And so it ends as it began

Our little girl turns one on Friday. Hard to believe. I'll save my best mushy stuff for her actual birthday. For now, I feel a need to comment on the symmetry of this year.

For those of you who don't know -- I had a wicked case of the stomach flu when Abner was born. It started the day before I went into labour, hit its peak sometime during early labour and continued for about the first week of Abner's life.

I distinctly remember laying awake on the couch at 4 am, about six hours into the whole ordeal, thinking I would have to be the unluckiest person alive if I went into labour that day.

Well, I didn't go into labour that day...I went into labour that evening. Meaning, no matter what I did, I was going to have to deliver this baby after two sleepless nights in a row and an entire day of being too nauseous to eat.

Turns out, it wasn't that bad. The birthing experience comes with a whole slew of hormones and adrenaline that help you through the fatigue and the hospital comes with a whole slew of drugs that help you through the nausea. The pain meds I took following the birth even helped keep my fever at bay, so I was kind of lucky in some weird way.

Lest you should think I suffered alone, TDSH was kind enough to share in the misery and joined in the fun the day we came home from the hospital. Obviously, Abner doesn't remember it, but some of the first 'sounds of home' she heard were those of her father praying to the porcelain Gods. The two of us spent our first week as parents downing shots of Pepto Bismol from his and her plastic shot glasses in the bathroom [I actually still have those shot glasses marked with our names in black sharpie pen].

And now, here we are, almost a full year later...and guess what? I have another case of the stomach flu. If I weren't feeling so ill, I might be able to appreciate the beauty in coming full circle.