37 Weeks Pregnant During A Deployment

Eric is under the impression that if he came home and the baby didn't come, he'd have to return Iraq on time and miss meeting her.

 Trying to plan when he should come home using a 15 day window is really tough. We ended up taking my due date, Aug 17th and added 1 week, which is Aug 24th - that's when the Army will induce labor. Add another 1 or 2 days so that he doesn't have to say good bye to me while I'm in hospital and we come to August 26th. Minus 15 days of leave and you get Aug 12th. That's the date he requested to be home to begin his leave.

I've seen other people's husbands during this and previous deployments stay behind for several weeks to wait for their babies to be born - at the beginning of a deployment. This courtesy isn't extended during the deployment for some reason though. I'm feeling ticked off and hurt that Eric can't stay and use his paternity leave (10 days) so that we can make sure he's here for the birth and help out a little afterwards. There is also talk of soldiers coming home to go to school in the middle of this deployment. It upsets me that my husband can't be spared an extra 5-10 days in order to be here. BUT others can take 6 weeks off of a deployment to go to school. Eric was gone for 3 months to go to school AFTER a 15 month deployment. I sold our house and moved to our new duty station on my own.

I sacrifice for the Army. All I'm asking is that my soldier gets his 10 days of paternity leave on top of his normal r&r to help ensure he's here for the birth of our child and to help me afterwards. I "suck up" a lot, but this just stinks and I'm pissed off about it.