Tag Archives: miscarriage

out of sorts

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I suppose it isn’t a surprise that I feel funky and out of sorts. I have a nasty headache. I’m tired and drained and stressed. But I’m at Dad’s house. If the house were a little more babyproofed it would be way way more restful. I can’t really ignore her here and that’s hard.

There’s a part of me that wasn’t 100% certain that I had a miscarriage before because I never had a positive pregnancy test. The past few days of seeing what is coming out of my body has dispelled all doubt. This is my second miscarriage in less than six months. I talked to my midwife. This might be coincidence. This might be a problem that is easy to fix with minor medical intervention. She didn’t really want to say but there was the strong hint that this might be a sign that something is Wrong. I know that it’s a small chance. But I still freaked out when I kind of had to acknowledge that. I had cryosurgery and was told then that I might have trouble getting pregnant because she was taking off a lot of the surface of my cervix. Then I had a hard labor. There is a non-zero chance that something was damaged. I’m scared.

And I’m a petty, horrible bitch. I found out today about two more pregnancies in my relatively close social circle. I’m jealous. I’m angry that my body isn’t working right. I’m upset that they aren’t having this hard of a time. And then I think about my friend who hasn’t been able to get pregnant at all and I feel like the worst sort of horrible person. How dare I be upset about having problems now when I have such a wonderful, beautiful child.

But it hurts. It hurts so much. I hate that I feel betrayed by my body. My body has more or less always done what I wanted it to. My body doesn’t have a lightening fast metabolism, but I’ve proven that I can have the kind of body I want (I just don’t care enough to maintain it). I don’t have allergies. I’m mostly healthy. The Meniere’s hasn’t actually made my life harder at this point. I have disliked having the stomach acid problems, but enh.. that’s just whining.

This is awful. This is hard. I feel broken and bad and horrible and defective.

Thinking about Alex

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The child I lost is named Alex. I’m not sure why, I doubt I would have given the child that name if he/she had actually been born but in all of my thoughts about him/her that’s the name the baby has. I would be 18/19 weeks pregnant right now, so not quite halfway through the pregnancy. I would be feeling movement. The early fluttering is some of the most powerful magic I have ever experienced. Feeling the creation of a Being, a Person inside me made me feel connected to the source of all life in a way I have never felt before. I’m sorry I am not experiencing that magic with Alex right now.

In some way I kind of wish that we would just hurry up and try to get pregnant so that I can bury my feelings of loss in the joy of another life but that feels wrong. In addition to Shanna deserving a full two years of milk I think that Alex kind of deserves the space in my heart and body that he/she would have had for nine months. I don’t feel critical of other people who get pregnant quickly–anything but. This grief is such that I don’t think I could possibly judge other people for how they handle it.

I’m bleeding again. I think that is why it hit me tonight. Once upon a time I greeted each monthly flow with relief, “Whoo hoo! Dodged the bullet again!” Not anymore. Now every time my body empties of blood I cry and see the loss of a person. I see the child who will never be. I can’t believe how much this hurts. I say this and know that I speak from the unbelievable privilege of having a living child. I feel desperately ashamed at my hubris and greed. I am so selfish. There are so many women in the world who would give anything to have a child–just one–and I’m crying because I had a normal menstrual cycle while using birth control. I’m sorry for being so selfish.

I miss my Alex. So I grieve. Even though I feel like I don’t really have the right I cry anyway.

When discussing blame for losing Alex my therapist said, “I knew it was your fault–I just didn’t know how.” It was really funny at the time. Every woman who loses a child feels like they are to blame. Sometimes I feel like I lost Alex because I am just not a good enough person. I didn’t deserve that child. I don’t know how to reconcile that with what I see when I look at Shanna. She is so beautiful and so perfect. How can I be a good enough person to deserve her and not a good enough person to deserve another child? But there is no deserving or not deserving in this. There is only luck of the draw and there is no such thing as fair.

Tonight I rail at fate. I want my child back.