How to Survive Bed Rest

I think everyone reading my blog either knows me well enough or has been able to figure out that I am a planner. I don't always follow through with my plans, but I love planning! So as I anticipate being home for the next 2+ months (at least 3 weeks bed rest, probably a couple of weeks after the baby is born before I leave the house....), I think I need a plan.

First of all, I have to say that I am both looking forward to/not looking forward to bed rest. Pros: I get to sleep in and take naps, I will never be forced to cook or clean, I have an opportunity to do some crafts/projects, I can watch all the movies I've been wanting to and read all the books I've been wanting to. Cons: I can't cook or clean and yet I'm stuck in the house so I have a HUGE desire to clean up the dishes and vacuum and such; I'll get bored; I may plan to do things, but actually starting them is really hard to do; I miss seeing people; I can't go shopping and maybe even can't go to church (I'm asking my doctor about that TODAY!); sitting and laying down gets really old really fast..... I'm sure you can think up all of these things.

This woman looks much too happy to be on bed rest... Besides, people already go crazy when on bed rest. To be on bed rest in a completely white room? Looks like a mental hospital to me....)

So here's the plan:

1) Get up at a good hour every day. I hope to get up whenever Jed leaves for the day.

2) Get semi-ready for the day. I think that make-up and certain clothes will rarely see the light of day in these next few weeks, but I know that if I stay in pjs all day and never shower, I will feel extra crappy.

3) Have a plan for the day. I am going to have a To Do list for each day, even if the only item on it is "Watch 2 episodes of Downton Abbey." I will have a purpose every day!

4) Use all this time to do some AMAZING scripture study. Jed and I are doing really great at being consistent with scripture study, but I use the excuse that I don't have time to get myself really into some great study. I no longer have that excuse..... at least for the next 3 or so weeks! So I hope that I can get myself to do that.

5) I'm not on strict bed rest, but they did say that I should generally only get up to go to the bathroom and shower. So, on days I'm not all sweaty, I generally shower every other day. So on the days I don't shower, I have that extra 20 minutes where I would normally be standing in the shower/getting ready to actually do something like put dishes in the dishwasher? Eh? Gosh this bed rest thing can be so hard! I want to do what is best for the baby, so if laying down all day is the key, I will do it. But it's so hard when I don't feel sick AT ALL and when I feel like, what's a little 10 minutes of standing going to do? Well, I think it could potentially do a lot (I've got to ask my doctor). So I may cheat once in a while (because I can't stand those dishes any longer), but I am going to try to practice some will power and not do anything! The nurse did give me the okay to sit like normal, like I don't have to be laying down all the time, so I may take advantage of that and attempt to do some dishes or some cooking while sitting in a chair. My fish tank needs to be cleaned and I'm seriously thinking about doing it in the bath (I will not be in the bath, just for clarification; I will just clean it by sitting next to the bath.). Ha ha that will be interesting.


So wanna see my list of what I hope to do? If you don't, well skip on over these bullets:

• Work on my portfolio for my internship (because I WILL graduate, dang it) 
• Meal Plan. This is rather important, because I have to be very creative with my planning... I basically have 3 types of recipes to look for: freezer meals (which my dear mother will be helping me put together), incredibly easy meals Jed can put together, and last but not least, not necessarily easy meals, but meals I can cook while sitting down and that involve minimal standing up and moving around. I think I will planning a lot of crock pot things.
• Catch up in my 10 year journal. Thank goodness I have the most important things I'd want to write about all on my calendar. (P.S. Have you ever used a 10 year journal? I love it to pieces. You should get one!)
• Commission Jed to get me some butcher paper and supplies so I can decorate the baby's room (low priority.... but maybe I'll do it)
• Clean out the folders on my email! Isn't this something you would love to do, but you know it will take hours and hours??? 
• Cross stitch! I have a project I've been working on since 2009. It's going to look awesome, but I think it's been over a year since I've touched it. Sad, sad day
• Go through all of our papers. This is a project that will take several days, I'm thinking, and that I will need lots of help with from my dear mommy. I have way too many papers, ranging from important things like contracts/birth certificates/car things/insurance, to old school papers that I'm not sure if I want to keep or not, to handouts from church and girls camp. So, the plan is to have my mom help me know which important papers are actually important, file those all beautifully, and then SCAN all my other papers that I would love to keep because they have cute sayings or they have potential importance (school papers), but scanning them will get rid of the clutter and get rid of the stupid things I don't really need to store! I'm so excited! This is really the number one thing I want to do during bed rest. The number one thing I don't want to do is my portfolio, but I cannot wait to have these papers organized! Life will be so wonderful. 

 

How about some fun things?

• Pedicure/manicure/facial (all done by myself, of course). I do have a wonderful gift certificate for a pedicure, so if the doctor says I can go to church or things where I won't have to walk far and can sit the whole time, I will be getting a pedicure!
• Indexing! My sister-in-law was so smart and suggested this. How long has is been since I've done this??? Way too long. But now I feel pretty obligated to spend some time doing this. I want to make it part of my routine every day.
• Visiting! People, come visit me! I love to chat and I love to hear about your lives.
• Watch HGTV. I've already spent the last two days watching way too much of this, but I am seriously going to have this be part of my daily schedule. I love it, and I am learning a lot of little things to look for when buying a house or what to do when you want to sell your house. So I will justify this TV watching by saying I am educating myself in something I don't know very much about, but will need to know lots about! 
• Exercise? I hope I can do some little things. I actually want to ask my doctor if a half hour of stretches would be against bed rest.... because I will be relaxing like crazy when I do that! And isn't the goal of bed rest to keep my blood pressure down? We'll see. There's always the kegal exercises, too, which will help in anticipation for labor and pushing. 

Okay, so now I need to go eat something. I turned on the stove to cook me up some breakfast sausages, but for some reason the smell of the hot pan mixed with the popcorn smell left over from the popcorn I had last night..... the last thing I want to do right now is eat. That brings me to another important part of my plan for being on bed rest: don't snack all the time! I have a feeling I will be gaining a lot of weight in the next month or so...... Anyways, any suggestions for bed rest are appreciated, as already all the suggestions I've gotten have been awesome! Thanks friends!