Good night, sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest...
-William Shakespeare


It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.
-Rose Kennedy

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Put on your big girl panties and step out into the world!

(Thanks, G. for the picture for the post!)
I awoke today with a turn in my stomach, my annual pap was at 10:00am (rescheduled from last week thanks to Mother Nature, my period starting 3 days before I had planned!). I went in the office thinking I could put my big girl panties on and they would stay up. I was alright when I arrived, only two women in the office both older and not within child bearing age. I checked in with the cheery receptionist who said, "no changes to insurance? Have you been in within the last year?" to which I laughed and replied "most definitely." Thinking of course, do they ever check a chart around here? As I sat in the waiting room, in walked three, yes three pregos and one Mommy with her little one in a carrier. The receptionist asked the one with the tyke in tow, "how old is HE?" "six weeks," she replied. Me sitting there thinking oh, great how much more of this do I have to hear? Oh, so much more to come! She sits down next to a prego and the prego says, "I can't wait to get to that point, I only have seven more weeks left." "The last two months are hell," replies the Mommy. I'm thinking to myself, A. do I have my ipod with me and B. shut the hell up, bad things happen to good people. Finally, I get called back, "please step on the scale." "How are you?" "I'm here," I reply. "I don't know if that's bad or good," replies the cute little nurse. "It's NOT my favorite place to be," I say. She drops all other conversation and states, "have a seat in the small waiting area, if you need the restrooms they are right down the hall." Once again, I want to say, "Hello, B, I have been here too many times to count and the last time was NOT, I repeat, NOT a happy time." I however keep my mouth shut and sit down. I stare at my shoes, and the picture on the wall away from all of the other people who are yes, pregnant. I think to myself, I'm alright, I'm doing alright. WRONG!!! In comes Mommy with her 6week old boy and sits yes, right next to me with the carrier sitting at my toes. I'm OK, I can do this. The baby starts to whimper and my first thought is to grab him and run, my second thought which is what I did was to run to the end of the hall. I get to the end of the hall and stare out the window, looking at the clouds and praying with all of my might that they will call me soon. I wait ten minutes and get called, I find my solace in my little room, where my BP is taken and I'm told to undress and wait, the doctor will be in shortly. 30 minutes later the doctor arrives and she hugs me and says she is so sorry and yes, she too is nine months pregnant. No, I don't look at her tummy and she knows why. We talk and I cry and she says someday she hopes I will be where she is. I say I hope so too. She has suffered IF, for years, so I sort of feel a connection (not that I suffer from IF, but she too has had hopes dashed.) I leave feeling a bit better but realizing that my big girl panties have fallen around my ankles and I thought they would stay up.

I came home and slept, worked my way through the rest of the day, I managed to pull my panties back up. I seemed to be doing better. My sister called, she had left a message, so I returned her call. She wanted to tell me something, she didn't know whether or not she should but she decided it best. What is this thing she wanted to tell me? My nephew, my sweet lovable nephew who is going to be 9 this month, told her, "I wish Aunt Amy would have told me earlier that she was pregnant." "Why?" my sister asked. "Because, maybe I wouldn't have wrestled with her so hard, or jumped on her, maybe William would still be here." Big girl panties falling again, I cry, "no, no, no, he, there wasn't anything he did wrong. I will talk to him but I want to talk to him in person." B, my sister says, "he's been so quiet for the last couple of days, I didn't know what was wrong until he brought this up." My nephew is not the quiet type. Only when he is sad. I hung up with my sister after the tears and the usual I love yous. I thought for a minute and called my Mom, I did the usual talk with her, hung up and decided to call my nephew. If he was thinking about this I didn't want him to have a sleepless night. So I called, "Hey L & M it's Aunt Amy, may I speak to BC?", "just a minute we'll get him." BC comes to the phone and I say, "BC, I don't really want to get into this on the phone but I do want you to know, you had nothing to do with William not being here." "I know" comes a sad voice. " Do you really know?" I ask. He says,"Hey, do you remember when we were at the lake? Did you swallow any water? I mean because if you did, the germs could have..." "BC, no, I didn't swallow any water and nothing..." "But remember you were trying to get me away from your tummy and you were tired that day, you were pregnant but we didn't know it yet, you didn't tell us." "BC, there is nothing you did wrong. There is nothing any of us here on earth could have done to prevent this. We have no answers but it definitely was not you." "O.K." he says. (Niece crying in the background b/c she wants in on the conversation.) We decide to leave it at that and talk later, my Niece is a Drama Queen! She gets loud and we decide to leave it be for now. I tell him I love him and to please remember there is nothing he did wrong, nothing he could have possibly done to have made William not be here. Big girl panties are back around my ankles again.

I live in the mid west, big girl panties is something we utilize to put on our game faces. My panties didn't want to cooperate today, they didn't want to stay up, my game face was no good. My true feelings came through and my heart breaks everyday that William is not with us. I guess it'll be another day when I decide to put on my big girl panties and step into the world, until then, I think I'll stick to my training pants and put my thumb in my mouth and cry.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Selfish little brat!

This last week has been so difficult. Who knew that three months was going to be such a hard time. Shan and I are talking but not as much as I would like. I cry. He works. I cry. He keeps busy. I cry. He tries to calm me.

Truth be told he's hurting really bad this month too. All of the reminders, Saturday was the day the Doctors had given us for our 2nd due date. They kept bouncing it around. I found out yesterday that my sisters friend who was due the 26th (William's original due date), is being induced on the 17th (this is the day that I swore William would be born as we are not Irish but we do have the drinking down!) to say the least I'm happy for her but I am also very sad. For reasons I am sure you all know!

Shan and I talked tonight, I would like to try again for another baby, he on the other hand doesn't think he can do it. He most definitely cannot go through losing another child. Losing William has broken him. He doesn't talk because he just truly doesn't know what to say to me and to be honest, I talk enough for everyone! I just feel as though he is holding it all in and one day he's going to blow. I would have to say that frightens me. What else frightens me is this: I am selfish!

I realized this tonight after our discussion, it seems as though he has some fears about his own health and is afraid that he will not be around for as long as I seem to think he will be. The selfish sides of me are saying, well, if something happens to you I don't want to be left alone, I want a child of ours to be here with me. (I'm reading this again and freaking out...what a B am I?!)I don't want to be left alone here. Please, don't leave me alone here without someone to hold on to that looks like you and reminds me of you.

Now, let me state that there has not been any reason for me to think that Shan will, ok, I'll say it...die any time soon. He has a pain that is undiagnosed and will be taken care of in the next month so, no really there is no reason to worry. Wow, there's the optimist in me again! Glad she's back for a bit! Yet, ok lets play the pessimist game. What if...what if there is a problem and I do lose him too. No, I cannot survive that , I don't think I even want to go there. But if I had to, I think the only way to survive is to have a child here that is ours. Someone I have to be responsible for. So, I guess wanting a child is now for very selfish reasons.

No, I am not through the pain of losing William and physically and mentally we couldn't start to try again for a couple of months at least. However, I want to know that the possibility is still there. It used to be and I think he vacillates just as much as I do on this particular subject. Lucky for him he's not selfish. Sad for me I am!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

It's your day...

and I'll cry if I want to.

Today you would be three months old.

What a mile stone that is. I wish you were here with us.

We miss you more than words can say.

We hope you know what is in our hearts.

We wish for you peace where you are.

We hope you are playing with Sammy Cat.

We love you more than the moon the stars and the sun.

(To readers: If you turn your volume up you can hear the song that links us to our William)

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Three long months

Tomorrow marks three months since we found out we lost our little man. Today marks three months since the last time I was blissfully happy. How I wish I could be that happy still and counting the days until he is here. Instead, I'm counting still the days we have been without him here with us. It hit me this evening. I miss William, I miss him more than words can say.

Along with missing him I actually miss the old me. The me who didn't always think what if, or I'm really not sure how much longer I have here on earth. Not that I mind thinking the latter, I used to but not now. It just doesn't seem so bad now. I know when my time comes I will get to see my sweet little boy and hold him and kiss him for all of eternity.

This week is going to be difficult this I know. The dates fall exactly the same as they did that dreadful week three months ago. Only this week to top it all off, I have my annual Pap! Oh, yeah, instead of going in for and u/s or to pee in a cup or hear a heart beat, I get to have that fab speculum shoved you know where and swabbed! Oh, yeah for me!

Yes, this week will be hard. I will however work my way through it, I will wish for next week to be better and this week to hurry up and end! Maybe just once the universe will work in my favor and make it a little easier on me! We can all hope can't we?!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Wonderful People...

Did anyone see the Today Show today? There was a story about Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. It is very touching. I wish when William was born I had known about these people. I found out about them when it was too late. I support them all the way! I think the work they do is awesome and I hope that more people are aware that they exist. Please take a look at the video, it was too large to load so you'll have to follow the link.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23481435#23481435

Sunday, March 2, 2008

In other news...

There's a new kid on the block, Lisa, please go give her a warm welcome to this "club" of ours!
She lost her 2 boys in December due to IC.

I'm working with a woman who started an advocacy group in our area. Hopefully, it will be up and fully running by the end of the year. I know it's a long time however, these things take time and patience. I'm excited about working with her. She lost her child in 1978, born still. She has so much insight and is working on getting the Missing Angels Act in other states.

The weather here is definitely, Midwest! Welcome to Misery, oops Missouri is so true! 70 today and 30 tomorrow with snow! Oh,yeah! More over time for Shan.

I'm not sure what else is actually new but we have a lot of things ahead of us, a lot of hard times.
I'm working on Williams memorial service, not sure when it's going to be, definitely this month but we are waiting on the weather (mother nature) to cooperate with us. If you all have any suggestions I am open to what ever would make the day more memorable than it already will be. Williams due date is the 26th of this month, so I'm not looking forward to that or maybe I am, I'm not sure yet! I have phantom baby kicks which scare me and make me think he's still here. Of course, he's not which is sad to say more than likely a good thing right now as I am sick, I can hardly breath, if he were still with me I'd be huge and not able to breath! Don't know if either of us would make it! Not to say I wouldn't be willing to give it a try. Hell yeah, I'd try if it meant that I could watch him grow up instead of planning his memorial service.

We'll see how this week progresses, it's still very difficult but with the help of you all and my IRL friends, Shan and my family I will exit the extra hellish roller coaster some day and just enter the hell coaster! Thank you all for all of your support! I need it!

Another Update

This one is not about me or William!


This one is for my friend C. the one I told you about with the hyster and all.

She called yesterday. She's doing alright. As best as can be expected.
She's on the roller coaster! She feels as though she had a triple whammy.
1st she lost her son, then she almost lost her life, then she lost the ability to carry a child of her own. They left her ovaries, which is a good thing of course.

She and her husband have opted to adopt. They had opted for that even before all of the other bad stuff happened.

She is strong, she will make it through the fire but not without some help. We will get together next week for lunch and a chat. Her boat is different than mine but she doesn't begrudge me what I may still be able to have. She is a caring, loving person who believes truly that everything happens for a reason and that there was a plan long before anything actually happened. She has her faith.

Thank you all for your kind words regarding C., I will pass them on to her when I see her.