If you’ve been paying attention to my main blog, @deadgodjess, you’ll know I’ve been hosting an alien parasite for the last 39 weeks. We’re getting down to crunch, I could (hopefully) pop any day now.
What this means for the blog:
Art posts will become even more sporadic for the next month or so. Due to (very minor, very normal) complications I’ve been unable to really paint or draw really in the last couple of months. That’s going to keep going until at earliest July. However, by then the baby should be settled enough and I’ll be in a somewhat bigger space so I’ll have more room and time to work. I hope to keep posting photos and graphics but I can’t and therefore won’t promise anything on that front. Babies are work, take a lot of time and energy, and it’s hard to really WANT to tear yourself away from them when they’re very new.
A request for help:
So… I’ve been hedging on this since October, written many posts that got immediately deleted, and am finally screwing up my courage to ask for help.
I got the official word that I was pregnant on September 28th. This was a planned pregnancy, we had it all worked out for how we were going to afford everything and it all was supposed to be, financially wise, smooth sailing.
On September 29th, my husband, the primary (and now, sole) income earner, broke his ankle and leg in three places. This put him out of work for four months. In early October, I came down with the nastiest case of strep I’ve had since I had scarlet fever as a kid. Mid October my husband came home with crutches to a 2nd floor walkup. In November my 9yo caught the flu, followed by MY catching the flu. In November I also had to leave my job do to mental health issues I have been struggling with since I was 12 and were exacerbated by stress.
We’re fortunate for we had access to disability through his job that was quick to respond to us and quick to pay out. This wasn’t nearly enough (The only pay out 60% of regular, full-time income. As we were just making it work before with a lot of overtime, you can imagine) and we fell behind on medical and other bill payments. We live with my mother who had to shoulder all the bills alone for those four months. We hardship cashed out our 401ks (that we were very lucky to have) and depleted pretty much everything we were relying on to help us with the first few weeks of baby needs and to help us move out of my mother’s $3k/mo 5-room apartment.
We’re slowly building back our savings, but just as my husband has been recovering his ability to work and take over domestic duties, I’ve been becoming increasingly bed ridden due to my (again minor, but horribly inhibiting and painful) pregnancy complications. He was able to go back to doing overtime for a couple of weeks but now I’m much less capable it’s hard for him to take extra shifts when he needs to, and when the baby comes he definitely won’t be able )or WANT) to work 5 16 hour shifts a week. Further, he’s still recovering. His ankle hurts to the touch on rainy days and as he’s a medical technician, 3 16 hour shifts a week is taxing enough. When he was doing 5 I was afraid he’d re-injure the ankle.
People have been very kind and supplied us with most of our immediate needs (some baby clothes, bassinet, etc) for when the baby first gets home but there’s always more (and I’m incredibly conservative when it comes to deciding what baby items I ABSOLUTELY need), but if there’s anything anyone can do to help out I’d deeply appreciate it. I also appreciate that asking people to give me something for nothing is asking a lot.
Support Options:
I have aRedbubbleshop with LOTS of options that I add to often.
I have ako-fi. Right now, if you buy me a ko-fi I’ll make a graphic for you like one of the following from one of my flower photos for you to use however you wish There’s some limitations (too much text won’t show right, for example) but I’m willing to try:
At the very least, I beg you to at least reblog this to get the word out.
octoberspirit 