The summer passed quickly for the Normans but crept slowly for the Petronskis. No matter what Natalie did, Claudia was always there to offer advice, whether she wanted it or not. Once that resulted in a blazing argument about Natalie's job. "My Ralph makes an excellent living," Claudia stated. "There's no reason at all why you couldn't simply quit your job and stay home and take care of yourself and my grandson."
"It's not like I'm performing heavy physical labor," Natalie argued. "Dr. Barber says as long as there's no complications, there's no reason I can't keep working right up until my due date."
"But why, if you don't absolutely have to? You just care more about your own selfish wants than what's best for your baby. That's exactly what it is. As long as you're doing what you want, you don't care who suffers in the long run, even if it's your poor little innocent baby."
"That's not true!" Natalie was practically shouting. "I'd give up working in a heartbeat if Dr. Barber told me to, but so far, he hasn't."
"That doctor don't know his ass from a hole in the ground," Claudia muttered.
"Can't you do something about her?" Natalie asked her husband later, when they were alone.
"What did she do now?" asked Ralph.
Natalie relayed her earlier conversation with Claudia.
"Hon, she's only concerned about you and the baby. You know as well as I do that it's a high risk pregnancy, and she wants it to have the best outcome possible."
"Well, I resent her trying to make me feel guilty because I'm still working. I wish you'd talk to her about it."
"I will, Nat, but in the meantime, please try to be more patient, OK? This won't last forever, you know."
Natalie sighed. "I'll try."
In August she had an abnormally high result on a glucose test and had to go to the lab fasting and stay there five hours without eating anything while having blood drawn every hour. Claudia elected herself to go along as well, ostensibly to provide moral support, although Natalie suspected that it was really that her mother-in-law didn't trust her to stay away from the snack machines.
She arrived first thing in the morning for the first blood test. With some difficulty, the nurse located a vein and inserted an IV port, for which Natalie was profoundly thankful. The waiting room in which she was told to sit afterwards was immaculate and cheerfully decorated, with tables upon which stacks of magazines were stacked. Natalie decided to call her mother.
"I'm here at the lab," she told Mrs. Green. "They think I might have gestational diabetes, so they're doing a bunch of blood tests. I had to come in fasting, and I can't eat anything until all the blood tests are over."
"You must be starving!" Mrs. Green exclaimed. "Well, I sure hope everything turns out all right!"
"Thanks. I hope so, too."
She made several trips to the water cooler for ice water, which she greedily gulped, and spent the rest of the time reading magazines and trying to nap in between blood tests. At last the final test was over and she could leave the lab. "You've been such a good girl," Claudia told her. "I'm going to treat you to lunch. Where would you like to go?"
Natalie suggested a nearby diner. She was so famished that she almost choked on her hamburger.
In September, Dr. Barber's nurse frowned as she took Natalie's blood pressure. "One thirty over eighty-nine," she said. "That's a little high."
"You're in danger of going into pre-eclampsia." Dr. Barber's voice was grave as he addressed Natalie. "I'm placing you on complete bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. If we can't get your blood pressure under control, we may have to deliver early."
"But I'm not due for over a month!" Natalie protested.
"Nevertheless, we can't run the risk of your going into seizures or having a stroke," Dr. Barber replied. "I'm sorry, but you're going to have to take a leave of absence from your job and get someone else to do all your housework. You can only get out of bed for necessary things like doctor visits."
Natalie left his office feeling very dejected. The thought of lying in bed for a month with Claudia hovering over her almost every second was just about more than she could bear. After making arrangements for an indeterminate leave of absence from her job, she went home and went to bed to wait for Ralph to get home from work. When he finally arrived, she thought she'd never been so glad to see him.
"I'm on strict bed rest," she told him. "My blood pressure's too high, and Dr. Barber's afraid I'm going into pre-eclampsia. I had to take a leave of absence from my job."
"I'm sorry." Ralph went to her and gently embraced her, stroking her gently rounded belly. "I sure hope they can get it under control soon."
"I hope so too." She wondered how on earth she'd keep her mind occupied during the long weeks ahead.