcomes, so many explanations, so many people telling me a multitude of information, i have no idea – i honestly don’t understand.

But i do know that this morning at 5am when i wrote these words, it hurt, and the doctors have said that i may or may not go into labor in the coming days or weeks, and again all i can do is ‘wait and see’ ‘wait and see’.

In the hours to come there will be more tests, more poking and more prodding and hopefully some answers – but for the moment i will lie back down pull my bed socks up hold my hands together and pray for this little cheeky miracle of mine.

Sometimes in life all we can do it hold onto hope and faith, and wait and see…

Day 175 – Just a little scared

Fifteen Weeks. Day 107 in the quest to chase our little miracle

I thought by now the stress or worry about the pregnancy would be over, and i thought that in my mind i would have confidence and security about the future.

But to be honest i dont, and to be honest i am scared out of my mind.

There are so many if, buts, maybes, questions you dont want to ask yourself, fears you are afraid to admit, and most of all fears that you are scared that if you admit people will think poorly of you.

I am scared that i have done something wrong, or that i will do something wrong that will hurt my george.  I am scared that geroge is not ok in there, because i cannot feel anything but slight little cramps that the doctor tells me is ligaments stretching and moving. I am scared that i will start to bleed, and i am scared that my stress from work will hurt little george.

I am scared that if i make it to september, that i wont be a good mother, i am scared that i will be cranky, and i am scared that i will do everything wrong.

I am scared because i am scared, and i am scared that being scared is stupid.

I just dont know, i have turned into an over emotional, over thinking stressed little girl who should be grateful for what she has, but is to scared to even let herself dream.

Where has my courage gone?

Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you’re scared to death. Earl Wilson

Day 173 – Justified fears?

Fourteen Weeks, five days. Day 105 in the quest to chase our little miracle

Toady i am scared.

I shouldnt be, maybe i should be i dont know, but i am scared

The whole IVF thing is awful, just awful.  You spend so long wanting and hoping and dreaming, and then it happened and you think the pain and fear is over, but its not.

Today i am scared, and i have no one to turn to.

I am scared because i have these little cramps, and i dont know if they are normal.  They are not that painful, just weird, and i have this anxious feeling as well.  It seems to be a little better now after my shower, but i still cant help but to feel scared.

We went through so much to get here and to get this far, and to have these fears is just so overwhelming.

Idont know what to think, or what to do.  I have an appointment tomorrow, where i pray that i will just be told everything is normal, but my fears are still there, and they are real, and i will not deny them, i will get over them, i will enjoy my day today, but i will not deny them.

I often wonder if we didnt go through IVF would these fears be as real? Would my anxiety be as strong? And it often makes me wonder if my fears are justified, or just a silly frame of mind that the struggles i went through to get here put me in…

You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith. Mary Manin Morrissey

Day 168 – 100 Days ago…

Fourteen Weeks. Day 100 in the quest to chase our little miracle

100 days ago i made a choice to do one final cycle.  I wrote on my white board in permanent marker – “when the world shouts give up, hope whispers one more time” And we gave it one more time.

I honestly hoped for a miracle but i told my heart i wouldnt let myself believe it, i told myself that i wouldnt let myself dream and i told myself i wouldnt break down.

But i did.

I hoped like hell, i cried until there were no more tears left, i begged and i pleaded with the Lord, screamed in pain and i cried some more.  I wanted this more than anything else, and i wanted my one last chance to be it.

100 days ago i thought that i would have an answer 68 days ago – 100 days ago i thought that i would no longer need to write and i thought that my 100 day challenge would be over on day 99, i had thought that i would have my final answer and that my journey would not need to continue.

But 100 days ago was just the beginning.  100 days ago was day 1 of the final cycle that would change my life forever, it was the begining of my miracle, and the begining of the rest of our life as a family.

100 days ago, i jumped in one last time for happiness, 100 days ago my prayers were finally answered, and my faith and hope restored.

I will never forget my 100 days of IVF, i will never forget my first 100 days in the quest to chase our little miracle, and i will never forget that when the world shouted give up, hope, love, and true friends whispered one more time.

For without that hope, without love, and without those true friends, there would have never been that one more time, and there may never have been day 100 of the final cycle to chase our little miracle.

Once you choose hope, anything’s possible. Christopher Reeve

Day 166 – To hold onto pain, or to forget?

Thirteen weeks, five days. Day 98 in the quest to chase our little miracle

I will not lie, sometimes i forget how far i have come, sometimes i forget how blessed i am, sometimes i forget that all is ok now…. My life takes over and i forget.

But then there are days where i am reminded of who i am and where i have come from, i am reminded that last year was painful, i am reminded that people i know are still hurting just as i hurt, and that in turn reminds me of what i went through to get here.  These things i am reminded of just makes me want to scream out loud, and release all the pain that i am still holding deep inside me.

I know that i am blessed, i know that i have everything that i ever wanted, but for some reason i am still holding onto the pain i went through.

And i know i am doing this, because i have done the same thing with the pain of my mothers passing for the past 16 years.

My question is, where comes the point where we release our grief? Is there a point? Am i holding onto something that should now be a distant memory?

Most of the time, i believe that not forgetting the pain, makes us stronger.  Reminds us that we survived and that we can handle what is thrown at us, but maybe i am wrong, maybe holding on makes me weaker.

When i am sad, when i have lost hope, i draw on places of sadness, play a song that reminds me, and i let myself fall apart.  Is this unhealthy? Should i not let myself be reminded of the pain?  Is breaking down, remembering my grief, both in my mothers death, and in the struggles i faced to fall pregnant, make me the fool, or does it make me wiser by reminding me of who i am?

Does my pain make me who i am? Or does it take away from who i am?

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey. Kenji Miyazawa

Day 141 – Wordless Wednesday with a twist

Ten weeks, one day. Day 73 in the quest to chase our little miracle

This will stay in my heart for an eternity…

Love at first sight is easy to understand; it’s when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle. Amy Bloom

Day 140 – My childhood memories for sale…

Ten weeks. Day 72 in the quest to chase our little miracle

You know that feeling, when you go home to your parents house for the holidays, walk through your old room, look through old memories, open the window and remember all the mornings of your childhood that you opened that window and felt nothing but hope and happiness?

I do, and tonight i am in sadness because those times of walking through old memories are now for sale.  The home i grew up in, the place i called mine for so many years of my youth, is now for sale.

It is not a surprise, i knew this was coming, but it doesnt change how hard it is to say good bye.

Home is where the heart is, and my heart is no longer in that space, but in a new space, and with new people, but i guess my old home is still part of me, and always will be.

It was in that home that santa came down the chimeny, where the easter bunny popped by, it was in that home that i meet one of my closest friends, it was in that home that i rolled down the grassy hill and played dress ups, danced and laughed untill i cried… It was in that home that i grew closer to my sister, and that was the home where i said my last goodbyes to my mother…

It was the home where i discovered who i was, and where i learnt how to become who i am today.

That home has a special place in my heart, and i know nothing can ever take the memories away from me, but i still sit here tonight remenissing about that home and all that it gave to me…

My parents build that house, and turned it into a home for me, and my only wish right now is that one day i hope that my child will see the home that my husband and i will build in the same way.

A home is where the heart is.

Day 121 – Each day a new miracle

Seven Weeks, two days. Day 54 in the quest to chase our little miracle

Okay so maybe not each day a new miracle, but each week.

Today i had my 5th scan of my pregnancy, and it never ever ceases, and i dont think it will ever cease to amaze me, just how a life grows, or just how quickly a life grows… I wish i could show you the images we have, but the clarity isnt enough, and the images just arnt enough to describe the amazement, the awe, and the feeling that the actual visual on the ultrasound gives me, just to see something go from nothing, to a void, to a void with a dot, to a void with a wriggling line (fetal pole) to todays vision.  A 0.92cm blob, with a beat, in a void, with a yolk…

I know i have said this before, and i know i should have faith no matter what, but each time i see my little miracle my faith is renewed… It just amazes me that a little life grows so fast, that i have finally got a life inside of me, that there is a part of me and my wonderful husband inside, just waiting to meet us…

I know it is easy for me to say, but miracles are real, miracles do happen every day.  Miracles dont have to be out of the ordinary, they just have to be extraordinary.  They just have to make you believe in something bigger than you or me, they have to make you believe in your heart that God is real, and they have to make you see that hope is worth holding onto…

I thought hope was lost, i thought i would give up, i thought that it wasnt meant to be…  But it was, there was a plan, and while i will never forget the pain i went through for this, it was all worth it and i wouldnt change it for the earth.

I have never felt this much joy in my life before, and i see the happiness in my husbands eyes and know he feels the same…

Praise the Lord for a miracle!

Fear can keep us up all night long, but faith makes one fine pillow. Anon