My friend and her husband have arrived.  Not as much to worry about as I thought.  (Yes, insomnia played a big part in all of that.)

Turns out she doesn’t have preeclampsia, so all the rules have changed.  She had a lumbar puncture and found out her cerebrospinal fluid pressure was way too high!  I sure can relate to that huh?  So they drained some of the fluid, and they are hoping to keep that under control.  She may actually make it to term!!  (yes, that means they will be here longer, but that’s ok.)  They don’t know if they can keep the intracranial hypertension (the fancy name for high CSF) under control, or if it will turn into preeclampsia also, so they have to keep a close watch on her.  Of course, we are hoping she can carry to term, and will not have to spend any more time in the hospital before delivery.

She can’t do the stairs much just yet, but that’s mostly because she’s so sore from the lumbar puncture.  She’s still having headaches, they drained a lot of fluid, perhaps too much too fast (IMHO) so it’s taking a little while for her body to regulate the pressure.  Hopefully the headaches will ease soon.  Right now she’s sleeping.

Penelope is such a lovely person, and her husband Chris is so gracious, I don’t think this is going to be very stressful on me at all.  Actually, it could be very helpful in many ways.

I was feeling a bit anxious about Stuart having to go to Alabama for a week, probably the week of the 13th, if they are here I will feel so much better.   I didn’t want  to miss our sign language class, so I plan to drive to class that night, I think I’ll be fine, but just needed to know if I got into trouble there would be someone I could call for help.  I’ve already mentioned it to Chris, and he was happy he could help.

It completely slipped my mine last night that Chris is a cook!  He’s already thinking of creative things he can make that are meat all our dietary restrictions.  He even assured us that he knows how to be careful with gluten products.  He’s offered to clean house, cook…anything.  I think he just needs to relax a bit.  After a while, he can worry about doing more things around here, but for a little while, I think they just need the peace and quiet that is our home.

They have both been gushing about how wonderful it is to have a peaceful place to stay.  They are so worried about wearing out their welcome, but I told them, that we’d just treat them as if they were roommates.  Their room is theirs, our room is ours, the rest of the house is community space, and as long as they don’t expect us to wait on them hand and foot, they shouldn’t be any trouble at all.  I don’t get to see Penelope nearly enough, I haven’t seen her in a couple of years at least.  I’m happy they are here, and so glad we get a chance to renew our friendship.  (not that we haven’t been friends even though we have been apart, but this is a great chance to get close again.)

We may move the little TV in their room for a little while, when Penelope feels more like moving around we’ll hook the cable box back up to the big TV down stairs.  Stuart and I rarely watch TV, we’ve actually been thinking about getting rid of cable.  When we watch shows we normally watch them from the computer.  It’s easier to watch what we want when we want, and not have to rely on the DVR to record the shows we want. (it often screws things up).  The only thing I really watch on TV live, is cartoons.  But I can always pull those up on Netflix.  (yes, I am love cartoons.  Just like a kid, I can watch them over and over and not get tired of them.)

I love that we are able to offer our home to our friends.  They are special people.   It also makes me feel less isolated, and needed.

I will admit, my husband actually made me a bit more nervous about things last night.  When he said he didn’t know if he could handle people being in the house for so long, I got worried.  Then that jumped to wondering all about what they may need, how we could work things out…ect.  But now that they are here, I think everything will be just fine.  (just liken you all said…I should have known.  Thank you my friends for the reassurance, and guidance.)

About my sleep.  Once again I didn’t get to sleep until about 6am. I woke up at 1pm, right before they arrived.  Again, I had the terrors while falling asleep feeling like everything is spinning around.  Again, I had bad dreams, not nightmares, just troubling dreams.  and Again, I woke up with a headache. Not severe, thank goodness, though it soon turned into a full-blown migraine.  I have to figure out a way to make these things stop.  I know I don’t have much control over the migraine issue, I’ll have to see the neurologist if this continues after my recovery period is over.  But you would think something could be done about the spinning and dreams.  Sometimes I’ll take a Valium a little before bed, and that helps with the spinning sensation, but it makes my dreams a bit freaky sometimes.  And I’m not too sure if the doctor would approve of me taking a Valium every night.  I’ll ask him on Monday.

And about dinner.  I just tasted the sauce and meatballs, oh my goodness, I will have to post this recipe.  How delicious!  And so easy.  Stuart loves meatballs but I always hated making them.  Now, with this recipe, I can make them much more often.

Turns out Penelope can’t eat the sauce at all.  She can’t eat beef either, or tomato products.  (I think the tomato products may just be because of the pregnancy and heartburn, but I’m not sure.)  Chris, is going to make her some pasta with a little chicken, spinach, pesto….  Yes, as I said he can cook!  She won’t know what she’s missing though, these meatballs are wonderful.