It's been almost two weeks of this 2nd trimester bed rest. I have mixed feelings - one week closer to my Dec 29 due date, one week closer to 24 or 25 wks when the baby is viable, one more week for our baby to develop inside me. On the flip side, my symptoms aren't much better so it also means another week of bed rest is added to the horizon: I am no closer to getting off bed rest than I was a week ago.
But off to that positive start - this week I am so thankful that our family is back to living as close to our normal lives as possible. No trips to the hospital! I started working from home. My husband is still training for his marathon. The kids are in their normal routine of school, Grammy and Grandpa's house, Sunday school, going to the pool on the weekends, etc. The kids are so accepting and understand the situation as a 3 and 5 year old would - that I have a boo boo in my belly near the baby and I have to lie down so it doesn't bleed. When I first told my son, his response was, "Well you could eat a bandaid." Great idea, wish I could.
Work from home has worked out most of the time. I read blogs of women on bed rest who are bored watching tv all day and have a hard time getting back to real life after being isolated from society. I am really sick of tv, especially the news, and have vowed not to get into soaps, so work is a welcome distraction. My colleagues have been great, even sending flowers, and I have been able to stay effective and connected through teleconferencing into meetings. My big issue has been getting comfortable reclining in bed with a laptop. Not as easy as it sounds and really hurts my back after a few hours. The ipad I'm using now is much better but can't be used for work. I probably need to research a solution for the laptop in bed.
The other highlight from this week is that my long lost cousin came to visit and brought us the most wonderful dinner of homemade lasagna, fancy salad, mac and cheese and watermelon for the kids, plus homemade banana muffins for breakfast/snacks. I have always been a big fan of leftovers so along with my mom's cooking I was all set every day for lunch with great leftovers. Even better, we finally connected with this cousin who I have been trying to meet up with for months. She is my dad's cousin's daughter and I probably haven't seen her since I was 10 so it was great to see her and have our kids play together. Amazing how friends and family pull together in times like this. I am so blessed.
Generally I am doing fine, everyone is praying for me and the baby and wanting to check in on us and help. But I am most concerned about my husband. He is an amazing husband and father and has been so strong in handling this, supporting me and the household, but definitely needs prayer and support as much as or more than me. I just lie around all day. I sleep a lot and take a nap every day. He works a demanding full time job, and now rather than sharing chores, has to do 100% - get the kids ready for school, drop off & pick up every day, do all the grocery shopping and cooking, all the cleaning and taking care of the kids (who want a snack or drink or for him to play with them every 5 minutes), plus the bath, deal with 5 am wake-ups etc. He really doesn't get to even sit down. And that is all before he can help me out, so I try to keep my requests for water and snacks to a minimum; I know I shouldn't feel guilty but I do.
But our big help in all of this is not surprising, the same one who helps us through all the rough patches, back a couple years ago when my prior job was very demanding and work-family balance was so tough, back when we had new babies and it was so hard to go back to work. Of course it is my mom. She is the bionic woman I swear, nothing could take her down, not even cancer, surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation. She is a huge prayer warrior. I know if she is praying for me, I will be ok. I probably am not as good about praying because I know she has me covered. While I can pray for a minute, I really think she prays without ceasing. My grandma was the same way. When I had mono in high school and she was visiting, I woke up in the middle if the night and my grandma was reciting Psalms and praying over me at night. Pretty powerful stuff. So the torch hasn't been passed to me, but I do appreciate my mom and maybe this creates an opportunity for me to learn to develop that way.
Beyond the praying, my mom is helping me by helping my husband. Cooking a couple nights a week and cleaning up the kitchen, calling from the grocery store to see if we need a few things, coming over to watch the kids while he runs, and the biggest help of all is that she has volunteered to do all our laundry. Dad is helpful too since he is so great with the kids and coming over to make me lunch. I probably need to be more specific about what help we need from him and everyone else. I feel guilty or bad asking for help for some reason, nice thing is my mom knows how to help and what I need without me even asking.
So the medical update is not much to tell - still bleeding every day. Sunday and Monday were pretty bad, settled into a typical pattern the rest of the week, and today and yesterday seemed a little better, so who knows I might be getting better. But we have had ups and downs before and end up in the same place so I'm trying to not get ahead of ourselves. This Thursday I will be 20 wks and will get an ultrasound and see the doc, so will have more news then - I hope.
