The Beginnings of Baby Bell

The realization that our family would be expanding was discovered soon after our move to our new apartment in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Chris had matched for a sports medicine fellowship at the Kaiser Permanente - Fontana program and we were arriving a few days before the start of his course. A sports medicine specialization was something he had wanted to do when he finished his family practice residency three years ago. However, timing wasn't in his favor, as far as that went, and he stayed in Utah to finish wooing and marrying me. As time wore on Chris found himself increasingly unsettled wanting more from his career. Seeing it as an opportunity for Chris to fulfill his dream of becoming sports medicine trained and certified, as well as to provide us with a big adventure we decided to pursue this new path. This landed us where we are now - California.

The first few weeks of Baby Bell's in-utero life were pretty crazy and eventful. Week number one of life in the womb was spent wakeboarding, skyskiing, swimming, waterskiing, and sightseeing in Lake Powell with the family and the regular Lake Powell bunch. With no idea that I was pregnant it was fun in the sun as usual.

Not long after returning home to the Horse Property in Mountain Green, though not to 'Home' as Chris and I know it since we had already moved out of our house to make way for the renters, we went and spent the Fourth of July weekend in Bear Lake having a last hurrah with the Sonntag side of the family. Baby Bell got the first big swig of one of our favorite sports - biking. Though not knowing it at the time Baby Bell made it's first ride around Bear Lake with a couple of treks up to the Logan Canyon Overlook. It's amazing how fast pregnancy tiredness sets in since I was feeling more like I wanted to take a nap than pedal those 50 miles. However, I attributed any fatigue to the high energy output and the stress associated with moving.

After our vacations were over we had only a couple of action-packed days before we loaded up the moving truck and made the official move to the Golden Coast. We worked to tie up any loose ends with our jobs, finish some yard work and secure everything with the renters, and get our house refinanced - which seemed to take up the bulk of our energy and time. Thanks to generous family members the moving truck was loaded and we prepared ourselves to head out. My mom and Jan were amazing in helping us drive out our two cars while Chris took the reins on the Penske. After a grueling drive in which I had to make frequent bathroom stops as my growing uterus was already pushing on my bladder, we made it. Baby Bell unknowingly got the workout of it's short existence when we unloaded the cars and moving van to fill our apartment located on the third floor. With how many flights of stairs we went up we probably equalled the number of steps it would take to get to the top of the Empire State Building, although I think with the loads we were carrying we were more akin to sherpas carrying provisions to the top of Everest. My Mom and Jan hung around for the next few days to get us settled. They were fabulous in putting things in their places, as I didn't have any interest in where items ended up. Which was surprising to my family as well as myself. Thinking that the driving, moving, and stress had made me unusually fatigued and anxious I started early in the morning with some Diet Coke and Tums to give me a caffeine boost as well as calm my stomach. A couple of days before my family left I started to wonder if maybe I was pregnant. My monthly visit from Mother Nature had been off and I hadn't ridden the red wave as usual, but I attributed that to stress as well.