Friday Momoko went in to have an ultrasound - for which we have the video and I will likely post later tonight. It seems as tough Akane-can is just fine. Momoko, on the other hand is a different story.
Momoko was given some medication to try and help with her uterine issues and the doctor told her to come back on Saturday morning and they would see if she needed to be hospitalised. Turns out she does. Six hours later Momoko was checked in to a hospital not too far from home and placed in the maternity ward’s ICU - where she must remain in bed for a minimum of two months. If she does not then Akane-chan will be making her debut imminently, and would quite likely then be making only a limited run engagement. Given our efforts to get to this point, the decision was easy to make.
With Momoko in hospital now, the amount of work required for okaasan around the house has diminished greatly, but she will remain in town to make sure and visit with her daughter every day. I, on the other hand, will not be so lucky as the hospital only allows visitors from 13:00 ~ 20:00. This means my only real option is to visit Momoko later in the day, but given that my office is over an hour from the hospital and I usually cannot leave work until around 20:00, there may be some scheduling issues. Clearly, I will be leaving work early several times a week, but late afternoon / early evening meetings are not so rare. I am hoping, however, that I can at least visit her twice during the work week and - of course - on both Saturday and Sunday.
It’s been very difficult to relax at home without Momoko being there, partly because she is not there for me to interact with regularly, but also because I know how alone and helpless se must feel being confined to one room for the next several months. (She gets cabin fever quite easily, so this will be a great test to her patience.) But seeing as how I have loaded up her DS and PSP with games, and even gave her a lot of movies and TV shows to watch on her laptop, she should hopefully not become bored too quickly. And apparently she can use the internet in her bed, so we should be able to chat with each other (mobile phones = no dice) several times a day.
As I mentioned earlier, we have a new ultrasound video, and this one is the best yet, by far. I will endeavour to post it before I go to bed tonight. I will also make sure to keep everyone updated on how Momoko is doing.