Back from the Antepartum Floor

I have not forgotten to blog; I just didn’t have access to my laptop in the hospital, and I spent most of my time there trying not to give birth and sleeping.  I did learn several exciting lessons, so I thought I’d get back into the blogging groove by sharing them.

When you have Celiac, you should not have TV      

           

After having hours of nothing to do and access to television, I now remember why we don’t have any channels on our TV.  There is no way to control that at 2 o’clock on a random Tuesday I was exposed to sex, cursing, and just overall crude nastiness.  I cannot imagine my kids being able to flip through this.  Add to that I am not a rom-com girl, so 24 hour marathons of The Vow, The Notebook, Knotting Hill and the like made me want to puke.  However, I discovered a new reason I had never even thought of:  commercials advertising food none of us can eat.  Granted, I know what’s in that junk and I don’t want to put it in my body, but it still was not awesome watching Braum’s sundaes, pizza with cheese rolled crust, and Whataburger sandwiches flaunting their goods at me for seven days.  It made me realize how easy it must be to fall into the trap of thinking eating like that is normal when you see it all day.  And I am so glad my kids don’t even know that food exists. 

Know when to say no

The hospital I was in was awesome, but it’s a hospital.  They prescribe medicine for things; I generally just drink water, take long walks, up my vitamin D intake.  I realized quickly that if I did not say no to every medicine offered, I could end up leaving with a drug dependency.  When I couldn’t sleep, I was offered sedatives; I was offered stool softener, just in case; I was offered pain meds.  I must say, I’m not sure it’s wise to offer someone super strong sleep meds and then offer them something to make them poop, but lucky for whoever cleans the sheets, I said no to them. 

Stick to your dreams, even if they don’t make sense in the context

That being said, I was pleasantly surprised when my refusal to take unnecessary drugs was honored, especially since the request may have sounded odd.

Nurse:  Your contractions are right on top of each other.  Are you in pain?

Me:  Uh, yeah, everywhere.

Nurse:  Let me go get the pain medication.

Me: NO!  I am going for natural childbirth.

Okay, so everyone was actually hoping I was not birthing, and I had just signed a consent form for a c-section, but this made total sense in my mind, so I tried through my pain to explain it to the nurse.

Me:  Uh, okay, I know I’m hopefully not actually birthing, but I always wanted a natural vaginal delivery.  This is probably my last shot to get as close as I can without experiencing the whole thing.  I’m taking it.  No pain meds for me or the girls.

   

The nurse was awesome.  She did not laugh at me, she got me heating pads and pillows and built a kind of fort where I could roll into comfortable positions while warming my lower back.  It was appreciated.  (Also, I may never be able to claim my children found their way out the good old birth canal, but I have been contracting for over a month daily and have possibly five more weeks to go.  If anyone asks if I’ve been through labor, I feel somewhat entitled to say yes.)

If you’re getting tired of bedrest, talk to the NICU doctor

I can do bedrest, but I’m not stupid.  We’re three weeks in, and it is not easy.  I was trying to mentally prepare myself for the weeks to come and asking the Lord to help me get in the right mindset for this.  God answers prayers because the same day the NICU doctor dropped by to prepare us for what the future would look like if the girls came early.  When he finished telling us we were probably past the point of brain bleeds and blindness, he began discussing lung issues the girls could have.  That hit a little too close to home; D and I knew all the terminology from Sammy’s battle with pneumonia and were able to recall some visuals to go with the descriptions.  Then he talked about blood sugar issues.  When the doctor left the room, I told Dennis to hot glue me to the couch on my left side if I started rolling over too much.  I am totally committed to rocking bedrest as long as I can.

Never forget how good you have it

I missed my kids and my husband.  I am always grateful for them, but returning home after seven days, I know I’m not grateful enough.  They met me at the door with hugs and screams.  We cuddled all day.  I bedrested on the kids’ floor for a while when they slept last night just to hear them breathe.  I’m a blessed girl.