After 5 years of being a stay-at-home mom, I found the wonder of mothering slowly starting to get crowded out by the mundane feeling. I realized our world seems to surround people with the negative, and complaining about blessings seems totally acceptable. So I decided to fight against that "normalcy" and focus only on the positive. I look back to my first year as a mom when everything was new and keeping house was fun and I aim to have that attitude again. This blog is my outlet to showcase the daily miracles that surround me in my blessed life as a stay-at-home mom so that I will never forget the wonder of it all.



Thursday, August 23, 2012

32 Weeks!

Today I'm 32 weeks pregnant!  This is a weekly marker that would have gone unnoticed if I wasn't on bed rest and thankful for every week baby stays inside.  I've never worried about pre term labor before,  so the passing weeks never meant much more than a passage of time.  Now, I think we'll be excited for every week in a brand new way.

So what did week 31 in bed look like for me?



 I had a bed rest buddy in bed with me ALL day yesterday.  Poor Kian had a fever all day.  Grammy took the older two kids to the beach to play with cousins, but Kian had to stay back.  He felt so miserable, he didn't even care.  Besides, he was thrilled at the thought that he could watch movies on Daddy's computer all day long AND got to choose every single one.  We don't own a T.V. so usually, if the kids get to watch a show, its few and far between, and agreed on by all.  He thought he was in heaven (other than being pathetic from the fever).  :)
 
 I made 12 of these little felt tea bags for Felicity's 5th birthday tea party that's coming up.  As requested, they're done in purple and pink.  And the "tea" inside is lavender dried from our garden.  And how am I going to throw a tea party from bed?  Oh, I just have the best friends ever, and the best husband ever!  My wonderful friend Cheri is helping plan and execute Lissy's tea, and making sure she feels extra special.  And Zac is there to help in any way he can.
 
Speaking of wonderful friends, my other amazing friend, Elisa, knew how hard I'd been working to get Felicity's quilt done for her birthday.  By the time I went on bed rest, all that was left was binding it.  Well, I can't make binding or sew on the machine so my sweet friend did it for me!  With the binding sewn on the front, I just need to sit here and hand stitch it on to the back.   Its been a very good use of time, as I'm sure you know if you've ever done binding on a twin size quilt.
 
 
Bed rest is going well.  Its easier than I thought it would be, and all of that is because of the wonderful friends, family, and AMAZING husband I have.  However, its not as restful as I always assumed.  I have contractions every day, some clustered close enough that I've almost had to call the midwives and go back in to be monitored at the hospital a few times.  Thankfully in those times, the contractions quit just before I'd have to make the call.  I have them off and on all day, but when they start coming more frequently, my body hurts all over.  I get a restless leg feeling, but all over.  I'll get surges of tingles through my body, and before a contraction my airways and lungs will feel tight.  Those times make me anxious but I try to relax, drink lots of water, and lay flat to fight them off.  It feels like half my body is trying to go into labor, and the other half is trying to fight labor off.  It just makes me feel kind of cruddy.  Some days I'll have stints of those times, other days, I'll feel like that all day.  Very seldomly do I feel my uterus fully relax for any length of time.  But when it does, it feels glorious!  It only took a few days of being inactive for muscles to start hurting so ice packs on my knees, back, and neck are a favorite thing.  :)  All in all, I've stayed pretty positive so far.  I have 5 weeks of complete/strict bed rest total, so I'm sure there will be some frustrating moments, but I am trying my hardest to see the joy in it, which hasn't been too hard so far, and I know that's only from God.  Zac is home now, of course, and won't be going down South to work again.  That in itself is such a blessing...to have him around.  Add in the fact that he's amazing and has jumped full into the role of single parenting and caring for me, with an amazing attitude....well, I just feel so blessed. 


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Oh, and for my own personal record keeping, I lost a pound this week, so now I'm at 147.  How that's possible given my mass Oreo consumption is beyond me.  But I'm sure I'll pack it on now laying in bed all day.  :)

2 comments:

  1. Oh I am so sorry to hear about bed rest and so glad to see you found a way to put a positive spin on it. Stay in there little bean!! You will be in my thoughts. xo

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  2. Jenny...Oh, this is so not what you had planned for, I bet. Sometimes we are thrown curve balls for lessons we don't even recognize yet. Bedrest...time for Mama, it seems. And when your little sweet pea is on the outside, this whole period will be a crazy haze. Enjoy the rest, as much as you can.
    xo Jules

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