Happy Birthday Canada!
Yesterday was Canada Day, our country turned 148. Xander spent the day with my parents since he is there all week, as my mom is off work and school is out. The house was so quiet. I didn’t even get out of PJs until after noon. Which for anyone who knows me, is not like me at all. Even everyday that I was on mat leave with Xander, the first thing I did in the morning was shower and get dressed, that was unless Xander woke to eat first. But then it was the first thing I did after. I just can’t start a day without doing that. It was weird but nice to be a little lazy. I knit and caught up on season 4 of Homeland. I took some time for me.
Throughout my lazy morning I did some thinking about how lucky we are to live in Canada. How lucky I was that during my time with Hunter that I was able to be off work and spend as much time with him as I could. Many countries don’t have the options we have for work leaves and many parents are faced with the costs of being off work with no income, never mind the additional costs that they also face from the stay at the hospital and NICU.
We were also lucky that in Canada our health care is pretty advanced. If it wasn’t and I hadn’t had the option to deliver at Mt. Sinai than we probably wouldn’t have had the time with Hunter that we had. He required breathing support from the moment he was born, since his lungs were so far underdeveloped from the lack of amniotic fluid. If the medical technology that we have here in Canada was not available to us than Hunter would not have survived more than a few moments. We would have had to say hello and goodbye within an instant of each other. Although our time together was too short, I would not trade that time we had, I only want more.
I was not lucky that my water broke at 18 weeks 4 days.
I was not lucky Hunter was born at 24 weeks 5 days.
I was not lucky that Hunter died at 8 weeks old.
I am lucky to be Canadian and live in Canada.
My Little Acorn 