Name of the Game: Golf Ball Hunt

The game started out innocently enough, I was reading my kindle on the back patio when I heard a golf ball whoosh through the aspen trees and bank off of a pine tree on the side of our house.  "There's no way they're going to find that!" I thought and went back to reading.  Five or ten minutes went by and the golfers drove their carts parallel to our town home.  I heard them discussing the possible location of the missing ball.  After a few minutes of searching in vain, the golfer dropped a new ball and continued on with his game.  My curiosity got the better of me and once they were out of sight, I hurried out to the side yard to see if I could find the missing ball.  It only took moments to recognize the hot pink Torry Pines sphere sitting so beautifully against the bright green grass.  It was like finding a shiny plastic egg on Easter, pure joy!  I ran back inside as if I were committing some sort of misdemeanor and went back to my reading, whistling a tune as if to say, "nothing to see here folks!" No more than fifteen minutes later another ball came slashing through the trees.  This time I listened to the bounces for a possible location.  And just like the first time, the golfer came and went without his ball.  I ran out, collected it like a squirrel gathering nuts before winter and scurried back into my burrow and out of sight.  This quickly became a competition (with myself.)  I've been on bed rest for a couple weeks, give me a break!  There is only so much day time television a person can watch before golf ball hunting becomes true excitement.  My afternoon continued on in much the same way, reading, munching on crackers and enjoying my lemonade, when at the drop of a hat the game was on and I was called into action!  So far I've collected six balls.  There are only a couple of hiccups to the game.  1) Based on wind speed and direction, I may or may not be at risk for getting hit with a golf ball.  My mom suggested I don my bicycle helmet, but that would only draw attention to the fact that golf balls are flying in my direction.  This would then result in more golfers finding their balls and therefore my collection numbers dropping dramatically.  2) Timing is everything.  On my 4th ball collection I decided to walk out my basement door since the ball was sitting no more than four feet from my house.  I slid the door open ever so gracefully and looked both ways.  You never know if neighbors are lurking...then right when I thought I was in the clear, and I could feel the dimpled ball in my hand, a new group of golfers in two separate golf carts approached.  Unsure of what I should do (fake a weed pulling, drop the ball and run?)  I shoved the ball in my pocket and beelined it for the house.  Once inside I stood barely breathing on the other side of the door.  Did they see me?  Their voices grew louder and I thought for sure one of them was going to come knocking on my door to tell me I'd committed the gravest of crimes.  Fortunately, that didn't happen.  They went about their game and drove off down the fairway.  Crisis averted.  See this game has it all!  So if you're in the neighborhood and you're looking for some fun, I'll be on my back porch awaiting my next hunt.  Game on!

Induction

Finally, an end date has been determined!!  After a couple stressful weeks of hearing yes I'll be induced, then no it's not necessary, then back to yes it's going to happen, we were told on Wednesday that I'll be induced June 29th!  Of course this is pending doctor's appointments both tomorrow and on Monday of next week, and if there's anything I've learned through this process it's that plans change swiftly and the only thing you can be sure of is that you can't be sure of anything.  However, as of now, we're happy to sit back and think that in less than a week we'll be meeting our son!

Which begs the question, when you know the date of a life altering change, what do you do to pass the time?!  Rick and I are celebrating our three year anniversary (technically June 28th) this Saturday by going out to dinner.  Other than that we have no plans.  I'm still on bed rest, so activity has to be kept to a minimum.  And I think that's probably how it should be.  We both plan on relaxing A LOT and just enjoying the quiet solitude of one another's company before our alien home invasion (and I say that with love!)

6 days and counting until Charles Henry Fendell enters the world!

Minor Complications

It started out just like any other Thursday.  I was enjoying some fun in the sun with the preschoolers before leaving for my routine weekly doctor's appointment that afternoon.  I felt fine and planned on returning to work after the appointment.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen!  While at the doctor they took my blood pressure and discovered it was high (136/100).  For a normal person this wouldn't be that high, but your blood pressure naturally drops while pregnant, so throughout the past 36 weeks mine had been around 80/60.  Comparatively, this was high!  Things seemed to get kind of serious, quickly.  The nurse took my BP two more times to confirm it was in fact high and began rattling off questions faster than I could answer.  It became evident to me that she was trying to determine if I had pre eclampsia.  I had heard of the disease before and knew it had to do with high blood pressure.  The doctor came in and told me he wanted to send me to the hospital for a 24 hour urine collection and to top it off, he was going out of town for the weekend.  Have you ever been given news where you knew your reaction should be something specific, but your facial expressions would not cooperate?  Rick was in Silverthorne working, about 40 minutes away, and I just remember the doctor telling me things like, "the only way to cure pre eclampsia is to deliver the placenta" "you're far enough along that delivery now would mean little risk to your baby" "this disease makes you sick incredibly fast so we want to watch it closely"  I was in a fog.  Appropriate feelings would have been scared, nervous, overwhelmed accompanied by a panicked facial expression, maybe even tears.  Instead, I could not stop smiling!  I remember thinking, "This is serious!  Stop smiling.  You might have to get induced and you haven't even packed a bag!"  But alas my facial expressions would not cooperate.  Finally the doctor asked if I had any questions.  "Yes, a million questions," I responded.  "But I can't think of one of them."  This doctor thought I was looney tunes and I was ready to admit myself into the looney bin.  Good thing I was heading to the hospital.  I remember thinking how ironic it was that Rick wasn't at this particular appointment.  I had just had a conversation with a friend of mine who asked if Rick was coming that day.  "Oh no, he doesn't come to these routine appointments, only if there's an ultrasound or something."  My friend responded that she would never again attend a prenatal appointment without her husband and I remember wondering if I should adopt that policy.  Yes.  The answer is yes.  

I left the doctor's office and headed home to pack and digest the news that I may be at the beginning stages of pre eclampsia with the only cure being delivery.  When you think you have another month or so of pregnancy, this news comes as a bit of a shock.  I expected Rick to be a wreck, but he wasn't.  He was really calm and probably psyched at the prospect of meeting his son sooner than expected.  Turns out he was surprised I was as calm as I seemed to be...I guess in these situations you just never know how you'll feel.
The hospital experience was actually as close to pleasant as it could have possibly been.  I had great nurses who comforted me with news that pre eclampsia is extremely common and especially at this last stage of pregnancy, usually isn't a problem.  One nurse even told me that my doctor hates it when his patients don't get epidurals because he can't stand seeing them in pain.  In fact he often has to leave the room to get away from the screaming.  I HAVE FOUND THE RIGHT DOCTOR!  I spent the night and sent Rick home to get some sleep.  They gave me an ambian (not too shabby!) and I slept better than I had in a couple of weeks.  Throughout the 24 hours they monitored my blood pressure, took blood, and collected my urine.  All of my tests came back normal, so after the 24 hours it was home to bed rest for me.
There isn't much I hate more than bed rest.  I remember back when I was doing invitro I had to be on strict bed rest for 2 days.  I think I'd rather give myself a shot!  Luckily, this bed rest wasn't as strict and I was allowed to get up and walk around a bit.  My mom was kind enough to fly out Sunday to be here to help.  My aunt, Becky, drove her up and stayed for a couple of days.  We had a great time hanging out and getting last minute things done in preparation for Charlie.  We hoped that at my next doctor's appointment we'd be told that I'd be induced.  Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way.  I brought Rick along to this appointment (lesson learned) and he tried to strong arm the doctor into letting us meet Charlie sooner rather than later.  But the only symptom I've had to support pre eclampsia is high blood pressure.  Everything else looks fine, so there isn't really a case to induce.  Good news (yay, I'm not really sick!) but bummer we don't get to meet Charlie this week and my mom flew out here without getting to meet her grandson.  We did learn that our doctor won't let me go past 39 weeks (June 30th) so it looks like Charlie will be a June baby.  I've got a week and a half to two weeks left of being pregnant (on bed rest) to look forward to.  I still hate bed rest.  Why is it that when you want to relax and read a book all day you never can but as soon as that's the only thing you can do it sounds like a vile proposition?  I'm trying to relax and go with the flow.  At this point I know my days of quiet solitude are numbered, so I should enjoy the peace and quiet and take it all in.  It's hard to believe that in a couple of weeks Rick and I will be parents to our son!  We are so excited and cannot wait to meet him.  Family will be here on and off for the next few weeks which will be great.  We are so lucky to have such loving and wonderful families.  Charlie is going to be so loved!

Here is Charlie's nursery!

The baby pictures are all pics of family members.  And the center empty frame will be for Charlie's newborn photo.

Charlie already has an ipod...proof he is his father's son!

37 weeks pregnant