Skip to main content

Threads.

As you may have surmised from the previous post our third child has preceded us to heaven. At our thirteen week appointment they couldn't find a heartbeat. They rushed me into the ultrasound room to take a closer look. It was one of the hardest things I've had to do, since I knew I was looking at my dead baby. Damm wasn't there; we hadn't had any inkling of anything being wrong so I thought it was just going to be a routine, in-and-out thing. It was a Tuesday. Friday we went into the hospital so they could induce me. I asked for another ultrasound, not because I thought they were wrong but because I knew I would have nightmares if I didn't make sure. Once again, no movement, no blood flow, no heartbeat.

So they put the little pills in and we settled down to wait. Once the pain hit I asked for drugs because I didn't want to feel anything. For six hours Damm and I sat together, trying not to feel or think. Then my water broke and I did too. All the emotions I had tried to control became uncontrollable. I asked Damm to read verses to me from the Bible about heaven. Then our midwife came in and was able to pull the baby out. I asked to see, dreading it but knowing I needed to. I think that was another worst moment; I vaguely remember sobbing the words "Oh God" and then "don't let me drop him" (they were able to determine it was a boy" as they gave him to me to hold. We took pictures, they took pictures and it's something I don't think I will ever share. He was perfect; I could see all ten minuscule fingers and toes. Then they left us to recover and to monitor my condition. An hour or so later I asked to see Cayden again. I hadn't been able to say I loved him or say goodbye when I had first held him. They brought him in, four inches long and weighing barely anything wrapped in a little knit hand towel. We said goodbye, I said I loved him, and then I asked them to take his body away. Once they determined everything was ok with me they discharged us. I asked for an Ambien so I wouldn't dream.

Then another few days of torture began. We scheduled his funeral for the following Thursday. Dreams, horrible ones, haunted me and I didn't want to sleep. I didn't feel like I could properly grieve until after the funeral. The day of the funeral I held myself together remarkably well. It was very small, very beautiful and just what I wanted. The baby area looks like a butterfly garden. That night the dreams stopped; I knew Cayden was safe in heaven and also safe on earth. The grieving, the kind that only time can try to subdue, has just begun.

People ask me how I am. I say I'm functional. Really, though, only Tolkien suffices:

“How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart, you begin to understand, there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep...that have taken hold.” 
― J.R.R. TolkienThe Return of the King

Comments

Dawn Janis said…
I cannot tell you how much my heart grieves for the two of you. Thank you for sharing your journey. You've got me crying (and I'm at work!).

Since I saw Kerry's post, I've been praying for you both. For understanding. For comfort. To just be held close.

Cayden was a beautiful name and I'm sure that he would have been just as beautiful as your other two kids.

You have been truly blessed.
Cap'n John said…
I cannot imagine how you must be feeling. Like Dawn I read this post at work, and I knew what was coming from the previous post, and despite knowing it would leave me in tears I was compelled to read it, and it did.

I do not, cannot know the pain you are going through, and yet my heart still breaks for you.
Beowulfa said…
Thank you both for your kind words. I would say more, but writing down what happened drained me more than I anticipated.

Popular posts from this blog

RAMBLY Political Responses.

Sub-Teach, On monday, I had about 80% of this written as a reply to your comment before I figured I should just drop it into a post. Yay for thought spam from simple commentary. To be clear: I'm not anti-our-current-president. I didn't like his solution for the recession(the bailout(which was started by our previous president)) but I'm certainly not blaming the recession on him. I understand that it was my dear party that thought you could spend AND cut taxes at the same time. I'm not really in favor of the way in which the other party wants to extend the tax cuts(cutting some and not others). I would rather we let all of the tax cuts expire and everyone equally paid a little bit more. BUT I'm really not happy with the idea that we can extend all of them when we are in record levels of national debt, which is what my party espouses. No our current president didn't have much time to fix the economy...and any good/harm he did probably won't be evident

A post!

So Beowulfa recieved the Burning Crusade as one of her many christmas presents. As a side note, she also recieved a picture of a chick with a pet lion. Sort of like Angharad. Anyways, we're poking Drenai characters in a "ooo that would be cool" kind of way. Since it was her birthday present and all... and if the characters were not BElf or Spacegoat then it wouldn't be using the present! So we're going to at least get them to 10. And BElf's are too... pretty in an ugly way. I don'ts like them. She doesn't like them(much?). I said Spacegoat. She quickly created a male drenai priest(this morning). We talked about it at lunch and she's going to make a paladin instead, I think. I slightly warned her off of priest because I've heard they solo about as well as a warrior heals. I'm.... undecided. We have warrior, paladin, mage, priest, shaman, hunter. I've been told I need to be something tankish. So mage and priest are gone. I'm definin

New Stuff

For those of you who are still following us I'd like to redirect you over to our new blog project, www.wordsremember.com . Damm and I have embarked on artistic and literary adventures and have even opened our own etsy shop which you can find here . Thanks!