How to freak the hell out of Rivka:

[rivka]

Doctor Sis: So, how many weeks are you?
rivka: Twenty-three.
Doctor Sis: Wow, you're right at the threshold of viability!
rivka: [stares, blinks, rapidly changes the subject]

But of course, then I had to go and look it up. We indeed appear to be right on the cusp of viability. A 1993 study found that, at Johns Hopkins, no babies born at 22 weeks survived, 15% born at 23 weeks survived, 56% at 24 weeks, and 79% at 25 weeks. So the three weeks of gestation we're working on right now literally mark the line between death and life.

Fetal development is a strange and awesome thing.

I was already talking to my sister about death and life when she mentioned viability. I had called to ask her whether she would be willing to be named as the Li'l Critter's guardian in case Michael and I should simultaneously die in a fiery cataclysm. There's another strange thing to think about. It seems morbid to even bring it up, and yet it's also our duty to make these arrangements. We have chosen to create a tiny, fragile, helpless living thing. Our responsibility to her will not end with our deaths.

So we're looking into acquiring vastly more life insurance, and we're planning to meet with a lawyer sometime this month, to draw up our wills. This conversation with my sister was the first step.

Comments

[rivka.livejournal.com]

As for wills, well, thank the gods I'm married to an estate planning lawyer (well, he was once upon a time) who knows this stuff. He'll draw something up for us.

Wow, that's wonderful. How exceptionally clever of galagan to manage to have that background. The whole area is kind of a mystery to me, but we've recently had an estate lawyer join our church, and we've heard wonderful things about her. Hopefully we'll be able to put ourselves in her hands.

Would Alissa be your fiery-crash person?

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

How exceptionally clever of galagan to manage to have that background.

I occasionally claim I married him so I'd have my own personal tax attorney / estate planner / financial planner.

Would Alissa be your fiery-crash person?

Actually, we're leaning toward galagan's brother at the moment - he's older and married, has one child already, could handle it financially, and all that. My sister would be fabulous, but she's not at a place right now in her life where that would necessarily work well for her - she doesn't know what's she's doing with her life longterm, she is probably going back to graduate school, etc. etc.