I was already contemplating a blog post with this title prior to this weekend's events, but now I have two reasons to post here with this title....
My first is because I really do think of Anna as our little "miracle" baby. It's no secret anymore that me getting pregnant the first time required medical intervention. Not being able to get pregnant the "normal" way was a blow to me - as a woman if you can't do that, then what can you do? That's what women are supposed to be able to do, and I couldn't. Thankfully we lived in a town that had excellent medical care and I was able to get in to see the necessary doctors rather quickly (I guess it probably didn't hurt that I worked in the department of medicine, either!). It took right at a year for me to get pregnant with Carrie. At the time that seemed like an eternity, but in the field of infertility, that's nothing.
So imagine my surprise when, just two days before Christmas 2008, I took a pregnancy test and it was positive. I wasn't supposed to be able to get pregnant without medical help....yet there it was staring me in the face. I distinctly remember when I took the job with GT-Savannah sitting at the kitchen table crying my eyes out because their medical insurance didn't cover infertility treatments. I had thought to make sure that their insurance covered my Remicade treatments prior to accepting the job, but I didn't think to check on the infertility treatments. I remember thinking it was going to cost us about $10k a month that we "tried" to conceive child #2, and thinking we'd never be able to do that. So both Jerry and I were a little shocked when I took the test and it came up positive. Jerry was elated; this was what he had been hoping for (me too!), that I'd somehow be able to get pregnant without help so that it would be a big surprise. And yes, it WAS a big surprise!! To top it off, Jerry also got his wish in that, although Anna's delivery date was scheduled, she decided to come early. He got to do the whole "honey, it's time!" deal and scramble around the house making sure we had everything we needed and rushing to the hospital for the baby to be born. I will never forget having contractions in the car and him driving like a lunatic from Okatie to Savannah. I remember telling him "well, it looks like you got exactly what you wanted with this kid - he/she was a complete surprise AND we're doing the rush to the hospital routine!"
And after this weekend, Anna's my miracle baby once again. She spiked a fever of what we thought was 100.4 from our thermometer at home on Friday morning at 2:30am. By the time we got to the hospital at 3:30am, it was at 100.7, which earned us an automatic 2 day stay in the hospital. The doctors explained that with newborns they had to be extra cautious because their bodies could be overwhelmed by infection within a few hours and could die from said infections. This meant Anna had to get an IV straight away so they could administer antibiotics and draw blood for blood cultures and samples, she had to get a catheter to collect a urine sample, and worst of all she had to get a spinal tap to check her spinal fluid to ensure she didn't have meningitis. I truly hope that I never have to witness either of my children ever getting a spinal tap ever again. Jerry tried to keep me from seeing it, but as I was walking back from the restroom at one point I could see her out of the corner of my eye, and it will probably be awhile before I get that picture out of my head. I know there are much worse things that she could have, but this was a first for me and something I hope never to repeat.
Everyone's home now and on the mend. We're attempting to get back to normal. So, if anyone has any tips on how to get little Anna to go back to sleeping on her own and not with me, they would be much appreciated :) She was just a little spoiled when she was sick, and now we're attempting to get back to everyone being in their own beds!
