An Unexpected Arrival
This has been the most insane, emotional roller coaster of a month that I have ever had the pleasure to live. Ever. I feel like I say something similar to that every time I make one of these little life updates, but seriously this one takes the cake. What has happened to make the cake so thoroughly taken? My baby was born! Poppy Anne Spendlove, our first child, was born on January 12, 2018, and she is indescribably beautiful. She is the light and joy in our lives, carrying us through the other trials that have come along with the birth. What trials, you ask? Mainly that Poppy was born 10 weeks premature, about 2 and a half months earlier than her due date in late March, because Rachel got diagnosed with pre-eclampsia--a disease in the placenta that, more or less, would have killed her after a few weeks if left untreated. And the only way to treat it is to deliver the baby and remove the placenta. We were told that heart-stopping news on Monday the 8th and we were able to keep Poppy in and cooking until Friday the 12th.
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| Yep, she's basically perfect. I don't care how cliche that is. |
So, she is here! And, of course, our brave Poppy Anne has had to live the first little section of her life in the Newborn ICU, enduring all the fun experiences that come along with that: getting a tube shoved into her lungs so she can have oxygen, then moving to a CPAP after a couple of days, and now having a little cannula inserted in her nostrils, making her look even more like a cute, little old man than her wrinkly, two-sizes-too-big skin already does. And then there's the ever-present heart and oxygen monitors, the X-rays, feeding IVs in her tiny bellybutton, daily needle pricks in her heel for blood, UV phototherapy to quell her jaundice, and, worst of all, not being able to come home with us each night, staying, instead, in her little hospital bed from birth until her original due date, in late March.
All of that plus medical bills, car problems, our dryer dying, and our normal mental health issues has added up to this probably being the hardest experience of our lives so far. Again, it feels like I've been on a non-stop roller coaster, starting from when I was told my wife was dying two weeks ago and with no clear end in sight. Thankfully, though, the track seems to be smoothing out and the intensity slowing down, so we can at least breathe and start to recreate some order in the chaos. One of the things we've been able to get in order finally is what to do about school for me this semester. And we've decided pretty quickly that it just isn't possible, given what happened (starting on the first day of the semester, no less). So, I am going on another tiny sabbatical, this time just until the summer, because I really want to and need to get myself graduated and into a job, so Rachel can devote her time to Poppy full-time like she wants to.
New Year, New Blog
And now that the dust has settled a little more, I can devote myself again to this blog, like I have New-Year-resolved to do and like I really love doing. I am committed to really getting this little blog off the ground and turned into something big, and so I am planning on a whole host of big, fundamental changes: overhauling the layout and design of the blog, creating a logo, even changing the name itself. And as far as content, one of the big changes I'm going to be making is weekly, consistent posts, every Monday. It might not be a feature-length album review every week--in fact, I plan on keeping the posts more fresh and diverse than that--but it will at least be something every week, every Monday, so you guys know when to expect to hear from me and can rely on new content at regular intervals.
I have also been thinking a lot about expanding to other media, namely YouTube, where I can really diversify my content in ways just not possible on Blogger, as well as to spread my social media presence to Instagram, Twitter, and even Tumblr. All in all, it's just super basic marketing stuff, but important steps for me and the blog nonetheless, increasing my reach so I can find more of you guys who are interested in talking about what's new in the world of modern music.
So, to those of you who have been here reading and watching for content, as inconsistent as it has been thus far, from the bottom of my heart I give a massive Thank You. And don't go anywhere yet! In my life and in this blog, the best is most definitely yet to come.
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| Prepare your armies, 2018. We strike at dawn. Or in a week or two. We're working on it. |
