Bed Rest Is Hard (Day One)

I mentioned the lessons learned (and that there were several of them) from my stomach pain saga thus far. The one the Dr. wanted me to learn as she sent me home on Wednesday was the importance of rest in our lives - of taking a break, before we NEED it. She reminded me that if you just keep pushing, and going, going, going, without taking the break that you need to stay healthy and sane; then life will hit you over the head with something that forces you to take that break (usually at the most inopportune time - not that there is an opportune time to be hit over the head with anything).

So at any rate, here I am, absorbing the lesson that life is teaching me - Take the time to REST!

But can I just say, as much as rest is wonderful and peaceful and feels good - its stressful to be forced to physically rest, when your mind is still going a hundred miles an hour and there is just SO MUCH that needs to get done!

Why can't bed rest be scheduled and conducted on a tropical island in the summer sun? The answer of course, it that that is what we call - "vacation"... however, at least in my world, vacations are seldom restful times of total relaxation; and more often are busy whirlwind trips where we rush around trying to fit a million experiences into our slim time away from home. What I usually end up needing is a vacation from my vacation. [10-days at Disneyland, our last "vacation" is a case in point]

I've had several conversations with friends the past few days where I have admitted that it would be much easier to be on bed rest if I knew it was my baby's health at risk, and not my own... crazy huh? But I bet any mother or mother-to-be would agree. You worry more about the health of your children then your own health (10-fold probably), and that's just not healthy at all.

My Mom keeps beating into my head the fact that if I don't rest my condition will only get worse, and could land me back in the hospital. I don't want that, and yet I find myself thinking up ways to challenge the system, to walk the fine line of bed rest and exertion - - like typing this blog post from my bed (resting yet working, right??).

I tried the whole "do nothing at all, just lie there" thing this morning... It was weird. In the silence of it all, I heard some really strange noises. Do you know that cats can grind their teeth? They can. Mine does. It sounds freaky. Also there is a bird here that's call sounds exactly like the sound my SKYPE makes when a call is coming in. Everytime I heard it today I jumped, thinking someone was ringing me on Skype. My computer makes a strange humming noise when it gets hot and then as it cools down the humming changes into a low buzz that if you listen to long enough, can start to sound like you're underwater. It was windy today too, so you can imagine all the interesting sounds the wind makes blowing up against the house and through the trees. A whole lot of sounds, that while restful, were strangely unsettling, and made me want to DO SOMETHING.

In the end I opted for organizing (from my bed of course). I typed up our family's schedule for Friday - Sunday (boy do we have a lot going on!), and typed up a grocery list for Brice (sorted by aisle of the store of course), and by then, I was ready to, well... rest.