Wednesday, December 13, 2006

I got a call last week from a nurse affiliated with my insurance company. He wanted to check on me now that I was at home and to let me know of resources available to me, including his direct phone number if I had any questions. Impressive, I thought.

One of the resources he told me about is Sidelines - an organization for women dealing with high risk pregnancies. I forgot about it until now and in checking out the website, I found this great list of Bed Rest’s Silver Lining: 15 Benefits of Taking Pregnancy Lying Down. The whole list applies, but my favorites are:

2. He can run the house. (He no longer puts the first load of wash in the machine and leaves it to mold. He regularly fills--and empties--the dishwasher, notices when were out of milk, creates a shopping list, hits more than one store to get the goods, buys in bulk and looks out for sales.) [This was actually true before the bed rest.]

10. I relish my babys increasingly zealous kick-boxing because I know hes well and happy, and that matters more than anything.

11. Forget any worries that my new husband loves me conditionallyfor the sex, or how I take care of business around the house, for my fanatical energy, or for my lithe body. These are a distant memory and still he treats me like his bride.

12. No doubts left about how hell handle Real Life with me. As our honeymoon giddiness has been replaced by his holding me from 3 to 5 a.m. while I await crisis-level bleeding, as well as preparing my meals and cleaning up after me, weve cruised seamlessly through a decades worth of marital developmental stages in less than a year.

13. Improbably, he still makes me feel like a honeymooner, despite my girth, exhaustion and periodic fear. Curling up together on Bed Rest Central beats a night at a Parisian café with a new lover. I feel this exquisite bittersweet appreciation of each moment we spend together thats intensified by the knowledge that a hospital bed may beckon at any moment.

14. I am finally ready to have my baby. All this lying around finally put a stop to my obsessive worries about handling the transition to motherhood, leaving in its wake the searing desire to get on with toughening up my nipples and changing diapers for the kick-boxer Im carrying.

15. Im actually looking forward to being liberated by childbirth. While my fellow expectant mothers anticipate losing mobility and independence, I cant wait to be off bed rest and carry my baby and his hundreds of accoutrements through the house and out into the world. Ill be free!

Flipped the clicker to catch Martha’s show and managed to catch Regis and Susan Lucci singing I’ll Be Home for Christmas.

No, thanks.

She was in Annie Get Your Gun on Broadway, how?

Gack.

Rob the Llama Butcher got stumped by his eldest last night:

… the Llama-ette wanted to know more about him [Satan]. Where did he come from? Was he always bad? Oh, no, I said. While we call him Satan now, in the beginning his name was Lucifer and he was the greatest angel in Heaven. “So what happened?” she asked. Well, I said, he got too ambitious and thought he could run Heaven better than God, so he tried to take over and God threw him into hell in punishment. He tries now to get his revenge by inflicting as much wickedness on God’s world as he can.

Then the gel hit me with the theological stumper. “Well, if he wasn’t bad to begin with and everything else God made was good, where did Satan’s evil come from?”

Erm.....

I’ve never been satisfied with any answer I could come up with for this question, either. It’s one of those theological things that I have found difficult to explain. If you think you have a good answer for Robert, go forth and share your wisdom in his comments.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

I like to think that I’m hip and “get” most things. But there are a few things I just don’t “get” and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is one of those things.

Now, maybe if I had read the book, I’d get the movie better. Maybe I would find the book to be ironic and witty and all that those of you who have read the book think about said book. Who knows? I haven’t read the book. And while I knew that the movie was kind of nuts, I guess I didn’t expect what we got.

All this doesn’t mean that I didn’t like the movie. There were parts where I laughed. But overall I found the whole thing absurd. Maybe that’s the point?

Anyway, it’s a mixed review. I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it and I might watch it again and my curiosity is piqued enough that I might consider reading the book. So how on earth do I rank this one? A reluctant 3 stars out of 5.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Funny thing how we came to watch Shall We Dance?. The wife of the couple who leads our church small group mentioned that it was a favorite of theirs when she visited me in the hospital one day. The next time she came to the hospital, she brought a copy. The next day when her husband came by, he brought their copy along with another movie. So clearly it is a favorite of both of them.

I had avoided the movie because of JLo - at the time that it came out I was tired of hearing about Jen-Ben and decided that I would not watch another JLo movie. Beau and I watched it when I was in the hospital. We both liked it - it’s a charming little movie that I can recommend if you’re looking for a light couple of hours. The dancing is pretty good, the story is sweet. It’s billed as a romantic comedy, but it’s really not that. There’s romance and there are funny moments. It’s hard to categorize, really.

Shall We Dance? gets 3 stars out of 5. 

Click here.

I’m going to try to post most pregnancy stuff over at WC, as I have been. The bed rest stuff may move over there, too. I have baby shower stuff to share, too and I’m debating where to post that. Let me know what you prefer.

I’m starting to get a little restless. I think if I didn’t have the computer I would go nuts. So I’m thankful for that. I’ve been able to accomplish a lot just by having access to the internet (read: finish Christmas shopping).

One physical problem that’s cropped up is my bad hip. Turns out that laying around isn’t what it likes, so there’s a challenge. I have not been able to figure out if there’s a specific position that makes it better or worse.

I’m watching way too much of The Food Network. The bad thing about this is that I get inspired to make something, but I can’t because I’m trapped in bed. Fortunately, Beau is great at humoring the frustrated cook in my and has let me dictate what gets cooked. He made a fantastic pot roast in the crock pot this weekend. He made chocolate chip cookies. And he’s going to bake my grandmother’s delicious oatmeal cookies later this week for me.

We have watched a couple movies - reviews are coming.

Friday, December 08, 2006

So it’s much better being at home, but it’s still really tedious. I’m happy to be in my own bed and using my own bathroom. And to be eating Beau’s cooking - he’s so much better than the cooks at the hospital. Although as hospital food goes, most of it was pretty good.

We brought the home computer up from the basement yesterday. Not knowing how much longer I’ll have to wait for the laptop from work, I reached the point where it was worth it to me to bring it up for this short time. So Beau unplugged the cable from the wall to add the splitter and when he replugged it we had no signal to the cable box or the modem. A quick call to the cable company confirmed that there was no signal at all and we were assured that a cable guy would come to the house between 3-5pm.

I have to admit to a mini-meltdown at that point. I was frustrated and feeling so useless and all I wanted was access to the internet so that I could the simplest things like manage my bank account, online Christmas shopping, and email. I snapped at Beau, who went downstairs in retreat and then I took a shower where I cried out my frustration. Beau came back up when I got out of the shower, I apologized and explained why I was crying. He just hugged me, which was the perfect response.

Anyway, I felt better for the cry and whiled away the next couple of hours playing a CD in the computer and finishing up our Christmas letter. I was looking at the pictures stored on the computer when the cable guy arrived at 3:30. He checked the signal to the house, which was fine and then went into the attic to discover that the wiring up there was sketchy. He fixed that and then the cable outlet in the bedroom and we have a better signal than we had before. He was amazed we had a signal for as long as we did. And now I’m connected and happy as a clam.

I get out of the house every other day for an outpatient iron treatment at the hospital for the next couple of weeks. Turns out I’m so anemic that this is the required treatment. I’m being given Venofer, which I got as a diluted IV drip when I was in the hospital, but as a syringe push as outpatient. I had the first treatment on Wednesday and it took a little longer than it should because I had a serious hot flash. The tech stopped pushing the drug and paused for several minutes to let me cool down with a cold cloth and a cup of ice water. I’m hoping today’s treatment goes better now that I know what to expect. Oh, and take a look at the vial on the website linked - that stuff is coal black in the syringe.

Baby is doing well - he’s still really active and busy in there. Beau is a prince among men. And we have gotten so much support and volunteer assistance from the folks in our small group. I talked to our next door neighbor for a while yesterday - she’s going to come sit with me while Beau is at the small group shower on Sunday. We’re being well taken care of and are so grateful for how God has provided peace and comfort as well as great friends and family.

Thanks to you all who have been and continue to pray and for your encouraging comments on the earlier posts. Beau printed them and brought them to me in the hospital - it was an encouragement to see how many people were praying. Thanks to Jaynee, too, for posting my ramblings left on her office voice mail in the middle of the night.

[via Robbo Llama Butcher]

Thursday, December 07, 2006

My brother-in-law showed us this video over Thanksgiving. I was telling my Dad about it the other day. So here it is.

[Hilarity via Thinkling Jared]

After a brief technical snafu this afternoon, I’m now online from Bedrest Central.

More to come…

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Posted by Jaynee on behalf of Jen

I’m home!  The doctors let me loose yesterday afternoon and I was able to get a good night’s sleep in my own bed last night.  What bliss!

Thanks again for all the great comments - especially about telecommuting from bed.  I got word that my broadband card arrived at the office and as soon as I receive it at the house I’ll be hooking up my laptop computer and will be able to get online again.  I’m bored bored BORED, so I’m happy I’ll be “connected” again soon.

Thanks for all the continued prayers.

Friday, December 01, 2006

A post from Jen, as typed in by Jaynee:

The Good:  I have excellent compassionate nurses.
The Bad: The bedpan

We watched “The Right Stuff” over T’giving weekend and we laughed over the scene when Alan Shepherd was on the capsule and really wanted to go to the bathroom but NASA was worried about what the introduction of liquids would do to the capsule.  In the end, he was allowed to pee - and peed in his suit.  He went into space and came back and spent that whole time sitting in his own pee.  I now sort of know what that is like.

The Good: The TV
The Bad: The TV

The TV is outstanding because it is right on the arm connected to the bed, but the choice of channels is not the best.  And sidenote?  Daytime tv sucks.  However, I am now armed with my mother’s DVD player which will probably go into use this weekend since I’ll be visitor-free due to my shower, which Beau is attending on my behalf.

The Good: Hearing the baby’s heartbeat several times a day on the monitor
The Bad:  I’m constantly poked and prodded

Temperature, blood pressure, counting kicks after I eat - you name it, it is done/requested.

The Ugly: No shower

It ranks right up there with the whole “bedpan” thing from earlier.  You see where we’re going with that.

The Good: Encouraging friends
The Bad: Boredom

I have received so many visitors, calls and flowers from friends which has been such a blessing.  However, in between all the visitors, calls and flowers is interminable boredom and nothing to do but surf the bad daytime tv.

I read through Psalm 77 on Wednesday night and for that night it was the perfect encouragement.  Last night when I woke up in the middle of the night and read Psalm 42 and it also fit the perfect fit for where I was last night while reading.  We’re just trusting that God is in control and that He is not surprised by this situation even though we were.  He has a reason why I have to go on bedrest at this point, but I’m going to do what the doctors say to keep the baby safe and trust that God is in Control.

As an update to my condition - this morning the resident came in and said the ultrasound from yesterday confirmed that the placenta did separate from the uterus which caused the bleeding, but it was a small separation and she confirmed that if I have no more bleeding over the next five days I’ll be able to go home.

One of my OBs came in after that and said that since my bleeding had stopped, I could use a bedside commode instead of a bedpan.  That may be TMI, but it’s monumental when you are bored out of your mind during the day.

Lastly, the perinatologist said I am anemic and in order to boost my iron they are putting me on a 3-week IV drip for iron and I’ll have to take another daily shot similar to an insulin shot but it’s a hormone that will boost the hemoglobin.  That’s something I can administer to myself even after I get home, which is a relief.

Thanks for the comments from yesterday - Beau printed the comments from yesterday and brought them to me.