Grandparents (david)

Well, Tricia's parents are due to arrive here in Wolseley in about an hour or so, and they will be here for a couple weeks, through the birth and the first few days after. They have been saving up vacation to be here for the birth and we are both very happy that they will be around to help out. Some people have given a little nervous giggle when we told them that both sets of in-laws will be here when the baby is born, but it will be a good thing - lots of hands to help out, and they are all very aware of our space and our need for bonding with the munchkin. Or at least that is what they say now. We shall see when the events transpire, but hey, someone's got to stay home with the dog while we're in the hospital.

The trick of it all is that neither Tricia nor I have parents in town or even in the province. Tricia's folks are in Vancouver, and mine are in Winnipeg (transitioning to Sioux Narrows these days) so monumental occasions like this are important for family cohesion. and so they come, and we are glad. It takes a village to raise a child, and we are happy with the village we are in right now, but it also takes relatives, and although there are times we are glad to be provinces away from our folks, we are also very close to both sets and are happy when they can be here. It will all be chaos at any rate, so more people can't add that much, right?

My parents, however, are in a slightly different position all of a sudden. They had been planning to come out right after the baby was born, and again when we get the new house, but mom just came down with shingles, so she won't be near the baby till that's stabilized. When she emailed me with this news, I thought at first that it was another update on their house renovations! She has been on prednisone for a little while trying to fight off a lung thing, and apparently that's the kind of immune system opening that the little shingles critters look for, and bam. What makes it all the worse (aside from shingles being very painful and uncomfortable) is that they recommend people with shingles not be around people with weak immune systems, pregnant mothers, or newborns. Of all the rotten timing. So Grandma G won't meet her first grandchild until the singles are no longer a problem, which could be from 1 to 3 weeks. Best case, they do their thing quick and the baby is late, so they are not a problem when the baby arrives. Worst case, the baby will be a couple weeks old when s/he first meets Grandma G.

If that's the case, webcams will come in very useful. We have set up a generic webcam pointed at the crib, which people can check at

http://gerhard.sasktelwebsite.net/webcam/babe.html
(autoupdating, needs java, not running all the time since we only have laptops here)

and we will be web-cam-chatting with family and friends as the babe grows. What would we do without technology, eh?