Newborn Needs a Dad / His Motherless Little Twins Read Online Free PDF Page B

brown eyes. Almost a pixie…a pixie with a sizeable tummy spread, side to side.
    “Just a few weeks apart, and I know what you mean, wanting to get it over with. There are times I’d really love to see the floor again.” She wrapped the blood-pressure cuff around Angela’s arm and pumped it up. “Or my ankles. But I guess that comes soon enough, doesn’t it?” Then she listened for the dull sound of the blood pressure through her stethoscope. It was high. Not alarmingly so,but enough that Gabby took a second reading to make sure. Again, it registered barely on the high end of normal.
    “Did Doc Graham ever diagnose you with hypertension?”
    Angela was instantly alarmed. “No, why?”
    “You’re on the verge. Nothing to worry about yet, but I want to keep an eye on it. So, do you live far from here?” she asked Angela.
    “No, about twenty minutes.”
    “Good, then I’d like you to stop in tomorrow for another blood-pressure check.”
    “Should I be nervous about this?”
    Gabby shook her head. “Could be nothing. Could be because you’re stressing. Of course, even bringing it up puts you under more stress, which could raise your blood pressure. But I want to stay on top of this, keep it under control if it’s the start of something, or rule it out if it’s not.” The only real concern was that, according to Doc Graham’s notes, Angela’s blood pressure had been normal all along. “And in the meantime, reduce your salt intake, stay away from highly processed foods with a lot of sodium in them, and if you’re not walking, walk.”
    “I walked. In fact, that’s all I did until Doc Graham made me quit working. I manage the kitchen up on the older Sister…”
    “Older sister?”
    “The mountain peak to the south. It’s the older Sister. The one to the west is the middle Sister, and the one to the north is the younger Sister. Anyway, I’m at Pine Ridge Ski Resort up on the older Sister. Head chef, temporarily sidelined to paperwork. Which is driving me crazy, making me grumpy, probably responsible for raising my blood pressure.”
    “So besides the obvious, let me guess. When you’re at a desk, you’re not exercising, and probably eating awayyour frustration? And getting angry thinking about what you’d rather be doing?”
    Angela laughed. “Something like that. And I should know better, being a chef and a dietician, but I’ve been having a craving for salty things lately.”
    “Well, elevated blood pressure isn’t necessarily a problem when it’s still in the high normal range the way yours is, so don’t stress over that. But like I said, I want to keep an eye on it and make sure it isn’t about something other than your change in lifestyle and…” Gabby smiled, thinking about the chocolate craving she’d been having for a while “…bad habits. So, for the next few days I’d like to see you every day to get a reading. Oh, and get back to the kitchen, at least on a part-time basis. Cook a little and use common sense.” She scribbled a hasty note on her prescription pad. “According to your chart you’re perfectly healthy, and I think it’s good to stay working as long as you can. Light duty, though. Maybe some baking. The note gives you permission to get back into the kitchen on a limited basis, and I trust you’ll use good judgment in deciding whether or not you feel like it.”
    “Really?” She read the note twice, blinking her surprise both times. “You’re going to let me go back to work?”
    “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not particularly an advocate of inactivity during pregnancy. People treat pregnancy like it’s an illness, but I prefer to treat it like a normal condition, one the body’s prepared to deal with.”
    “But Doc Graham said…” She stopped, frowned, then smiled. “I can work a little?”
    Gabby laughed. “There’s old-school and new-school thinking here. My dad, also an obstetrician, was a brilliant doctor, but he was very old school.