Will we make it???

Each year, Daniel and I make our annual pilgrimage to the Monterey Peninsula and celebrate our wedding anniversary. It's where we spent our honeymoon. This year is our 10th anniversary and will be our last without children. We have been looking forward to this trip all year. Even when we found out we were pregnant, one of the first things we asked the OB was if it was safe for me to travel to Monterey in my 8th month either by car or plane. She said, "There should be no problem." Of course, she didn't really know me ... it was our first visit.

We have always driven there, but this year we thought it would be a good idea to fly, since flying would only take 45 minutes, and driving would take about 6 hours. Daniel has yet to fly on a plane. Well, unfortunately, women who fly late in pregnancy are not supposed to fly in an un-pressurized cabin, and to get to Monterey, we'd have to fly to San Francisco, and then hop on a commuter plane (that seats about 9 people) and come back down the coast. These small aircrafts are not approved for pregnant me. Sad.

So, Daniel and I have been going back and forth over and over on if we should do it or not. I am sure that many of you have a strong opinion one way or the other. Sonora isn't due until October 28th, but unfortunately, this gestational diabetes has seriously upped her chance of making an early arrival. Our anniversary is next week. On top of it, I also have 4 doctor appointments next week. I am more than willing to cancel them all, or even go get monitored while on vacation.

We decided to map all the hospitals on the 101 freeway from here to Monterey County. We figure since it is my first baby, labor will be long, so even if I begin having contractions in the middle of the trip, we will be able to get to a hospital in time. Heck, one year I ended up getting pleurisy on the way up and we called our friends Mark and Joyce ... Mark is an LA CO Fire Battalion Chief, and Joyce is like an on call nurse ... I swear she knows everything about anything medical. Anyway, as Mark was assessing my symptoms over the phone, Joyce was on the internet looking up the nearest hospital to the cross streets we gave them. Thanks to their teamwork and quick thinking, I was at a hospital midway between home and Monterey in less than 5 minutes from when we called. Then, when I was released from ER 6 hours later, we decided if I was to rest, we might as well have me rest at our favorite bed and breakfast and be served breakfast in bed and have a view from the bed of the otters frolicking in the Pacific Ocean rather than drive the same distance to get home and lose the money they would charge us regardless of if we used the room or not. It was great. So, we have done the hospital thing on vacation before and it wasn't so bad. Also, we have lots of friends in Monterey now, especially since we attend Calvary Chapel Monterey Bay each year when we stay there. We have had people come and stay with us when they are down South, so we know that in case Sonora is born while on vacation, we would surely have a home to go "home" to once our room at the Inn expired. We certainly would not be "alone" or without safe options.

We, as you probably can tell by now, are leaning heavily towards going. We already packed Sonora's hospital bag, and mine as well. I have a red binder with all my medical information neatly organized in it and ready to present to any doctor that needs to reference it. We have the cord blood kit ready to go with the number to the airnet delivery people, so no matter where we are, her cord blood will be safely gathered and stored.

Let me show you one last thing ... I was working on this for a little gift to give Daniel ... as you will see, all that's missing is this year's photo. Each year, we stop in Carmel to take this picture. We always grab a stranger and they always turn out great. It's been a blast putting this together, and then I think how awesome it will be when this year's picture has a very pregnant me standing next to the love of my life. How can we not go?