Bedrest

So, two days of bedrest down, and hopefully about 80 left to go.

I'm supposed to be on complete bedrest rather than just house arrest, although of course I've been experimenting to see what I can and can't do. I sat on the sofa for a couple hours yesterday and chatted with my girl Stacey, with the girls crawling up into my lap and all over me (and ran out of nifedipine to boot). That was good for a round of contractions, although they settled down after I popped a pill and lay down for a while.

My husband the jail warden says no more sitting on the sofa with the girls around, which is just rotten. I'm in the bedroom with the door closed -- can't even leave it open and baby-gated, because the poodles can jump the baby gate, and they will get excited and leap on me. (The dogs in question are 50-lb standard poodles, mind, not your grandmama's teacup Fifi.) Basically, I'm locked up alone in the bedroom, without my children or my dogs, alone with the laptop and the knitting. Doesn't that sound pathetic?

I'm hoping that the contractions will settle down in time, and I'll be able to move around the house a little more. Today, I am having them whenever I stand up, sit up, sit back down after standing up, roll over, get kicked in the cervix by the Lagniappe, or do anything other than stay in a semi-recumbent position. There's no pattern to them yet, but it feels like they're just waiting for a good excuse to fall into one.

There's a lot I wanted to do before the clock ran out on this pregnancy. I was going to make a crib quilt and bumper set for the baby's quilt -- I should show you the play quilt I made for him, it's adorable -- but that involves lots of standing up and cutting fabric, and then lots of sitting at a sewing machine. I have a maternity top cut out and ready to piece together, but I don't need it now, because I won't be leaving the house to speak of. The nursery is nonexistent (well, right now it's an occupied guest bedroom, which is a whole 'nother story), and I guess I won't be picking out paint or window treatments or decorations or furniture. I wanted to get my hair cut next week, and sort out a bunch of old clothes and take them to Goodwill or sell them on eBay, and replace the dead pansies in the flowerbed, and fold and put away the laundry. I planned to go to my sister's wedding next weekend, and my niece's birthday party the week after that, both of which are over an hour's drive away, and held outdoors. We were going to take the girls down to the Coast for the weekend, and try to get away for an evening to see a movie or two. I have business meetings to go to, which will either have to be canceled or held in my living room.

Most of all, though, I have to hang on to the baby for a while longer. I don't think I'm in imminent danger of delivering any time soon -- it's reassuring that I'm not dilating or effacing -- but that's not something I want to put to the test.