The Year of the Wild Hog begins

So this is the new year. And I don’t feel any different.

Actually, this is not true. Everything is different in one way or the other. I went out to a little party at the home of the LDV on New Year’s Eve, but made sure to get back in time to celebrate the new year with Maggie and Woody (who was asleep at the time, bless him). As I said to Maggie, this was less about welcoming 2007 as it was pissing on the grave of 2006, a year that sucked in all ways except one.

And still, even though the year ended with everything coming up roses for Woody, it’s still a bittersweet experience, for a number of reasons. First, we were robbed of so much time and treasure with the Summer of Woody, and I don’t say that because we had anything better to do this summer, but because most parents don’t have to go through what we went through to have a kid. So I’m jealous and a little wistful about the lost opportunities we missed out on this summer, whether it’s camping or swimming or whatever we could have been doing with a roundly and radiantly pregnant Maggie, but it just wasn’t to be. Second, the experience with Woody has really put a massive crimp in our family plans henceforth—no systemic explanation was ever found for why Maggie had the HELLP syndrome so early, and the recurrence rate is something like 35%. So even though I’d love to try to have more kids, is it really a reasonable thing to try to do with odds like that? And even if Maggie is ok with putting her liver and life on the line again, what’s to say that we won’t have the exact same situation with another kid, but not get so amazingly lucky, and then have a kid with major disabilities or worse? Is it fair to such a potential kid?

So yeah, I have mixed feelings about everything, and try to be grateful for everything. Amazing family and friends and luck and everything. But it’s not to say that everything is great, because it just isn’t.

In the meantime, Woody is doing fine. He’s not been sick, we’re working on weaning him off the oxygen (we have the oximeter to check out his O2 saturation from time to time) and he’s getting more bright eyed and frisky every day. He’s nearly 15 pounds, although his weight gain is slowing down considerably the last two weeks as his activity goes up. So we have to cram as much down his throat as possible. On the other hand, he now reliably sleeps through the night, so he’s giving us a lot more of a normal existence, which is much appreciated.

Happy new year to all.