Thoughts on Bed Rest
- It is really nice, when I’m feeling tired or nauseous, to not have to get up and go to work or make dinner or anything. It is nice to get as much sleep as I want with no alarm clock to wake me up and as many naps as I want. I feel like I’m rich and have more money than I know how to spend.
- Thank Goodness for modified bed rest. Bed rest means a whole range of things, from laying down for an hour in the afternoons to strict bed rest in a hospital when you don’t get up for any reason at all. I did strict bed rest during my last pregnancy for three days and it was worse than getting hit by a car. Every part of my body ached and my mind shut down. Some women do this for months at a time during a difficult pregnancy and they are heros and saints. I’m on modified bed rest, which means I can get up to eat and go to the bathroom, but other than that I need to be in bed or on the couch. I can also sit up some, which is great, because then I can type this post.
- If you try to lay on the couch for a whole day, you would be amazed at how many times you want to get up. A hundred at least. For little things like a glass of water, some chap stick, that magazine you were reading earlier, the TV remote, to kiss your baby who is walking, so cute, across the room just out of reach. Sometimes, on the way to the bathroom, I take the long way, you know, by the mail table to pick up the mail, then when I’m going through the mail back on the couch, I realize I need the checkbook from the mail table, a pen from the pink table, an envelop and a stamp from the office and then I need a trash can for the junk mail. It is really hard to be this still.
- Bed Rest is great practice for positive thinking. I love to do things and get things done and it is easy to think of all the things I wish I was doing now like eating a hamburger just off the grill at a Labor Day cookout. Or I could think of all the time I have to read and write and setup my new iPhone that Blue Eyes got for me. (Thank you Blue Eyes!) I make little decisions during the day, like to watch silly TV like Torie and Dean or to read a meaningful book like The Shack, which promises to deepen my spirituality. I’m trying to focus on what I can to and I’m trying to treat this time like a gift that should be valued and this is working most of the time.
