"Edited to Add"....

This started as a pregnancy blog when I fell pregnant in May 2009 after four years of finding a donor, doing all the counselling / paperwork / tests and trying.

And now, thanks to a 4WD which skidded onto our side of the road, killing our baby daughter at 34w and injuring me, my partner and two of my stepdaughters on 27 December 2009, it has turned into something else. We didn't want this something else, but apparently it is all we've got to go on with.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

*P* Being here

These are the things I would love to believe mean something:
- half-waking, trying to get comfortable in bed and thinking, "ow, boobs!".
- extreme 'right now or I'll eat your head' hunger mixed in with queasiness.
- having to get up in the night to pee.

Is my hope playing tricks on me? Meanwhile, I just continue to hum my vague little 'who knows, who knows' song.


-----

Sydney is so thick with 'before' memories. They are heavy on the ground, mostly still undisturbed because I have spent so little time here since 27 December 2009. The sight of kids in the school uniforms from Snacky & Snazzy's old school, the shops where I bought ordinary, inconsequential things, the road that led to our house - all of these things can't fade into the background until my brain has trotted through its 'last time I saw x, Haloumi was here' routine.

Today, I returned to one of my favorite Sydney spots - the women's baths at Coogee:


Image from here.

The last time I was there, my haloumi-filled belly stuck out obscenely between my bikini top and bottom. I greeted other swimmers with my stretchmarks. That belly was remarkable - everyone remarked on it, speculated on Haloumi's gender and wished me well.

I first swam in this rockpool nearly ten years ago, when I was doing a temporary work placement in Sydney. And when I discovered it, I thought (or kind of *knew*) that would swim here when I was pregnant. Even in the pre-El Prima days, I was so hungry to have a baby, that that moment in the rockpool was one of the things that propelled me most strongly to move to Sydney.

I had so many unpregnant swims here over the years - some involving mildly athletic laps, some snorkelling and marvelling at the starfish, shellfish and once even an octopus under the surface, some splashy and noisy with El Prima's girls, some quiet and contemplative with no one else in the water. And so many beautiful pregnant swims with Haloumi - contemplating the sea snails and feeling her kick almost in time with me.

I've seen it in a storm, with the waves crashing over the rock wall, I've seen the surface sparkle with a beating sun, and I've eyed off the greeny-blue depths when it was far too cold to swim.

And now, who knows? I'm egging on this tiny potential, hoping it is in the right spot, hoping it isn't ectopic, molar, blighted, all kinds of words for 'lost already'. To swim there today felt like an act of love - towards my tentative self and this little question-mark of cells.

12 comments:

  1. It looks like a beautiful place - I've never seen anything like it. I do believe, at the very least, that it has allowed a connection between your two children, your possibilities, regardless of what the outcome may be. <3

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hoping and praying you have many largely pregnant swims with this newly conceived one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. what a beautiful moment. what a beautiful post.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi, here from LFCA. I truly hope this turns into a strong, viable pregnancy that results in an amazing baby!! I've just gotten my first BFP myself, so I look forward to following you!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have tears in my eyes reading this, such a beautiful description. I'm still hoping here for you.x

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a beautiful post. Really, my eyes are welled with tears. Hoping with you for only the best. Thinking of you and praying for you and the little one within you. xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Such beautiful words..thinking of you.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It looks like a beautiful spot for a swim.

    I am not sure if it is okay for me to congratulate you, but I want to and so I will - Congratulations...there is a miracle in the making already.

    Thank you also for the very kind and thoughtful comment you left me. I think somewhere deep down, in our consciousness, there is awareness of where the soul is...I am not sure if I am willing to explore myself so deep. I am just walking around with my bird-brain, innately afraid to find out more. And hopeful that I would.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Here from LFCA... I'm crossing fingers, toes, arms, legs for you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thinking of you, H, I keep popping back here to see if you've got any more news or updates...Hoping hoping hoping all is well. xo

    ReplyDelete
  11. Just checking in to see if you have had the scan yet. I check your blog a million times each day, hoping for good news for you. Sending lots of positive thoughts your way. Good luck with the scan!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hello - thanks so so much for all the lovely wishes!! Scan not bad news, but not conclusive either - another one next week. More suspense!!

    ReplyDelete