Five years ago today I went in to see my perinatologist for what had become a routine look at Bean. We had been doing this little routine for five weeks; non-stress test, 3D ultrasound to check on  the size of some unusually large organs, a measure of the blood velocity in his brain to monitor anemia. All of these things, we thought, were related to the antibodies I had developed in my bloodstream that were not being very kind to our little Bean.

Nothing about this pregnancy had been typical. Conception occured on our fourth (and would be last) cycle of fertility treatments, at 27 weeks we determined he was sick due to my antibodies, and on this day five years ago the atypical nature of my pregnancy with Bean continued.

When I went in for that routine visit my doctor reviewed everything with an even more somber contenance than he usually wore and rushed me to labor and delivery. I was 32 weeks along.

Within an hour our boy was with us. You can read all about his birth story here, then here, followed by here and here.