Bedrest: Uncensored

Over the past week or so I have had several people chide me for not telling them what is going on. I don't like to complain - no one enjoys hearing it and it doesn't make me feel any better about things. I'd rather focus on the positive, which there is a lot of :) Apparently though I am not giving enough information to those who want it, so here it is: Bedrest - the Untold Story ;)

Yes, I'm on bedrest. Contractions with this pregnancy started around 14 weeks, which was 7.5 weeks ago. My doctor told me to go on modified bedrest at that point. The difference between modified bedrest and strict bedrest is the amount of time you are allowed to spend being up and around. With Eva's pregnancy, I was on strict bedrest. I was allowed up to use the restroom and shower and that was about it. With this pregnancy, I get up and get the kids off to school each morning, then put together snacks and drinks for Eva and Jack and we go rest for about 5 hours. I get up and get them lunch, then rest for an hour, then walk to school to pick up the girls. I've had several friends offer to walk the girls home for me, but I like getting out and getting to walk a little bit :) When we get home, I rest for two hours, then get up and make dinner while the kids clean the downstairs. After dinner, I'm done and I rest for the rest of the night.

Note that "resting" involves homework, playing with Eva, reading to the kids, playing on the computer with Jack, etc. It's not usually napping :) I actually am pretty tired most of the time. Cutting back so severely on physical activity has several side effects. One is that my body has a hard time going to sleep. Insomnia is a side effect of the medication I'm on too and the combination of that plus the lack of activity means my sleep habits have gone to pot. I'm tired most of the time.

The medication they had me on during Eva's pregnancy has been recalled due to the horrible side effects (yes, I was on it for 3.5 months - it was fun). Instead my OB put me on weekly progesterone shots. Progesterone is actually a powder, so in order to turn it into a shot, they have to mix it with something else. It happens to be soluble in only three liquids - alcohol, butane, and certain vegetable oils. Since neither alcohol nor butane are really viable options, they use cottonseed oil. This makes the injection very, very thick, which means the needle they use to inject it is pretty big. My friend Jojo was with me when I got one of the injections and her comment was "Oh my GOSH! That's HUGE!!!", which was lovely to hear just before they stuck it in me ;) Anyway, I get injections every Monday. Sometimes they hurt a lot and other times it's not too bad. Even though they alternate hips, I still don't have time for the bruises to heal before I get the next shot, so my hips hurt most of the time. I'm getting used to it :)

Another side effect of bedrest is muscle aches. The human body is not made to lie around all day. Lack of movement makes my muscles hurt most of the time. The worst parts are my back and stomach. At least I can still get up a few times a day and move around a bit. I move much slower now though. My friend Betsy says she likes that aspect of this as she is quite a bit shorter than I am and she says it makes it easier to keep up with me.

I am also slower as I'm having some pain due to ligaments stretching too far because of the weight of the baby. It's gotten worse with each of my pregnancies and it started pretty early with this one. That pain is much sharper and makes it really hard to do things where I have to lift my legs, like climb stairs. Of course, I'm not supposed to be climbing stairs much anyway, so that works out well.

The first few weeks that I had contractions, they were more like constant cramps. I talked to my friend's husband, who happens to be a master herbalist. He told me to start drinking red raspberry leaf tea (which is an herbal tea). I started that and the contractions almost disappeared! He is awesome! (If you are interested, he makes and sells things like lotion bars, body scrubs, teas, and tinctures - his website is http://simpleryou.blogspot.com/) I'm pretty sure the reason I've made it this far without having to go on strict bedrest is because of the tea he's having me drink. I missed it one night and had contractions every 3-5 minutes for several hours the next evening. My contractions now usually only happen once or twice an hour. They are much more defined then they were at the beginning and often last for 60-90 seconds. They can get painful enough that I have to stop talking or doing whatever I'm doing for a minute or two. They aren't making me dilate yet though, so we're doing good!

We've gotten stricter with bedrest as this has gone on. A few weeks ago we had an activity I was in charge of at my house. I got up to clean for about an hour and stayed up during the activity for about an hour. I ended up in the doctor's office the next day, having all sorts of checks done and getting a detailed ultrasound as those two hours caused some major issues. No permanent changes fortunately though! I have decided that cleaning the house is not an option any more though. Fortunately, the kids keep up on the downstairs every day and Rob does an awesome job keeping up on the rest of it :) Megan has also opportunely decided that she wants to earn some extra money and has been asking for extra chores so we can pay her for them.

Yes, I am worried about having to go through the same things I did during the end of my pregnancy with Eva. I try not to think about it too much. The farther we get, the better off we are :) I only have a month left before my third trimester, which is my first major goal as babies born after that point do much better. My big goal is to make it to 35 weeks, which is 13 weeks away on August 18th. I'd prefer to make it to 36 weeks, and that is the point at which my OB won't go to extreme lengths to stop labor (especially if they've stopped it before and I've gotten the steroid shots for the baby's lung development).  That is August 25th. My sister Susie has decided I am making it until August 27th as that is her birthday :) Basically, I'm about 1/3 of the way through the bedrest part of this pregnancy. Three months left to go!