I'm not a Restful Person

I used to have a picture frame that said "It's scary when you wake up one day and realize you've turned into your mother." Growing up I remember thinking it was always so odd that my mom couldn't ever sit still or relax - we generally watched TGIF as a family (remember those great shows? full house, family matters, etc...) but other than that I don't think she ever sat still. It baffled me - how could you not WANT rest? Well - years later, I'm not too far off from that. If there is a football game on I can generally sit and watch it...but I also do laundry in the process, cook dinner sometimes, or I think of other tasks that can be done during commercial breaks so that I don't miss the game. So am I really resting? Probably not. If there is a good movie on TV or if Austin puts in a good movie I can USUALLY sit to watch it...no guarantees I won't get up to change laundry, have laundry in front of me to fold, or fall asleep...but I try. I spend most of my free time either cleaning, cooking, running errands, or doing crafts - none of which are generally considered "rest".

So I'm sure you can imagine the extreme struggle I have been going through since Friday when my doctor told me I needed to "rest" for 3 weeks. let me back up and catch you up.

Last weekend I started experiencing some lower pelvic pain. At first it wasn't too bad, it came and went through the days and it was definitely manageable. Monday the pain started to get worse, and Tuesday it was pretty constant and nearly unbearable. I had researched "pelvic pain" on google to self-diagnose myself, like I know doctors love, and I read that it could be one of two things: SPD, which is when your body releases too much relaxin and your pelvic bone expands too quickly in preparation for labor, so it causes discomfort and sometimes can be so painful that people can't walk. The other possibility was a sign of preterm labor. I had my 33 week appointment that afternoon, so when the doctor came in I mentioned it. She said she'd like to "take a look" and see if anything was going on, just to be sure. The nurse had asked me at the beginning of the appointment if I had been having contractions, and I said yes but I assumed they were just braxton hicks contractions and they didn't even come once and hour, so nothing to worry about. After the doctor's exam she determined that I was having real contractions rather than braxton hicks, and she said I was "slightly dilated", which I later learned meant about 1 cm. She ran a test to see if I had protein build up which is a sign that my body would be beginning the stages of labor, and she was going to have the emergency lab tested that evening (my appointment ended after 5:00). She let me know that she would call me after the results came in and if they were positive we've need to go to the hospital that night to have labor reversed; if the results were negative she wanted me to take a few days off work and go back Friday for more testing. Luckily the results came back negative, so I let my boss know that I would at least need to take Wednesday and Thursday off work, and I'd let them know the results of my appointment Friday morning.

Wednesday and Thursday were boring enough. And I wouldn't even say I followed the term "rest" as well as the doctor probably would have liked! I sewed some on William's quilt, made a couple cards with my Cricut, made a few pages for William's scrapbook...I may have cleaned a LITTLE...and I was still pretty miserable just sitting here.

Then it was time for my follow up appointment Friday morning. I got there and they said we'd be running an NST. I don't know what the acronym stands for, but it is a fetal monitor to check his heartbeat, his movement, and my contractions. I had that for about 20 minutes and the doctor said the results were great - his heartbeat was steady and healthy, his movement was what they'd expect, and in the 20 minutes I had one small contraction and nothing else. The doctor then checked again to see if any more progress had been made or if my body had reversed the dilation on its own from my rest. She found that I was now about 1.5 cm dilated, and said that her main concern was not the dilation or even the contractions, but was William's position. In her words "his head is just RIGHT there". THAT is the root of my pelvic pain - she let me know his head was causing pressure on my pelvis and any movement, especially vertical movement, would be uncomfortable essentially until he is born. He isn't going to move farther up, so the pressure of the weight of his head that low is just going to be uncomfortable. Yay! The doctor said "sometimes little boys are ornery" and I said "funny, so is his dad" :)

She asked me what my company's policy is for maternity leave, bed rest, etc. When i let her know that if I were to go on bed rest I'd file for short term disability she was pleased that I had the option of not entirely losing my income, and said that was her recommendation. She did say that there is no true way for a doctor to predict preterm labor because "we lose our crystal balls when we graduate from medical school", but she said that from her experience and everything she's seen it is her professional opinion that without rest and with too much movement I would end up in preterm labor in the next couple of weeks. She said that if I make it to 37 weeks, which is Feb 1, I can return to work until he does come because at 37 weeks he will be considered full term and there won't be any concerns at that point. If I go into labor before 37 weeks and it is not too far along, she would prefer to attempt to reverse it using medication, and if it were too far along we would have our baby a few weeks early. 37 weeks is also convenient for my personal calendar, because it is after the birthdays and the anniversary of my dad's death like I mentioned before. I realize William does not care one bit for my personal calendar, and probably never will...but if he could just hang out for 3 weeks I'd be a happy mommy.

Today we are 34 weeks along - so he wouldn't be terribly premature, and it wouldn't be anything that hospitals and doctors aren't fully trained to handle. However, it is obviously still not ideal. So for the next 3 weeks I am to spend as much time laying down as possible. She said she isn't calling it "full bed rest" at this point, which means I am still able to get up and move around if necessary, but she'd like me to rest as little as possible.

As bored as I am - it isn't too hard to force myself to at least sit still because it's pretty painful to move around! The issue for me is between horizontal vs. sitting upright. I can do things sitting upright, but laying down is just miserable. So I'm trying to compromise with myself and at least recline slightly if possible. Austin is going to move some of my crafting supplies in the living room and create a temporary work-station for me so that if I want to do scrapbooking or quilting or something for a little bit I don't have to get up and walk to the office, and I can lean back slightly while working. Then I'll also be closer to the kitchen in case I need food or water, or if Layla needs to go outside.

So for the next 3 weeks if you have anything you need done...really, anything...feel free to ship it my way. The post office has flat rate boxes that you can ship up here for about $13 and you can shove as much in those boxes as you want! I can make cards, invitations, birth announcements (hey THERE'S an idea...), organize bills...I can do lots of things. I'm transferring Kaila's recipes from recipe cards to a recipe binder, so really...I'll do anything :)

Other than that I'll spend 3 weeks trying to learn what the true meaning of 'rest and relaxation' is. I'll let you know if I learn anything. For now, I'm going to try to keep myself from going upstairs to do some laundry. :)