Watch out folks - this is going to be a very whiny post. It's all worth it if it keeps my little girl healthy, but that doesn't make it fun! In some ways, it was easier when I was in the hospital.
Tom is being wonderfully supportive, but he can't really afford to wait on me hand and foot, and I would feel bad about asking him, anyway. He has gone out and gotten me some very nice tables and a lap desk, so I can at least use the computer and eat fairly comfortably lying down. But it's a big pain for him to have to come downstairs from his office all the time during the day to refill my water and serve me all my meals/snacks/etc. Plus, I'm now sufficiently hemmed in by tables at the couch that it's getting a little tricky to slide in and out to go to the bathroom. It's not as if it was easy to get up from lying down with this big belly before!
I've had a bad cold for several days (slowly getting better, finally), so lying all the way down is uncomfortable because my nose clogs up quickly. I can sort of prop my head up, but then my neck gets stiff. Lying all the way down also makes my normal pregancy heartburn worse. I'm supposed to be lying on my side, rather than my back, as much as possible, but of course that makes it difficult to type or to knit, and exacerbates the neck problem. I'm getting better at arranging pillows to prop me up appropriately, but the hospital bed was definitely easier for moving from one position to another.
I guess the biggest problem is just that I'm bored. I'm not much of a TV watcher, and you can only read for so many hours a day (or at least I can). A fast net connection is a help (having a wireless connection at home is great!), and I'm playing computer games and shopping online, but I can see an awful lot of empty hours between me and the end of this process.
I can tell that all this lying down seems to be helping, at least. My blood pressures have stayed fairly low (although not quite as low as yesterday or as in the hospital). On the other hand, I checked it right before and right after walking to the bathroom this afternoon, and my systolic pressure went up 10 points and my diastolic went up 20! They came back down again after I laid back down for a while, but clearly walking more than absolutely required is not a good idea.
We did get a cool toy in the mail today - Mom's good friend Cliff had a very nice fetal Doppler (that he got to listen to underwater sounds in his backyard pond). He shipped it off for us to borrow, so we can hear the baby's heartbeat at home now. It's pretty fun, although I don't want to use it too often. The baby always seems to get agitated about ultrasounds and NSTs, so I don't want to be sending sound waves in there all the time. But it's neat to be able to hear her.
Posted by Elizabeth Nugent at February 21, 2004 07:13 PMWhining is TOTALLY allowed :o)
As for snacks & such, just an idea, DH could pack a cooler for you to have couchside. Might help.
I hear your aches on being on your side, and the heartburn is a killer. I was always served "after-dinner mints" (AKA Tums) after my meals LOL Also, I did eat sitting upright, and stayed that way for a little time after eating.
Typing sideways is no fun, eh?? I never did get good at it LOL
Take care! Tummy pats!!!
On the topic of heartburn, I've heard that calcium can sometimes increase stomach acid, so some antacids are questionably helpful. I've found that Gaviscon works relatively well for me. I've also heard that peppermint relaxes one of the muscles holding the stomach "closed" (don't recall if lower, upper, or both), so is sometimes good to avoid. Those two I've heard from doctors. The "old wive's tale" that I don't know how verifiably true it is would be that ginger is calming on the stomach. Haven't noticed anything personally and wouldn't know why, but you can get ginger candy of one sort or another in Chinatown and at Whole Foods (probably other places).
Granted, this is a general acid reflux condition as opposed to induced by pregnancy, so if there are differences I wouldn't be aware of them.
I wish you good luck in your bed rest. While I love sitting around doing essentially nothing for a day or so, I've found that extended bouts are surprisingly difficult for me.
Posted by: Bill Coate at February 22, 2004 01:15 AMWhining is totally allowed. First no dancing and now this! I know if it were me being confined to bed would cause enough frustration to keep my bloodpressure up. At least its working for you.
I do have one suggestion though: crochet. Unlike knitting you can crochet on your side quite easily. I even have a book of patterns for crocheted baby clothes that I'd be happy to loan you. Let me know if you're interested -- or at least desperate enough to try. :-)
Posted by: The Other Elizabeth at February 22, 2004 11:34 AMThis sounds like a lot of hassle to go through in order to keep one's BP down -- by which I mean that there should be easier ways, not that keeping BP down under the circumstances isn't a worthwhile goal (obviously). (Now, see, Tom, there's a sentence that should be taken out and shot.) But I take it fetuses don't react well to blood-pressure medications? Have you considered leeches?
(Doesn't lying on the couch sound better now?)
Posted by: Bear at February 22, 2004 01:02 PMYes, lying on the couch sounds better than leeches!
The problem with blood pressure medications in this situation is that they may end up just masking the underlying problems. If my pressures get too high, it could lead to eclampsia, characterized by seizures and possible coma. Blood pressure medicines don't seem to prevent this, although there are anticonvulsants that can help if I get into the danger zone.
Posted by: Elizabeth Nugent at February 22, 2004 04:12 PMHow curious. One would think that if high blood pressure were the problem, BP meds would be one solution -- but this is actually one of a few cases in which, it seems, they're not (like, some BP meds lower BP substantially but don't seem to decrease the risk of death from coronary artery disease, which is kind of like not eating your ice cream cone but getting fat anyway: a big ol' raised finger from the sky.) Also strange that few if any of the causes of eclampsia listed in that article would be alleviated by lowered blood pressure or bed rest.
Whenever I start pointing these things out to doctors, they demonstrate an impressively large variety of ways to say, in essence, "Okay, we don't know why it works, but it works, so shut up."
Posted by: Bear at February 26, 2004 01:20 AM