Seven Quick Takes, vol. 19

I've gotten many questions, particularly from my doctors, about how I'm handling bedrest.  For those who may be new to this blog, I have been on bedrest with my twin pregnancy since I was at 21 weeks (currently at 27) following a cerclage surgery (this link explains a normal cerclage, I had a rescue cerclage because I had already started dilating, thus the reason for bedrest).  For this Quick Takes, I thought I'd list some of what I'm doing to keep myself sane and "busy."

~1~



The first thing I decided early on about being home and off my feet for an indeterminate amount of time was that I would get up each morning and have breakfast with my husband before he went to work.  The main reason for this is so that I will sleep at night.  So I get up each morning, have breakfast, and then move to the couch.  In addition to this, no naps.  I make every effort to not nap during the day for the same reason: I want to be able to sleep at night.  Sometimes I doze off anyway, but this has been fairly minimal.  Having a consistent schedule, I think, has been very important.  (Not that I don't sometimes sleep in, I'm not that strong!)

~2~

Everyone seems to think that I must be watching a lot of TV.  I just can't do this.  I would feel like such a lug each day if I just left the TV on and did nothing else, because for me nothing else would happen if the TV was on.  Instead, we watch some morning news during breakfast and I try to turn the TV off around 9am or so.  It'll go back on for the evening news when my husband comes home and we'll generally leave it on watching a variety of programs (news, prime time shows, Food Network) for the rest of the night.  Otherwise, I try not to watch during the day.  Not to say I don't occasionally turn it on to watch a little HGTV or TLC, but not everyday!!

~3~

Email/Facebook/Blogging: This is probably my most frequent activity.  I am much better at keeping up with my email account now and I keep Facebook open for a good part of the day.  My blogging has been a bit more regular now and I have done a better job of keeping up with the blogs I follow as well.  I also check my work email account every few days and answer important questions, delete all the junk mail, and go through all the listserv email.  Checking my work email account does help keep my brain working well, which is nice.

~4~

Get showered and dressed everyday!  I would feel like such a bum if I didn't do this.  It just helps me to feel normal to be showered and dressed each day, not to mention clean.  Sometimes I may not do this until after lunch, but it doesn't matter, as long as it happens I feel better (I skip this maybe only once a week).  I even put shoes on, because to me you're not dressed unless you also have shoes on.  

(I'm the type that always has my shoes on; I'll take them off at someone else's house only if they have a "no shoes" rule, otherwise I keep them on; and I find it so weird (rude even) when someone takes their shoes off automatically when they walk in my house ... ick!)

~5~

I've been trying to listen to more Podcasts since being relegated to my house.  I have five that I am listening to now and I am still several episodes behind on at least four of them.  I'm trying to catch up and listen to at least two a day.  Doesn't help when I fall asleep listening to them, though; sometimes it's hard to avoid those naps!  (Here's a post about the podcasts I am listening to.)

~6~

Read, read, read!  I haven't done as much of this as I thought I would (and wanted to do).  I have several books I want to read and I am reading bits and pieces of them, but not nearly as much as I wanted.  On the other hand, I am doing a fairly good job at keeping up with the reading that comes in the mail: a few magazines, the diocesan paper, and some newsletters.

~7~

I actually do have some professional work I have to do which bedrest can not change.  Some deadlines are just non-negotiable, especially when you are working with a professional journal.  I have a column (my first one, actually) that has a June deadline.  I had given myself a March deadline assuming that if I was going to be off from work earlier than expected it would be sometime after March.  I ever expected to be out starting in mid-February!!  Luckily, remote desktop is a wonderful thing!!  So I have been able to continue working on my column and am actually very close to finishing.  Plus, I need to start working on gathering all the data for 2011 that will be the basis of my next column to be published in 2012.  It's nice to have this distraction and the work isn't all that hard: mostly data gathering, number crunching in spreadsheets, doing some math, creating some charts, and putting it all together.

All these things have kept me sane during these past 6 weeks and hopefully will continue to do so for many more weeks.  I think I would go insane without the Internet!  With it, I am still connected to the world and don't feel like the walls are closing in on me.  I think it is important for those on bedrest to have some consistency in their lives with a variety of things to do, otherwise it most certainly can start to feel like a prison sentence!

For more Quick Takes, check out Jen Fulwiler's blog Conversion Diary!!

Lots of links to many wonderful bloggers doing their own Quick Takes.

Happy Weekend all!!