Lily10

I just found this board today and am very thankful for it. I'm at a loss on where to go from here. Although many of the stories I've read are much worse than my own experience, I'm worried it will eventually turn into a much worse situation.

My husband and I have been married for 6 years, together for 10. We have a 13 month old and are due with our second child in less than a month. We met when were in our early 20s and lived a 'party' lifestyle for a long time. I always thought his drinking was a little heavier than most, but it still seemed under control.

Fast forward to the current year, where we live in the burbs and decided to start a family, which we had extreme difficulties in accomplishing. Around January/February of this year, I noticed my husband started behaving strangely on the weekends. He was very out of it and required long naps during the middle of the day. This went on for several months. In May, he was so out of it one day that he ended up sleeping 6 hours during the middle of the day. I ended up taking him to the emergency room, only to find out he was extrememly drunk, even many hours after he could have possibly had his last drink. This was such an eye opening experience for me. I didn't think he drank that much any more, but it made the events over the last few months much more clear. He apologized (of course) and said it would be ok, but there were several more incidents over the next month.

In June, I had to go out of town for work and I refused to leave our child at home with him. I didn't trust him and wasn't going to do anything to put our child in danger. It seemed to be a wake up call for him. The drinking stopped. We are still fairly young (early 30s) and go to a lot of events with friends that involve alcohol. He would have one or two beers, but nothing more than that. It has been 3 months, so I thought that maybe he was doing better.

Although I know I shouldn't, I still can't help but be on the lookout for his drinking and his hiding of his drinking. Thankfully for the last 3 months I haven't seen the vodka bottle move (this was his drink of choice with the earlier incidents) Two times in the last week I've noticed the vodka bottle has been moved. Which means 2x this week he's sneaked drinks. I couldn't tell either night, it was only the bottle that gave it away. I feel like he's in the early stages of alcoholism, where's there's still a chance to get control of it before it becomes a horrible problem. I've read many articles and have been to a few Al-Anon meetings that tell you what you shouldn't say (don't threaten, don't guilt them, etc). So what am I supposed to say? I dont' know what to do from here. I want to acknowldege the problem, but I don't know how to go about doing it without saying/doing the wrong thing. I'm at a loss.