Originally Posted by mommamac
When my daughter was deployed there was a Family Support Group - volunteers signed up to give assistance with household 'things' from shoveling, babysitting, repairs...
does your DH's unit have anything like that? It would be free since these volunteers want to show support to our troops.
My husband is IA (Individual Augmentation) so he deployed out of San Diego, which means that I have absolutely no military family support while he is deployed, since I am in Colorado. (I do have family about three hours away, though). This is his third deployment and the first where I am on my own without the support.
I do have some great ladies from my kids' school who are more than willing to help me out and neighbors who would be over in a heartbeat if I really needed some help.
Last deployment, our daughter was born three weeks after he left. She was six weeks premature and the hospital made a clerical error and sent me home the day after an emergency c-section to take care of a newborn (that weighed less than 5 pounds) and a 2 year old... with absolutely NOBODY at home. I was an absolute basket case. My husband's CO's wife came by and checked on me about an hour after I got home, brought me some preemie diapers because I was not adequately prepared and the hospital sent me home with three diapers, and brought me a hamburger from Burger King. She stayed for about ten minutes and left. Thirty hours later... on my own for all that time with NOONE coming by to check on me and NO phone call from the hospital to see if I was okay, my aunt and uncle arrived from Southern California (clear up to Whidbey Island, Washington) to help me out. (My mom was snowed in up in the mountains.) It was a true miracle that we survived, because Maggie, my daughter, ended up spending a month in the hospital shortly after she was a month old with failing lungs, a severe viral infection, and dialated intestines... brought on by inadequate post-natal care. (Her body could not cope with infections and her lungs needed more oxygen and more time to develop in an incubator.) Fortunately, by then, I was back in the bosom of my family and my mom and MIL were able to give me the support I needed. My dh met his daughter when she was six months old... and healthy!
So... an exploding thermos lid (and if you read my thread from a couple of months ago about the plumber killing my refridgerator the week after my dh deployed) is mild compared to the last time he left.