This Little Piggy

Dear Delilah,

With the exception of your turning a deaf ear to my requests to maneuver out of your breech position, you were a surprisingly good listener while in utero. On the way to our appointment for the anatomy scan ultrasound, your father and I told you not to by shy, and that it's okay to show your private parts to mommy, daddy, and medical personnel, so go ahead and show your bits to the nice sonographer. You listened so well that it was a challenge for the sonographer to get any other views; you kept flipping to display your girly bits for the camera!

Most pregnant women become anxious for the "full term" milestone, which means that it's considered safe for the baby to come any time. While I breathed a sigh of relief when the time came that you'd no longer be considered premature, I still wasn't in a huge hurry for you to be born. First, that was because I was still hoping to get you flipped, as you well know by now. When Anka first got sick and we weren't aware of the severity of her illness, I gently requested to you that you wait to make your appearance until we made our final decisions about her, and you complied. And then...

The year you were born, 2009, was the year of the "Swine Flu" pandemic. Pregnant women were considered to be one of the highest risk groups for complications from this flu, and it was spreading like wildfire. I'm not the flu shot kind of gal, and I believe in the power of positive thinking. I knew that I would be well. I'd stay healthy. I'd be fine. Your father was thinking positively too...positive that he'd get sick.

Daddy's job involves going to schools and talking to teachers, and schools were one of the places where swine flu was spreading the fastest. Daddy got swine flu. His symptoms started 9 days before your estimated due date. Our family doctor put us both on anti-viral medication-for him to help lessen the severity and shorten the duration of symptoms, and for me to prevent getting sick. Friends and family started insisting that I get out of the house and stay away from him. I knew I'd be fine, and I was not about to leave my husband, sicker than he'd ever been, to fend for himself.

I stayed. I took care of him. I put blankets on him when he got the chills and cold washcloths on his forehead when he got the sweats. I pumped him full of liquids and vitamins. People started asking me about a flu shot, but it was too late for that. I'd been exposed, and if I was going to get sick, I was going to get sick. But I wasn't going to get sick.

All the while people were pleading with me to get a flu shot, to get away from the house, to get out, get out, get out, I was pleading with YOU to stay put. I begged you to stay comfortably inside of me until Daddy felt better. If you came before he was better, he couldn't be there for your birth. The hospital implemented such strict visiting restrictions during the flu epidemic that if your daddy couldn't have been there, no one else could have been there either. (That's why you don't have photos of numerous grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and friends holding you in our hospital room. They weren't allowed!)

You listened. You stayed put. Daddy's fever broke on Sunday. I think he remembers the exact moment because it had something to do with Brett Favre, and...a touch down pass? You'll have to ask him. He knows. He still wasn't quite tip-top, so he planned to wait a couple of days to go back to work. Wednesday was to be his first day back at work. Wednesday was the day I woke up at 2 am with contractions about 6 minutes apart. Wednesday was the day you were born.

I thanked you then, and I'll thank you again now. Thank you for waiting to make your appearance until your Daddy could be there for your debut. I won't say that I couldn't have done it without him, but I certainly wouldn't have wanted to. Remember, as you grow, when I ask something of you, to listen like you did then. Mommy really does know best!

Love,

Mama