I hope so too, since that is what you are hoping, but considering this is not her first (or second, or third!) pregnancy, it’s probably worth keeping a packed bag with you at all times.
For my last kid, I was convinced it was B-H until my friend on the phone pointed out that I had to stop talking every 5 minutes. Got to the maternity ward 45 minutes before the baby was born. Just saying!
This is how my brother’s wife ended up accidentally having her second kid at home, in the bathtub.
Good luck, RatMan & the entire RatClan! And best of luck to RatWoman on maintaining an even strain. 
Hopefully, later on you can post an update over in the victory thread! Good luck with ALL of this!
Most important first: RatWoman is not having the baby yet. She was still having the Braxton Hicks contractions after court, so we zoomed over to the OB/GYN. She did a quick exam and said “nope, not even close yet.” That’s good, because her due date is still six weeks away. Hopefully she’ll have a better night tonight.
Now, as to the shitstorm: fucking lawyers. Basically they kicked the can down the road a couple of months. Mom is out of the inpatient mental health program, and going to an outpatient program five mornings a week. She can have all the supervised visits she wants, but she does not get unsupervised time with the kids until CPS signs off, which they won’t do until she has six months clean on the outside and stays on her meds. RatWoman and I retain “temporary permanent guardianship” until the next court hearing in mid-October. My eldest daughter is the backup in case there’s a problem.
Our own plans were discussed, but mom’s lawyer and the mediator did not believe that we really plan to move to Europe this winter, so the longer-term plan was not addressed at all. They simply refused to discuss it, and the family court judge said we’d address that at the next hearing.
Mom declined our offer to set her up with housing here on the ranch. She has a Section 8 voucher so her short-term plan is to look for suitable housing for her and the kids.
During the mediation, RatWoman went off on our lawyer, who took it upon himself to change our own stated goals during the hearing. Basically he volunteered us to house mom in our house, and supervise her directly, which was absolutely not an acceptable option. Anyway, RatWoman ripped him a new one. I was so proud of her.
I’ll probably post some more tomorrow, but right now, I’m exhausted. Half an hour until the last two kids are in bed, and I’m way past ready for a pint and a bowl.
It has been a very long day.
I delivered RatBoy the Younger mostly by myself in the waiting alcove at the ER at Kaiser. She was having full-on contractions, and they didn’t have a bed for her in the women’s center. The ER was busy and nobody was paying any attention to us. She went from contractions five minutes apart to crowning in the space of 25 minutes. The OB/GYN resident wandered in just as I was delivering RatBoy’s head. It got kind of busy after that. 
She’s always had them in the last month or so of each pregnancy. And she tends to have very easy (and fast) labors. We’re ready when the time comes.
One of those moments in life where you say to yourself, “Yes, this is happening”?
I really hope the legal issues can get resolved quicker than it sounds like they will, and I hope the unstable mother continues to receive help and makes some kind of mental and behavioral recovery. (But no, you are not her baby sitter and social worker)
All those years as a Navy IDC were good for something. Fortunately there isn’t much medical-related that fazes me.
Fuck United Airlines. Had to fork out $350 to get home on Southwest tonight (their flight wasn’t cancelled) after United cancelled mine and had no way of getting me back until tomorrow. They treat that route as optional. Should just cancel it outright and let a better airline have it.
That’s good to know when I invade^C^C I mean visit your farm.
Hmm, are you well yet? I’ve never done a pancreatic resection, but I saw one once, and I carry my Swiss Army knife everywhere.
Just like with engines, easy to take apart, a touch trickier to put back together.
But I’ve endured worse, like the transformers movies.
plural? now that is pain.
Using MYOB over here.
It’s now “AccountEdge” (there’s “Pro” and "Basic).
Seems to get bought and sold about every 5 years but the customer service/techsupport ain’t too bad.
It’s clumsy and complicated but sucks less than most of the other accounting software… it does invoice chopping, payables and receivables, P&L, pretty much all of the reporting stuff we need.
Our bookkeeper said she’d never support us if we went with QuickBooks. She’s got her act together 98% of the time, so we listened to her.
Chris died a few days ago. Not unexpected as her cancer was not treatable. She was in her 40s and her children lost a loving mother.
I knew her only briefly, but she was part of my life as barista in my favourite cafe and a kindhearted person.
Currently I am a not very happy mutant.
Ha! Wait until you see my stitches. I am a stitching master.
I need to learn how to give myself stitches. Seems like a good skill to have.
Benefit from my experience: it is very difficult to do a good job stitching yourself, even if you have some lidocaine to numb yourself up. But with a decently sharp needle and some sterile silk thread it can be done.
Lidocaine is worthless. Or maybe all the lidocaine I’ve ever had has been a placebo that absolutely didn’t work.
