Bed Rest

I was laying in bed yesterday at 8:00 am on a Wednesday watching the birds play tag with each other outside my balcony doors. By that time, I'd taken a long soak in my bathtub, exfoliated, and enjoyed a simple breakfast of coffee and toast... Followed by lots and lots of water. It would have been the most simply perfect start to my day, if it hadn't been for the crushing sinus headache that precipitated all this peaceful me-time. I have been struggling with an unpleasant head cold for about a week now. The day before yesterday, I was almost starting to feel like myself agin and had resumed the normal pace of life. I did house work in the early morning; the gym after dropping Norm off a Pre-K; a tiny nap after lunch; followed by laundry and dinner prep in the late afternoon. All and all, I was feeling pretty great about having beaten this virus off with liberal use of the neti pot, ginger lemon tea, and a little bit of rest. Ha! Yesterday I was back to square one.


At three o'clock yesterday morning I awoke with the most skull-crushing sinus headache I have ever felt. Nooooo! It was brutal. If I had been alone in the house, without others to disturb, I would have taken a steaming hot shower. As it was, I got out of bed and settled for hot tea followed by a hot rice sock across the face. The morning found me sleep deprived and miserable. My gallant husband took the day off work so that I could crawl back into my hole and disappear from my motherly duties. I love him. The day passed slowly in a haze of pain. All I could do is pray for relief and wonder how I was going to survive all the to-dos I felt like this week was surely going to entail.

And yet a miracle has happened. Despite napping away yesterday, I still managed to fall asleep before 10 o' clock... I only woke up four times to pee, and once when a toddler crawled into bed between my Smoochy and I. And this morning, the headache is gone! All that remains of my misery is a runny nose! Easy-peasy. It is taking all my willpower not to jump up and do the laundry, vacuum the upstairs floors, hang a few straggling pictures, and the half a dozen other tasks I feel that need doing. I. Want. To clean. But, I'm not. I'm sitting on the couch in my PJs at 9:15 drinking tea and writing this post as a means of remaining stationary. Thank God, it is raining. Because otherwise I'd be with Normy on a school field trip to the zoo and Georgie would be playing at a friend's house. However, the gray and dismal sky made it an easy decision to clear the calendar. And from the sounds coming from the playroom, the toddlers don't seem to mind the change of plans.


I won't even go into how lame it is that I have to feel like I'm dying before I'll slow down enough to take care of myself. That's just the way it is. I ENJOY my domestic work. The real drudgery is done by machines; and the sorting, folding, and reshelving actually acomplished by my own energy takes very little time and frees my mind to wander. I find so much room for creativity in my day. In the kitchen, with my children, when I am crafting... It is all a vehicle forself expression. Well, I've written about all this before.


True, there isn't much original thinking going on in my little brain these days. I've been pretty much fixated on one major theme: When will this baby come? How will labor be? Will it be longer than with Georgia? What will it be like at the hospital? Which midwife will be on-call? And on and on and on. It isn't very interesting, even to me... But I just can't help it! Even knowing everything I do about birth; even though both my babies have come right at 40 weeks; I still couldn't resist thinking the day I turned 37 weeks: "Will I go into labor tonight?" He he he. Of course not, but I packed a little bag just in case, and I wrote down the numbers for the midwives, our Doula, and the GP we are using who will act as Lola's pediatrician and hopefully discharge us at 6 hours postpartum. Of corse deep down I know I still have about two weeks to go, or I would have dug the infant car seat out of the basement already. Patience. I'm trying to be patient.

It takes such zen to simply live life and enjoy each moment, rather than wish away the days to get to some greener pasture... especially at 38 weeks pregnant.

So, this has been a snooze of a post. Just a page out of my journal really. But, then everything I do right now seems a little like killing time. I cannot wait to meet my daughter. It is all consuming. Of course, I am enjoying these final days of being big and beautiful as opposed to big and floppy! I am loving time with Normy and Georgia. But, I am ready. Ready to birth again. Ready for the next adventure. Ready for my sister to visit and ready for my hubby's paternity leave. Ready for my parents to be here. Ready for lazy days spent cuddling a newborn and eating food that other people have cooked! But mostly just ready to be totally and hopelessly in love with my sweet-smelling squishy baby. Can you blame me? Sounds pretty wonderful doesn't it?

The following are pictures of Normy playing nicely while Georgia pitched her fit:

I knew it was time to fix lunch and get her napping. Apparently I missed my window. After fixing sandwiches and cutting fruit I went down to the play room to find this:

I just shut off the light and covered her with a blanket. Two hours later she's still down there sleeping!