Monday, December 12, 2011

Learning through a Butt Dimple?

As you may or may not know, I'm a worrier. I'm pretty sure I've expressed that before, but if I haven't or you haven't read it, there you have it. I've outted myself :) Ronnie is the complete opposite when it comes to worry. I'll worry about just about anything. He could have his arm cut off and his worry would be about a 1 on a 1 to 10 scale. Whenever we have a potential issue, problem, dilemma, my mind wanders and I begin to worry about the what-ifs. I come up with all the possible what-ifs, and then begin to think of solutions and next steps for each of those possibilities. Ronnie finds this absolutely ridiculous. He is constantly telling me, "let's start to worry when we actually know what's going on." or "let's wait until we have an answer and then we can discuss all the options." And I always know he's right, but that doesn't stop a worrier from getting stuck in the worry-cycle when something arises.

However, this last month, I managed to break out of my typical pattern - and even while in new mom mode. Shortly after Mckenna was born, we noticed a little "dimple" on her bum - at the top of her crack. Many babies are born with a dimple (1 in 50), but hers was on the "bigger side of normal". And while they told us it was probably nothing and just a slightly bigger than normal dimple, each nurse took an extra peak at it while we were in the hospital...which can send a worrier like me into a tail-spin. At her first appointment with the pediatrician we asked about it. She told us that she too thought it was likely nothing, but that they would order an ultrasound to look and make sure all was ok with her spine/spinal cord. We were told that it would be correctable if it was something, but that it would be something on the spina bifida spectrum.

Typically something like this would make me a worried mess. But for some reason I felt ok about it. Maybe because if it was "something" it could be corrected with surgery, or maybe because I (gasp) am actually learning something from my steady-eddy husband. Regardless, I wasn't too worried.

Well wouldn't you know, Ronnie was right and not worrying until we had more info paid off and saved me a lot of mental anguish. We had her little dimple looked at last Friday, and all checked out fine - the dimple was nothing to worry about!

It's funny how God can grow you and teach you through experiences like this. Somehow He kept me at peace about the situation, and wouldn't you know, it was nothing. I learned that if I wait to worry, I can free up a lot of mental space!