Year Two....... Yippee.

This last month has been full of ups and downs.

Three weeks ago, I took the family to the Bristol Ren Faire. We all had a good time. I met with a good friend of mine, Jesse (a.k.a, Jock Stewart) who was playing/singing on various stages. He actually called for a bodhran from one of his musician buddies and had me play with him, after "making me" sing a song while playing said borrowed bodhran!

Yeah, he REALLY had to twist my arm....... NOT!

It'd been such a looooong time since I'd last played and sang in front of an audience like that. I'd almost forgotten how good it felt!

The weekend after that was the Heritage Days Festival at Galesburg. After a two year absence, it was so good to go back, seeing good friends and meeting new ones.

Those were some of the high lights for the month.

Now the lows:

As I posted earlier, The Wife and I are expecting number 4.

That in itself is definately NOT a "low"....

The weekend after Galesburg, The Wife told me that she was bleeding a little bit. Well, that caused some concern, so we went to her OB/GYN. They monitored the baby's heartbeat and checked The Wife "down there" & everything came up roses: heartbeat was strong and the blood wasn't bright red (arterial), so they said just to keep an eye on it and if it gets worse, come back. Ie, they couldn't tell us what was wrong, but hey, Mom and Baby are fine.

Last Friday AM, I'm awakened by The Wife shaking me, telling me that when she went to the bathroom, there was blood everywhere.

THAT woke me up!

I don't remember who was watching the kids, or even the drive to the hospital. I remember calling work, telling them "I'm not coming in today, I'm taking my wife to the hospital, she's bleeding.", and hanging up.

I drop her off at the Emergency Room Entrance and go park the car. On the walk to the ER, I tried to pray: for my wife, my unborn, et al. Now, I believe in the power of prayer; I've seen evidence of said Power. I also have a feeling that my prayers don't seem to carry much weight with my loving God. I thought of begging, pleading, bargaining, everything, and you know what came out of my mouth?

"I'm sick of begging, I'm sick of bargaining. Just do what You're going to do anyway and be done with it. If You want this one too, just take him quick".

Well, the short version is, Baby's heartbeat was 160 - strong and healthy. I asked the doc, "Then what the hell's wrong with my wife?! She shouldn't be bleeding!"

His answer? "We don't know. We do know that she's healthy & the baby's healthy, but we don't know what's causing the bleeding. Some women just bleed." He actually said, "We do know that she's not NOT having a miscarriage."

What. The. Fuck!!

Apparently he's never heard of double negatives.

He told her to make a follow up appointment with her (new) OB/GYN. Said appointment was Tuesday afternoon. I got home from work at 7:30 pm to find The Wife on the couch with ultrasound pictures, and got the good news and the bad news. The good news is, the baby is healthy, and from what they can tell at 13 weeks, IS A BOY!!! At the rate he's growing, doc says he could be born around Feb. 28 (it'd be so cool to have a Leap Year baby!). The original due date was March 4th, which means he's growing like a weed!

Whew!

The other good news is also the bad news. He knows why The Wife's been bleeding. She has placenta previa. If she over-exerts herself in any way, she could miscarry.

The Wife is on COMPLETE BED REST. She is not to work (she's a 1st Grade teacher), cook, clean, grocery shop NOTHING. She can only get up to use the bathroom and shower. ANY movement could cause the pregnancy to go completely and irrevocably pear-shaped.

This doesn't make The Wife happy, no sir, not at all. Or me either. Most nights, I'm lucky to be home by 8:00 pm. I can't cook supper for the kids after 8 o'- friggin'- clock!

Let's just say that The Wife is frustrated and worried and bored, and I'm going to be frustrated and worried and exausted for the next 6 months.

Nothing ever, EVER comes to this family easily.

Good thoughts and prayers are welcome.

And oh yeah, happy Blog day to me.....