V-Day

"V-Day" is a milestone that women on the Bump boards celebrate these days - it's the point at which most hospitals would try to keep a prematurely born baby alive by any means necessary, typically 24 weeks as I am today. The "V" stands for viability, which might be a somewhat misleading term because although a baby born now is viable in the sense that we have the technology now to save its life, the odds of survival are only about 50/50 and any 24 week preemie that did manage to survive such an early birth would almost certainly face severe physical and mental disabilities for the rest of its life.

It's a morbid train of thought to think about whether I'd even want the baby to survive and face such a difficult life, so I am reluctant to actually celebrate the V-Day milestone. I know most people probably don't overthink it to that degree and are just happy to have made it this far. And that I can get behind - 24 weeks is awesome. In my mind this is six months, although for all practical purposes it's really just five and a half. But five and a half ain't too shabby. Only three and a half left to go!