Two Years of Gratitude

My daughter turns two next week, and I thought I’d be less emotional this year.

I was wrong.

Almost two years ago, severe preeclampsia turned what I thought was a routine 37 week appointment into a traumatic delivery. A surprise 1st percentile baby. Immediate Induction, 55 hours of labor, into an emergency C section under general anesthesia. Followed by a hard recovery that felt impossible at times.

Back then, I couldn’t imagine what life would look like two years later.

Today, she is thriving. So am I.

What makes me cry now isn’t the trauma itself, it’s the gratitude. The realization that this little person has brought so much joy into our lives and the lives of others. People at the park know her by name. She’s helped me build beautiful friendships I never would have made otherwise. She makes strangers smile. She lights up every single room she enters.

I still wonder if there will ever be a birthday where I don’t sob thinking about how differently our story could have ended.

If you’re in the thick of preeclampsia right now, please know this: there is life on the other side. Beautiful, ordinary, joyful life. The kind where you’re chasing a toddler around the park, planning birthday parties, making new friends, supporting new moms and suddenly realizing how much goodness found its way back into your life.

I know I used to hate when people would tell me, “At least you and the baby survived.” In those early days, it felt impossible to hear. The trauma was still so fresh. It made me so angry.

But now, two years later, I understand what they were trying to say. Not because the trauma doesn’t matter, it absolutely does. But because one day you may find yourself watching your child laugh, run, and impact the lives of everyone around them and realize just how much life existed on the other side of those hardest days.

It gets better. And if anyone understands how hard it is to believe that while you’re living it, it’s the people in this group.

The hardest chapter of your story does not have to be the whole story.

Keep going. One day, you may find yourself crying happy tears, too.

Happy Birthday, Baby Z.

I see how much joy you bring to the world around you.

What a true gift it is that you’re here.