Cara is a contributor to our hyperlocal site for east Bay parents, {510} Families, and is fast becoming an expert not on “what to make with (and without!) your baby,” but rather, “what to do while pregnant and on bedrest when you have another child.” pregnancy bedrest is a bummer and Cara used to share her lessons learned with us.
At exactly 26 weeks pregnant, I had pre-term contractions. Thankfully with medicine and IV hydration, they slowed and eventually stopped. However, I have been on bed rest ever considering that (almost 6 weeks now) and will be until I reach 36 weeks. So how does one keep from going crazy while on bed rest and with a 4 year old? The greatest credit scores goes to my amazing spouse  for adjusting his work schedule (he’s a PhD student and is teaching this semester) as much as possible, so he is here nearly every hour that my daughter isn’t in preschool. Livredder!
Here are the rest of the ways I keep from losing my mind and going completely stir crazy about the fact that I haven’t been outside my house in a month other than for doctor’s appointments.
Try not to think about the fact that you haven’t been outside your house in a month.
Write a guest post for one of your favorite blogs. (Editor’s note: Yes!)
Shop online. The combination of bed rest with holiday shopping and deals has been a bad, bad combo over here. My neighbor recently said, “I have a box show up each day with all this holiday shopping!” and my spouse and I just laughed, considering that we have lots of boxes showing up every day. It keeps me entertained! (This is my favorite site for finding the best deals)
catch up on photo albums/scrapbooking. When my daughter was born, I began using a scrapbooking system called project Life. It makes documenting each day (or less typically if you wish) absolutely easy and yet, not surprisingly, I had fallen way behind. I am seizing this opportunity to print hundreds of photos to fill in the gaps on 4 years’ of life and get them all into the album, as well as captioning them. It has been a much-needed emotional improve as I see all the fun my daughter and I had when she was tiny and I think of what this little person I’m working so hard to keep inside will do.
Journal.  a lot of of my writing has been catching up on my project Life albums, but I have also done some writing in a pregnancy journal as well as writing letters to my little guy.
Play with your kids. When my 4-year-old daughter is at home, I try to do things with her other than enjoying TV. just because mommy has to stay in bed, that doesn’t indicate I can’t do anything good. My daughter and I have done lots of coloring, paper dolls, crafting, reading, game-playing, and movie-watching. The crucial to our sanity is ensuring that she go stir-crazy, so my spouse takes her on lots of outings and we’ve kept her enrolled in activities, just like I usually would during the week (I’m a stay-at-home mom).
Watch a lot of movies/TV shows. Netflix streaming is a need to if you are on bedrest. You’ll thank me, I promise. When nobody is home, I power through television like nobody’s business. among other things, I’ve enjoyed nearly three full seasons of cheers (often while working on photo albums) and a handful of documentaries. There are also so lots of new original series.
Do crafty things. I already liked hands-on projects so I made an development calendar, sewed Christmas ornaments, and have colored in a coloring book a LOT.
Read and read and read and read. A pal loaned me four books, and when I returned them a week later she said, “Wow, you do have a lot of time on your hands!” and that wasn’t even the sum total of what I read that week! I’ve read both fun books and a lot more “serious” books considering that I have the time. (A kindle indicates I don’t even have to get out of bed to start a new book.)
Take your pals up on their uses of help. people are SO ready to help, seriously. I don’t ever like feeling like a burden. I like doing things myself and helping others, so this one was a little hard at first, but then I realized that people were using because they cared and really wanted to help. So yeah, I’ll let you enjoy my daughter while my spouse and I go to the doctor. And, yes, please do come knock on my door and invite my daughter out to play with your kids. and chocolate cupcakes delivered to my door? tak skal du have! One pal used to bring me lunch — when on bedrest and experiencing cravings from restaurants, this is a delightful offer.
Stay social. thank goodness for e-mail, the phone, and Facebook to keep from feeling completely isolated from the outside world. I’ve also read lots of a lot more news articles and blogs than I usually do, letting myself follow the rabbit trails that an post posted on Facebook takes me down.
Krydsogtværs. I like crossword puzzles (and all those kinds of word and logic puzzles) and always get a magazine of them when I travel, soJeg har masser af på hånden, der kun er delvist afsluttet – det er en måde at holde min hjern stimuleret på. (Redaktørens note: En bog med krydsordpuslespil er en dejlig, visse handlinger for dem, der spørger “Hvad kan jeg bringe dig?”)
Blog. Bedsteforældrene ville være uenige, jeg er sikker på, men jeg har forsøgt at følge med i vores private familieblog lidt bedre, mens jeg er på sengetøj. Ja, jeg fejler, men mit hjerte er på det ideelle sted.
Lad dig selv føle dig lidt dårlig for dig selv en gang imellem. Det er fint at føle sig lidt bummed, at dette sker. Det er en bummer. Det er ikke normalt, og det er altid lidt svært.
Lever vicariously gennem andre. Efter at have fortalt mig om hendes middagsplaner, sagde min mor “Jeg prøver ikke at få dig til at føle dig dårlig med ikke at komme ud af huset!” Næsten! Jeg ville vide alle detaljerne om, hvor de skulle hen, og havde det sjovt at leve vicariously og ser frem til den dag, hvor min ægtefælle og jeg fejrer enten at være ude af sengetøj eller vores lille fyrs ankomst med en middag ude … måske bare hos Rubio’s eller Noget hurtigt og billigt, men stadig ude!
Nyd de afslappede/alene tider, mens de varer. Dette er den, jeg har prøvet at holde fokus på. Selvom det kan være kedeligt og vanvittigt, er det også en virkelig afslappende tid i mit liv. De øjeblikke, hvor min datter er på børnehaven, og min ægtefælle er på arbejde, kan jeg spille musik, læse, lur eller nyde noget uden intern skyld over “Jeg må gøre noget.” De travle dage kommer igen. Der vil være en nyfødt, og jeg vil vaske op, lave vaskeri, lave mad og rengøre igen – indtil videre hviler jeg.
Tak, Cara! Heather skrev om at finde det sjove i sengetøj i fortiden, men hun spekulerede absolut.
Var nogen af jer på sengetøj under din graviditet? Hvis du er på sengetøj Ideal nu, skal du sørge for at sige “Hej”!
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