Bed Rest Week #3 (and quick summary of #1 and #2).

Ironically I typed in the tittle and then hit return and it published the post with nothing written. Opps, or maybe that would be good summary of the last 3 weeks. You may have noticed that I have pretty limited personal photos for the last several weeks too. Not exactly the type of weeks you like to have photographed, and the captions would be even better. Picture yourself or someone you love, over 6 months pregnant on several different pain medications, spending days on the couch or bed under a great deal of stress. Yeah, that is what I thought, not exactly a hallmark card kind of photo opportunity.

But, here I am on the other side. In the thick of my third week of bedrest, and starting to have more days looking somewhat human rather than half alien mixed with a crazy pregnant lady. The pain has eased up and is now more typical of being pregnant and spending large amounts of time on your left side (that is the side that gives the uterus the best blood flow and circulation). Being relatively drug free, still getting my progesterone shots weekly is also very nice.

Bed-rest is an interesting place. People have all types of opinions on the subject. Shocking but not surprising because most people have not been on bed-rest before. I can see it from their eyes that it might look kind of nice, a little break from their busy lives and catching up on movies and magazines. I suggest you just give yourself a weekend to vegetate, and then be nice to all those of us that are not allowed to do anything else.

Now that I am feeling physically better, I have started to work on a few holiday projects and I try to just keep somewhat a normal schedule. Some days go faster and better than others. The mornings are the worse when everybody is at something (work, toddler class, etc). Or when everybody is really busy and I am sitting. Helpful people have endless suggestions of what I could be doing with my time, which honestly I haven't found very helpful. You have to remember that the person on bed-rest hasn't developed mad skills during there illness or medical crisis. They also have limited access to supplies and probably don't have unlimited energy. So unfortunately I will probably not be taking up beading, card cataloging all my pictures or unlimited sewing projects.

On the medical front, we still are taking it one day or week at a time. I am not having contractions. Cervix thanks to the cerclage (which is a suture holding my cervix closed), is closed. We were unable to get a length this week, just a strange ultrasound that we are repeating next week. Fetal fibronectin was negative this week so that gives me at least 2 more weeks to cook this baby, taking us up to 28 weeks. Which is huge! 3 weeks longer than Kate got, and they are very important weeks. Most likely I will get steroid shots in the next several weeks, which do wonders for preemies but I am still a little worried about when we should give them to maximize their efficiency.

My anxiety and depression over how everything is going is still pretty high (or low depending on which you are talking about). I try to spend more time on the positive than the negative, but at times feel that I am chasing something isn't going to happen. But, at the same time I just can't let it go either.

Hopefully there won't be much to update from my position on the couch for awhile but I promise pictures and more fun to come.