"When the Baby's Born..."

Bed Rest Day 8

N is catching onto the fact that Mommy is on bed rest. He is enjoying the fact that he has my undivided attention. So, what do we do all day you ask?? We watch a little tv. I don't want either of us to consume too much, so I try to limit it to the times when I'm really tired and need to lay down. The first 30 minutes or so of TV are entertaining and stimulating, but anything after one to two hours just turns my brain to mush. I turn into what I call a "Zombie Jiggle Brain." N gets cranky and sassy and is hard to deal with. I compare it to eating too much junk food. The first few bites taste so good that you could keep eating and eating it, but after a while you just feel sick and yucky from it. So, I am trying to be creative with what he and I do all day.

We have been playing with the Pop Beads that a friend brought over as a gift to N (thanks again, K. N loves them). I think Pop Beads are marketed towards girls, but they are a great toy for boys because you can build things (mostly jewelry) with them and take them apart. They're also fun to scoop up with a toy excavator or bulldozer. I've honestly had fun making several necklaces myself. I put them on and N says "Beautiful, Mom."

We pulled the hide-a-bed out in the family room. I lay on that while N plays. We play catch. N stands up and throws or rolls the ball to me while I'm laying down and I throw it back to him. We moved the basketball hoop next to the couch. We have two baskets that are next to the hoop. One is full of balls. I give the full basket to N. I place the empty basket under the hoop. N shoots hoops and most of the balls end up in the empty basket. When N's gone through all the balls in the full basket, we switch the baskets and play a new game.

N brings cars, trucks, monster trucks and other toys to the hide-a-bed for me to play with. We read books and sing songs. N plays "obstacle course" on stacks of cushions and blankets. The other day while he was playing obstacle course he asked me to jump with him. I told him "Mommy can't jump right now because my belly hurts, but I will be able to jump with you after the baby's born." He seems to understand that explanation. Now we have numerous conversations each day about what we're going to do "when the baby's born." Today at lunch N decided that I would be able to do all of the following activities with him after the baby's born...
Play steam roller (I roll over and over on the ground log style and pretend I'm going to roll over him), go swimming and play in the fountains at the pool, jump, go for walks, go down the slide at the park and ride four wheelers...oh, and play the banjo..Ha! The four wheeler one is the most funny to me because the weight limit on our four wheeler is like 40 pounds! I think he just misses riding his four wheeler with me walking next to him because if I walk next to him while he drives then he gets to drive farther from the house...

I have my own list of things I'm excited to do "when the baby's born." Some will require a little healing time, but some I hope to do shortly after this birth. I look forward to simply being able to do everything I used to do on a daily basis such as driving, going up and down the steps when I please, lifting things and chores (never thought I'd say that!). I'm also looking forward to cooking. I've discovered that there's not much on the TV or the radio in the afternoons. That's when I do some work on the computer. I have turned on the Food Network channel a few times for background noise. As I listen to the cooking shows I've found myself thinking "Oh, that recipe sounds good, I'll make that next week...Uuuh..never mind. I'm not allowed to cook." I suppose I could print those recipes and stash them away for future reference.

Another thing I'm looking forward to is exercising. I know I have to allow myself time to heal and some time to get into a routine since I'll have two kiddos to juggle, but I'm really looking forward to at least going for walks. I've had several dreams about jogging, some about taking aerobics classes and one about playing hockey! I know! I've never played hockey, so I'm not sure where that came from, but it sure was fun in my dream.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying all the time I'm getting to spend with N. Once the baby's born we will get to do fun things mentioned above, but I won't have the undivided time to devote to N like I do now so I'm savoring it the best I can.

In the meantime, I know I need to rest so this baby can have as much time as possible in the womb to grow to it's fullest, healthiest potential. I'd rather be the one on bed rest, taking medications, going to the doctor and enduring any pain (which I don't really have much pain) than have my child go through it. I keep thinking that each day that I take it easy could be one more day that the baby has to grow inside of me and one less day he might have to spend at the hospital, if any.

Bed Rest: Day 5

My last post regarding pregnancy I talked about a few of my favorite things on July 28^th. I didn’t actually give any updates on my pregnancy, but I will now. Several things have changed since then. For one thing, August has FLOWN by!! Can you believe it? I keep double checking myself when I write or say the date because I just cannot believe we are more than half way through August…Wow! Another change is that I am on bed rest.. Yes, that’s right. You read it right. I have been ordered to full on, hard core bed rest. No driving (except to my doctor’s appointments), no cooking, no cleaning, no swimming, nothing! I have bathroom and showering privileges and that’s about it…Well, except for the fact that I am a stay home at mom to a very energetic toddler who also needs to potty, eat and play. I've seen the writing on the wall for this for quite some time. I’ve been having contractions since about June, so fortunately I've gotten the bulk of the preparations done for the baby's arrival.

My doctor put me on bed rest Friday afternoon. She told me my guideline for calling her or going to the hospital in regards to contractions was 4 intense or 6 less intense contractions in one hour. Sunday night I had five contractions in a matter of one hour and fifteen minutes. Some of the contractions were intense, some were mild... I was really tired as these took place between 10:45 pm and 12:15am. I told D what was going on and I said if I have one more contraction I will call my doctor and/or head the hospital... Well, the contractions must have subsided because I fell asleep. I called my doctor about it in the morning. She checked me at her office then sent me straight to the hospital because I am dilated and thinning (I’ll spare you too many ghoury details)... The short story is that I stayed in the hospital overnight for observation and for steroid injections that will accelerate the rate at which the baby's lungs develop. The doctors think that if I am diligent and very mindful about being on bed rest we can milk things along and get four more weeks out of this pregnancy. At this point they believe the baby will be born around 37 weeks. If I have any more "episodes" similar to Sunday night in which I have 4-6 contractions in one hour, I could potentially return to the hospital for observation and more meds....We'll see.

In the meantime, D and I are adjusting to this new “lifestyle.” D has been great to do the bulk of the housework, cooking, grocery shopping, etc. We have lots of friends and family offering to help out by making meals, watching N, grocery shopping, taking N to school and on and on. We are actually taking people up on as many offers as we can because we need the help. As I was telling D last night…being on bed rest for what could be four weeks is like being in a marathon. I told him that we need to take people up on their offers so we…or mainly he doesn’t get worn out by trying to everything on our own. We’ve already had friends bring us meals, one friend went to Kmart for me and brought in our garbage cans while she was here today. It’s so amazing what people are willing to do to help out. We are soooo grateful to everyone for your concerns and your help!! We’ll keep you posted!

Pregnancy Photos

I have a friend (K) who is getting her start in the photography business. She has been taking pictures for a few months of friends and family and now things are really taking off for her. She does a great job of working with her clients and she has an eye for capturing the moment. She did N's three year pictures and I was so pleased with them I had her take some pregnancy pictures. D and I think this will be our last baby, so this will be my last time through pregnancy. I didn't get any professional pictures last time I was pregnant, but wanted to be sure to get some this time and I am so glad I did! Here are a few photos below. These are the "sneak peak" photos K sent. The rest of them are being processed. K said there are lots of really good ones. I can't wait to see them all. K took great pictures of me wearing a wrap around my chest and capris on bottom. These are pictures of my exposed belly. The ones I have seen so far are really cute, but I'm not about to put them online!! I will cherish those in the privacy of my own home. Ha!!

Go St. Jude Runners!!

Below are a few pictures of the people running (in the rain) through our town to raise money for St. Jude today. Good job, guys! My friend and her husband are running the race this year and she just had a baby in April. What an inspiration! If she can do this run approximately three months after having a baby, I should be able to do it next year when our baby will be about ten months old. That should be plenty of time for me to recover, train and raise money, right? No excuses. :)


The route runs one block up from our house and I almost missed it. If you look really closely, you will see my friend Lisa waving. Go L!! I actually almost forgot about the run because I was working on a few things at home. Then D came inside and said he heard the police sirens escorting the runners by our house. I tried to catch up to them and get their picture near our house but my preggie self could not move fast enough to get a good picture of them, so I loaded up in the car and met the runners a couple miles from our house.

If I'm reading the map correctly I was sitting at about the three and a half mile mark when I took the pictures below.






Go M and L. You make it look so easy.