So, I feel like I officially became a mom last night, when I got thrown up on for the first time. I was holding Zoe and admiring her big blue eyes when she opened her mouth and just let it all out. (It’s hard to believe that an 8-pound individual can produce that much vomit!) My first thought (which I probably shouldn’t admit) was, “Oh my God, my shirt” – and my second thought was, “Oh my God, I hope she’s okay.” I don’t have a lot of experience with babies – let alone babies who throw up – so I called in Q for consultation. He’s the designated burper in the family and he’s seen her get sick before, so I needed him to determine whether she was okay. Once he came in and assured me that she was, in fact, fine, I peeled off my shirt, threw it in some cold water, and let out a big sigh.

Somehow, I don’t think this will be only time I’ll get thrown up on in my lifetime…

-M

PS – Two pics of the little vomiter are below.

A friend recently (jokingly) asked whether I missed being pregnant. Despite having had a relatively easy pregnancy, I certainly don’t miss the side-effects, such as moodiness and swollen feet. (And I love that I’m able to now sleep on my stomach and move around without feeling like a walrus.) I can’t say I hated pregnancy, though, because it yielded little Zoe. AND it turns out it might have had another positive side-benefit. I know we’re all sick of talking about platelets, but I learned yesterday that my latest count was (drum-roll please) 141K. (A normal count, again, is 150-450K; before pregnancy, I hovered around 30-50K.) My count has NEVER been that high – at least not without the aid of nasty prednisone – and the only explanation is that pregnancy and delivery did something to alter my immune system’s nasty habit of destroying platelets.

I did quite a bit of research on this issue even before getting pregnant, and I know that in some cases, having a baby can reverse a mom’s autoimmune disease, like my ITP. (It has something to do with the fact that a mother and baby  exchange body cells during pregnancy. It’s the same reason poor Zoe’s platelet count was low at birth.) It’s pretty rare for this to happen – but not impossible. I’m hoping my counts stay high, and – if they do – I have Zoe to thank!

-M