Suddenly *Not So* Single Journey

We try to prepare…

Author: thenicknick

Kind of.

S and I started watching Extreme Couponing when I was on bed rest.  His contention was that if I started couponing while I was laying around, it might give me something to do.  And I liked the idea.

Mostly, I’m a closet survivalist.  I don’t go crazy with it, but I love having a stock pile of food.  Or…I thought it was a stock pile…until I saw that show…and Doomsday Preppers.  Those people have a stockpile of food.  And most of the doomsday food looks completely inedible.  And so I have to wonder…what’s the point…because if I have to survive on that, I don’t want to survive.

See,  now we…we have a point.  Our point is that we never want to go through another rough winter again.  We never want to struggle that much.  So, we’ve already started preparations.  I am shopping, smart, and with coupons.  Yesterday, I saved $73 with the use of store specials and coupons.  Woot woot!

Saving money makes me feel good.  I feel smarter…and prepared.  And if we keep this up for the rest of the year, we won’t just feel prepared, we’ll actually be prepared.  Prepared is good.

Because there are some things in life that no matter how much you prepare, you can’t prepare enough.  That’s how Kenna was…is.

See, I knew we were going to have a premature baby.  I just didn’t know we were going to have a record setting kind of a baby.  That’s what Kenna has been.  She’s the smallest baby my OB/GYN has delivered alive.  She’s the smallest baby that they have had in the Hemby ICN for as long as they have computerized records…maybe ever.  And there was no preparing for any of that.

The closest I came to preparing was reading everything I could get my hands on before before her surprise arrival.  The day she was born was actually the first doctor appointment that I didn’t bring my bag to.  I thought I was prepared.  It was packed.  And the funny thing is…when you are in the hospital…there are a lot of things you can do without.  You can think that you need all the things on the list that the magazines tell you that you need, but you don’t.  Or maybe I didn’t.

I had a c-section.  There was no music.  There was no need for Lamaze or any other breathing and relaxation techniques.  I tried to be pleasant and work the room as much as my suddenly delicate stomach allowed.  And S, he amazed me.  I don’t know how he did it, but he was everywhere, being everything Kenna and I needed.

I had tried to prepare him.  I told him what to expect of a preemie.  I had no idea we were having a micro-preemie…one of the micro-est of micro-preemies.  Didn’t see that coming.  Oops.

And we’ve held it together ever since.  S has been super dad.  He has shown up practically every day.  He is loving and supportive of me at night.

So we face yet another challenge.  Kenna may have pneumonia.  We were told it’s treatable.  There are antibiotics running already.  We are waiting patiently for cultures.  But I’m not going to worry.  Yet.

Follow along on Kenna’s journey.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 20th, 2012 at 7:08 am and is filed under Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.