Fun amongst the anxiety

Allow me a post to ramble for once. I want to make three points.

First, Maggie and I bade my mom (Grammie Hobbs) good-bye tonight and then welcomed my dad and Sherri in here a few hours later. There has been some level of discussion between Maggie and I about the issue of what to call those who are married to the "natural" (for want of a better word) grandparent. I am sure this is a common issue for those who live amongst blended families. Maggie and I are in agreement that it does not diminish the contribution of the biological parent to share the term "grandparent" as long as the, uh, target of this name is comfortable with the title. Therefore, Sherri can be grandmother and Ralph can be granddad and Woody will be the richer for it. We shall definitely tell him plenty of stories about Granddad Jerry and Grammie Hobbs doesn't lose her unique and special place by sharing the wealth of love in the family.

Second, it is a hard thing to be in the situation that Maggie and I are in. A week and a half ago, we thought we were having a more or less normal pregnancy and had barely even thought about some of the nuts and bolts decisions about actually having a child. We didn't own a single thing for children prior to going to the hospital the night that Maggie was admitted. So we had our idea of how the birth was going to play out get completely shattered in the last two weeks, and it's been hard. I can't necessarily speak for Maggie, but I can't help but feel a little (ok, maybe a lot) resentment when I see parents that don't seem to realize how lucky they have it. I know it's not fair, but there it is. I guess what I'm saying by getting this off my chest is just that if you have healthy children, don't take this for granted. Hug your kids if they aren't in an isolette.

Finally, it's also just kind of hard to maintain a continual crisis mode with the worrying about stuff. I wonder how long anyone can go being afraid of the phone ringing, or just being anxious all the time. I for one do my best to try to stay loose and have a good time, and enjoy my time as a parent so far. It's been really good to have my family visit the last week for that reason, because without a little fun amongst the anxiety I think it would just be unbearable.

With any luck, we'll hear about the echocardiogram results tomorrow morning.