After a rough pregnancy (chronic kidney stones, two stent placements, and multiple hospitalizations), Youngest delivered a healthy baby boy, Aidan, on 3/7/2007. He is a joy to be around, a very sweet, good baby. They are living with me for now, and also for now I'm letting her boyfriend stay there. The idea was for him to be there about 2 weeks to help with the baby and get some bonding time. So far he's back and forth, he's helpful but not regularly. We shall see how it goes. I've only got two bedrooms and it's driving me nuts already, I'm not comfortable with him living there on a more permanent basis.
Youngest has a counseling appointment next week and a psychiatrist appointment the week after. She wants to get back on Lamictal ASAP (for her bipolar), even though for now her mood swings are ok (and remarkably, during her pregnancy, she was pretty even keeled overall except for an occasional outburst). She has restarted taking Topomax for her seizure disorder. She chose not to breast feed so she could be on medications, and I am SO proud of her so far.
The biggest hurdle is still her boyfriend ... despite him being great during labor and delivery and helping off and on now, his underlying anger and control issues are still there. He is a classic abuser ... Youngest has even said that sometimes she watches a Lifetime movie and thinks about him. But only she can decide to kick him to the curb. It's very hard to watch. I do know that while she's in MY home.. I'm keeping my eyes wide open and will NOT let any of that drama around the baby.
She's applied for Section 8 housing assistance and hopes to have that in place by summer; the waiting list was about 8 months when she applied in December. She's gotten WIC and applied for Medicaid for the baby. She will start work back at the grocery store when she is physically able, and wants to finish her GED and then apply for a job at the hospital where she will have benefits and more of a future.
It's great to see her with achievable goals. She still has some of the "I want it RIGHT NOW" -ness of a difficult child, but overall, is making tremendous progress. I'm so proud of her, and I tell her so often.
Oldest has caused minimal drama, Youngest did NOT want her in the delivery room and is not compeltely comfortable with leaving the baby alone with Oldest, but so far they're working it out. The hardest I think will be that Oldest loves to be the center of attention adn this certainly takes away from that. Hopefully she won't create too much drama to complensate.
Time will tell
Youngest has a counseling appointment next week and a psychiatrist appointment the week after. She wants to get back on Lamictal ASAP (for her bipolar), even though for now her mood swings are ok (and remarkably, during her pregnancy, she was pretty even keeled overall except for an occasional outburst). She has restarted taking Topomax for her seizure disorder. She chose not to breast feed so she could be on medications, and I am SO proud of her so far.
The biggest hurdle is still her boyfriend ... despite him being great during labor and delivery and helping off and on now, his underlying anger and control issues are still there. He is a classic abuser ... Youngest has even said that sometimes she watches a Lifetime movie and thinks about him. But only she can decide to kick him to the curb. It's very hard to watch. I do know that while she's in MY home.. I'm keeping my eyes wide open and will NOT let any of that drama around the baby.
She's applied for Section 8 housing assistance and hopes to have that in place by summer; the waiting list was about 8 months when she applied in December. She's gotten WIC and applied for Medicaid for the baby. She will start work back at the grocery store when she is physically able, and wants to finish her GED and then apply for a job at the hospital where she will have benefits and more of a future.
It's great to see her with achievable goals. She still has some of the "I want it RIGHT NOW" -ness of a difficult child, but overall, is making tremendous progress. I'm so proud of her, and I tell her so often.
Oldest has caused minimal drama, Youngest did NOT want her in the delivery room and is not compeltely comfortable with leaving the baby alone with Oldest, but so far they're working it out. The hardest I think will be that Oldest loves to be the center of attention adn this certainly takes away from that. Hopefully she won't create too much drama to complensate.
Time will tell
