Pregnant AD
The good new is that my AD hasn't been drinking, to the best of my knowledge. The not-so-good news is that she is 4 months pregnant. She is getting regular prenatal care, but is not taking her bipolar meds and her symptoms are returning. I have encouraged her to speak with her doctor about the "risk versus benefits" of going back on the meds before the baby is born.
Now the crisis has to do with her living arrangements. She is not with the baby's father and has no desire to reconnect with him. She is "friends" with a much older man who has been in recovery for 2 years. But she lives in a boarding house run by the town's housing authority, and they will not allow her to stay there after the baby is born. She said their solution to having her homeless with a baby is to put the baby in foster care. There are family members, including me, who will take the baby, so I'm not worried about foster care. What I am worried about, though, is that if she doesn't have her baby with her she will start drinking again.
She has been told that if she leaves this living arrangement before her lease is up next February (the baby is due in early November), she will lose any public assistance for herself or the baby. I'm not sure if that is true. She claims to have been looking for a job since January and has yet to have an interview. I know she isn't putting much into looking. I believe she has reasons of her own that she hasn't shared, such as being afraid her past will haunt her.
I am assuming she will ask my husband and me to take her and the baby in. This is something we can't do, for a number of reasons. The main one is that I provide day care for another grandchild and my other daughter refuses to allow her child to be in the AD's presence.
I'd appreciate any insights anyone may have. I know this is her problem and of course she could have prevented this pregnancy. She doesn't think about consequences and this has caused problems for her over and over. If it weren't for the baby, it would be a lot easier to let my AD figure it out for herself.
Thanks for reading!