The Whole Story

My children took some work and intervention to be here. There were teams of doctors, reams of needles, and lots of tears.

Jillian's story is fairly uneventful. 4 cycles, 2 drugs, 1 miscarriage, and a beautiful baby girl.

Cait's story is a tad more complex. Most of the time I don't think about it.

That's a lie.

I live it every day. It just doesn't always bubble up to the top.

Cait fell on her head the other day (she's a climber) and we ended up taking her to the Kid's Clinic to get checked out. There was a terrible med student doing our visit. I didn't mind because at that point I knew that Cait was ok and in no danger of a closed head injury or concussion. I actually found the struggling resident a little amusing as she fumbled along with the exam.

When the doctor came in for the consult she was told that "After an uneventful pregnancy, labour and delivery this 15 month old ..."

That was when I started laughing.

There was nothing uneventful about Cait's pregnancy. Labour and delivery were fine (C-section) but the post part was rough too.

Do I have to tell Cait the whole story? We plan to tell her the highlights version when she is older, but not all the gritty details. Will this continue to be a vital part of her medical history? When will it cease to be important? Will she, as a woman, have to retell this story every time she meets with a new doctor?

No one asks me what my marks were in kindergarten. They don't even want to know what they were in university. There comes a point where it just doesn't matter anymore. Does the same apply to birth stories?