Good News

Just wanted to post a quick update to let people know that Nora had a good visit to the pediatrician today.  She continues to gain weight (she's up to 10 lbs, 4 oz now!), she hasn't had a fever since Saturday, and her lungs are evidently sounding better.  We were reassured by this information, which corroborated our sense that her mood is improving.  He also confirmed that though Billy now seems to have caught Nora's virus, she is not really in any danger of getting sick again as a result.  Last night Billy and I agreed that this past week has felt like the longest one of our lives, and then we realized that it probably is the longest week of our lives, given how little sleep we've gotten.  This is not how we had hoped to spend the last two weeks of Billy's paternity leave, but I guess the best we can do is take each day as it comes.  This has been a very trying time for us, but we want to thank each of you who has checked in to see how Nora is doing and how we are holding up as we care for her.  Your love and concern have helped us, especially in those moments where Nora's illness has felt completely overwhelming.

I also visited my OB today for my six week post-birth checkup.  He told me that I have made a full recovery and gave me permission to resume all my regular activities.  It was fun to see him again after having him deliver my baby, and he was sorry that Billy and Nora had to stay home.  As I was leaving, he told me he hopes he is on call for my next baby because I "made things so easy on him," so that made me smile.  All throughout my pregnancy, I had an internal monologue running about how terrible my body was at being pregnant.  Though my pregnancy was healthy and low risk, I felt like I still managed to dabble in an unusually large percentage of the difficulties associated with pregnancy.  Today's visit, though, made me stop and appreciate how just how well my body has recovered from pregnancy.  It is nice that almost all the pregnancy weight came off without any effort on my part, but even more than that, I am thankful that I've felt great basically since the moment Nora left my body.  Since I hope to go through this one more time, I think remembering how well my body bounced back this time will help me endure the pregnancy phase.  And if this body feels a little rusty when I go for that first run, I will try to remember to be a little more forgiving toward it than I otherwise might be.

I have always been a very healthy person, so for most of my life I took that health for granted.  This past year has taught me just how precious a healthy body is, and though that lesson has been a difficult one to learn, I am thankful to have gained this perspective.