Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Birthdays, Illnesses, Ch-Ch-Changes

Last week was Becca’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Bec.   Was it a great birthday?  I can’t answer that for her.  It didn’t seem that great to me and for that I wish it was better.   It was a bit stressful to be honest.   Life is stressful right now, but it’s our life and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

The two biggest questions I get are:  How is your wife?  And what do you need?  Usually when I get these questions, I have an easy time answering the first but struggle with the second.

Question 1: How is my wife?  She seems horrible to me.  She is now at 13 weeks and through the first trimester so you would think things are hunky dory but they are, in fact, getting worse.  She is more tired now (and you can tell by looking at her, no offense, Hun).  The morning sickness (why is it called morning?) is worse.   The way things have progressed the last couple weeks, I don’t see how she can’t be on bed rest very soon.  Now I say that, and I know some women will tell me that women have been getting pregnant for years and have had to deal with tiredness and morning sickness.  Personally, I get really frustrated when I hear people say that. The long and the short of it is that the doctors are doing the best they can but they tell us that there really is no tried and true method to anything with quads. There aren’t enough sets out there to have developed any sort of normalcy. I know most of my frustration comes from watching my wife try to get through this and knowing that I can’t physically take on the way she is feeling to give her a break. My biggest concern is making sure she and the babies get through this pregnancy.  It’s just so hard to see my vibrant and sassy wife getting weighed down like this.

Question 2: What do we need?  That is a really hard question.   It’s hard because I don’t know when we will go on bed rest. That’s when we will need the most help (prior to the babies being born). For my own personal sanity, I would like some organization around the house.  Our garage is getting crowded with baby gear (praise God!) but there is no method to where anything is being put yet.  I would like the babies’ room to be emptied of all of our stuff and restocked with baby gear by Thanksgiving. It’s not looking like she is going to be on her feet much after that. My wife is driving me crazy right now because she keeps trying to work around the house and I would prefer she rest and save her energy for growing the babies. On the flip side, I know I can’t take on much more around the house or I’ll end up on bed rest with her. :) So what do we need? Right now, help moving a couple of bookcases, a rack of baking supplies, and a table with all of Becca’s paperwork on it down to the basement and someone bringing all the baby stuff up from the garage and helping us organize it.

The other really difficult thing that we are dealing with right now is what to do with our 2 year old cat, Swiper the Fox.   Swiper has gotten incredibly more aggressive with all of the visitors that have been coming in. He doesn’t like strangers—especially men. We can’t find anyone to take him and the animal shelters in town won’t take him either because of his aggressiveness. We definitely don’t want to give him away and have him hurt someone.  It looks like we are going to have to put him down.  We’ve had a few people who are actually thrilled we are thinking of putting him down. Poor guy. Swiper is just a dumb cat who doesn’t realize that not everyone is out to hurt him.  We love Swipe and wish he could stay with us but unfortunately it’s not an option. We can’t risk the babies.  It makes me very sad and I’m really going to miss him even if he was a pain in the derriere sometimes.

Posted by Sean

3 comments:

  1. let me know when to come over.. I LOVE ORGANIZING...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Keep your head up Sean and try to remain positive. I know it's hard right now and sometimes things feel very dark, but remember that God is watching out for you, and he will make things okay. I think on Jeremiah 29:11 whenever I feel that things are spinning out of my control and understanding.

    Keep your head up, and know that you have a great network of people that are here to be your "village" and support you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My heart goes out to you both. Being in my 7th month of pregnancy, I can relate with your gorgeous wife only to the extent that I take any discomfort I have and multiply it times 4... I can say that is definitely hard to even fathom!!! I have so much respect for how she is carrying the burden so far and embracing what she knows is to come. And you, dear husband to her, are doing a fantastic job of being a pillar for her to cling to for support. That in itself IS very helpful for her!!! I know your role is also extremely taxing, and I have tremendous respect for you as well! I am not in a state where lifting things is an option, but once the things are in the room I would love to come over and help organize if that would be helpful to you guys. I might also suggest a storage unit may be something a group of us supporters could contribute toward financially. Anyone out there interested in helping with that (if they want one) please contact me at dramyl@live.com. I also wonder if I may have your permission to share your story (and blog) with my patient base to broaden the exposure to folks who may have things they would enjoy donating to your growing family. I would also like to do a 'diaper, wipe and wash drive' with my patient base and offer them some service or other if they bring in a pkg of so many (have to check prices to make it fair to them) diapers, wipes, baby soap, etc. I would imagine that would be helpful to you guys if we can stock you up on those... dirty happens! LOL. In fact, to all of you who read this blog, I challenge you to grab some diapers, wipes and baby soap for them to start stocking up now. If we all grab some when we're out and about until babies arrive, then how big of a surplus can we create for them??? $10 here and there is nothing to most of us, but how awesome would it be to know we got to help keep the quads fresh and clean for a whole year???!!! Also, some of you may work at large companies where they choose a charity to work with during the holidays... PLEASE campaign to your HR to support the Ishum Quads!!! If not the whole company, start your own diaper, wipe and wash campaign with friends and family to see how much you can gather before they arrive! Hopefully they will need that storage unit after all!!! :)

    ReplyDelete

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