Bit's Baby Dust

Since Bit was born, we have been overwhelmed with the need for congratulations for our extended brood of friends and family. I am now up to seventeen friends expecting babies in 2011 and more than half of those pregnancies were something I physically prayed for or for people who met Bit. It seems that since our little girl came into the world in such a dramatic fashion, so has the fertility of our friends.

It started back in May or June. At the time I was heavy in the belly and planning a trip for Bug and I out to Colorado for my Bestie Wendy’s wedding. I was thinking of all the friends and family I wanted to see and if my bulging belly would make any of them uncomfortable. One of our closest friends suffers from a tumor on her pituitary gland that likely began growing after her first pregnancy six years ago. She and her husband have racked up quite a list of doctor bills trying to figure out how to convince her body it is not in menopause. Muffin’s cousin had been struggling to conceive after a miscarriage, and I had two cousins in the same boat. Some of these conception problems had been going on for years and doctors had no answers as to why the couples were having problems.

So in May or June, I would be thinking of these women and feeling blessed to be pregnant. I would rub my belly, feeling connected to my baby girl, and give thanks for the opportunity to take part in such a miracle. And I would say a prayer for these four women, hoping that they could soon get some good news. By September, each one was pregnant, despite incredible medical situations! One did have a miscarriage, but it was her first conception and after five years of trying, the disappointment came with the silver lining that they could in fact conceive.

I boasted my baby dust success on Facebook and started getting requests from friends to pray for them. I started jokingly rubbing Lil Bit’s baldhead and saying prayers for my friends.  One by one, friend after friend, starting announcing they were expecting. Two conceived shortly after seeing me pregnant out in Colorado and after rubbing my belly for themselves. A third has recently announced she is expecting after a night out with Muffin and I and meeting Bit. The latest is Muffin’s best friend, who met Bit in the NICU, and I secretly made a few wishes for them (without their knowing it. SURPRISE!) So far, the streak is up to nine pregnancies for couples that I actually prayed for or had interaction with us. The other eight are coincidences. Usually I find out about two at a time. First, a coincidental pregnancy is announced and then the one I prayed for. The current dust list has three new members and the one original that miscarried.

I find it interesting because after our ordeal, I was given 25-30% chance of some sort of preeclampsia issue to arise again in any future pregnancies. For Muffin, these odds are too high to chance another NICU baby, mommy hospitalization, or fatalities. Since Bit is still so tiny that I don’t have any baby fever, I am inclined to agree with him, although I’m not sure how I will feel when she is running and talking and trying to catch up to her sister. But with these two beautiful girls in my life, would it be fair to risk their mother for the 50/50 chance of a brother?

The announcements of joyous new additions are helping me cope with the idea of being a complete family. I would have expected it to make me feel the opposite, but I am so thrilled to stalk the slightest hint at news for the people on my dust wish list, that I am satisfied. I look at my baby girl and I see her as such a catalyst for joy and completeness. It’s as if she was the missing cog in a machine, a puzzle piece that completed the whole picture, an elf bringing Christmas in July.  What if these announcements aren’t a coincidence? Could it be that the genuine, unselfish wish for joy for another is a magical aphrodisiac?

I do know one thing for sure; Bit’s Baby Dust is likely to strike again. There is a reason for her sly little grin!