Today:

People close to us know what last year was like. Joyous, because Daniel arrived, but then scary, as we were forced to navigate the NICU, and Daniel’s prognosis was not clear. We got him home after a week. Now, for some parents, getting the baby home after just six days would have been a dream. We saw a lot of sick children up in that unit. Daniel’s needs were critical, but with the exception of a couple of days mid-week, there always seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel. But those two days. Again, We’re very lucky, but I think those days were the hardest of my life. Hard, because all we could to was stand by. We prayed. We hoped. It was difficult reading what the staff were telling us, but Cheri and I were perceptive enough to see that we weren’t being given the full picture of how bad things could have been. It wasn’t evident anyone could really say. So we all pressed on. I’m usually composed, but that Wednesday was particularly hard.

Finally, we were given the green light to go home. I credit the nurse manager in Bay 5 with giving us that. She assured the MDs we’d be responsible enough to bring Daniel in should he need any help. We were so grateful. We ran into her months later at a restaurant, and she remembered us and asked how Daniel was doing.

Now, he’s one year old, and he’s flying.

The ultrasound was at 10:30. This was all driven by the techs, with our MD doing a follow-up visit just a half-hour afterward. Cheri’s been nervous about this, and I don’t blame her. I think I choose not to worry about anything until there is something to worry about; I kept that attitude until we entered the clinic and, bam, we went right into the ultrasound room. The techs were understandably poker-faced during the session. Added to that, this visit was handled by the tech-in-training, who whispered back and forth with her lead instructor. This was stressful for Cheri and I. I have no knowledge of what makes a “good” ultrasound visit, but I do know what it means to instruct interns and students, so I relaxed after a while. At the end, we were informed everything looked normal. Our baby continues to move around a lot, just as she did during the first sonogram, now so many weeks ago.

And, of course, we were open to the inforamtion that we are having a girl. Cheri and I decided a while back we have no desire to wait on this information. My logic is simple: the baby has fingers, toes, a spine, so it goes without saying we want to know the sex as well. It adds to the comfort of knowing who our child is.

I took the whole day off, and so now we are at home, getting ready to take a dip in the pool.