As I mentioned here before, Tyler and Megan are expecting a baby.  Our first grandchild will be born next spring and we are very excited about it.  My daughter in law is a lovely girl, a terrific person and having grown up on a cattle ranch, you'd never call her a wimpy girl.  She's a cowboy and every inch as tough as the image that word conjures.

Morning sickness has knocked her down and out.

Ooooh.  Been there, done that.  Four times.  It sucks. No, I mean it really sucks.  If you've never been through it, count yourself fortunate. Imagine the worst flu you've ever had, double the amount of puking and then imagine it lasting for weeks on end. War is nasty but morning sickness is Hell.

 It was different with each of mine but the first three were characterized by vomiting, 24/7.

When I was expecting Tyler, my first, I was taking night classes at the University of Minnesota.  I can't tell you how many nights I just hoped I could get off that express bus and make it home before I puked.  I think I made it most nights.  We lived in Uptown so if I had vomited on the sidewalk, folks would've just assumed I'd had too much at Williams Pub.

We lived in Jamestown when I got pregnant with Katie.  I remember being concerned about throwing up in front of my toddler.  I tried to fight how sick I was so I wouldn't freak him out.  One morning at breakfast, I couldn't help it and I puked in the kitchen sink.  Ty (who was not yet 2) thought it was hilarious.  He followed me around for the rest of the day making retching sounds and yelling "do it again, Mom!"

Zack was the worst.  I couldn't even keep down air during the first trimester.  All I remember of those days was being huddled in a corner, afraid to move while poor Tyler and Katie ( 5 and 4 years old) were left to fend for themselves.  At least by then I had figured out that for me, the horror phase only lasted until the day I hit the 12th week mark.  I circled on the calendar the day I knew I'd feel normal again.  Of course by the time I got there, I had long since forgotten what normal felt like.  

Jay actually suspected I was pregnant with Josie long before I did.  The whole family got the flu and I couldn't shake it. 
"I think you're pregnant," he said to me as I lay on the bathroom floor, vomiting up my guts for the sixth day in a row.
"I can't be pregnant," I said, tears of exhaustion rolling down my face as I hunched over the bowl again. "I'm not sick enough for that."
But he was right.
By that pregnancy, I had learned a few things; don't let yourself get tired, don't let yourself get hungry; eat whatever sounds good and keep eating it till you can't anymore; go to bed.

I was lucky; I never had to get up and go to work while I suffered through this stuff. 

Megan is a teacher.  Her students love her.  She gets voted most popular teacher year after year after year.  Last spring she was very excited about landing a job at a new school much closer to home.  She cut her commute by two thirds and Ty was excited about having a Texas high school football team to cheer for.

She got hit with morning sickness three weeks before school started.    By the first day of school, she hadn't been able to keep anything down for weeks.  She'd forgotten what it was like to feel normal.

These students at her new school must think she's a scary crank. Hey, you try puking up everything you eat for seven weeks and see how scary you are.

They are going to be stunned by the transformation when she gets over this stage.

But it's lasted too long, already and if it doesn't end soon, Megan doesn't know if she can keep working.

Meanwhile, Tyler had also started a new job this spring and he wasn't doing as well as his employers had hoped he would.  He's probably a bit distracted by the woman crying and puking in the corner.  No, she doesn't go to work with him but he knows she's there, all the same.

Then, this week an unrelated health issue cropped up and the specter of surgery and time off jeopardized employment.  And as if things weren't hellish enough, their neighborhood is on fire.  Literally.  Wild fires have plagued the area around Austin for the last few months.  Ty told me every day when they go to work they take overnight bags just in case the roads home are closed due to fire.

Ty called me on Wednesday night to appraise me of the situation.  Things looked bad, he was worried, Megan's not feeling any better  and if things kept going the way they were, they'd both be out of work soon.

What do you do in a situation like that?

I pray.

In the case of a difficult pregnancy, there's really only one person to ask for intervention, so I began saying the Hail Mary immediately.  All day long on Thursday, during every commercial break on the radio while I worked, at every red light while I drove, every moment of down time, I filled with my petition to the Holy Mother for help.

Less than twenty four hours later, Ty called to tell me Megan felt so much better that she'd gone grocery shopping for the first time in months, the doctor said surgery could wait till after the baby was born and Tyler made two sales at work.

Hail Mary, full of grace, you don't mess around, do you?

Thanks.