Hearing that we lost Iris due to a pregnancy complication unrelated to the reason we lost Nelle was unbearably hard. I wanted to know whose cage I rattled in the universe to deserve this.  And then thinking about it more, I found the connection. In both cases, my body betrayed me.  My body had one job to do which was to keep my babies safe for 9 months and it failed.  My therapist wanted to make sure that I was not feeling guilty or blaming myself. Nope. This time I know that there was nothing I could have done.  But I am so angry.

My body further betrayed me in the arrival of breastmilk. I was hoping I could avoid that this time, but early yesterday evening I felt the unmistakable signs.  I had started taking Sudafed and drinking sage tea as soon as I was discharged from the hospital, just in case. Maybe it will not be as bad.

I saw my therapist yesterday and will go in twice a week for awhile.  I nearly had an anxiety attack at the idea of needing to retell and relive story, but I planned ahead. I asked her if I could read my blog post to get the story “out there” and then we could talk after. That way, I already had the words.  She told me that I could scream in her office if I wanted.

Ger will drop off all of the paperwork at the funeral home. I couldn’t bear to go again so he brought everything home for me to sign.

Back in November, I spoke to a friend who had gone through a significant loss of her own.  I sent her an article called “Everything Doesn’t Happen for a Reason” that was one of the most real things that I have read about dealing with grief.  One of the things that she and I both found striking was acknowledging the pain of someone else by saying, instead of “I am here for you” to say “I am here with you.”  The author writes:  Note that I said with you, not for you.  For implies that you’re going to do something.  That is not for you to enact.  But to stand with your loved one, to suffer with them, to listen to them, to do everything but something is incredibly powerful.

Last night, that same friend sent me the following text: