The meaning of bed rest.

After a few people asked, I realized that not a lot of people really understand what it means that I'm on bed rest. One friend, bless her heart, summed up what I think a lot of people think:

I always thought bed rest meant "Don't do stuff like clean your house or laundry or run around with the other kid". I didn't realize it meant don't even sit up or go get water. I never considered it would mean don't do ANYTHING.

I think the reason it is confusing is because there are different levels of bed rest for different conditions for pregnant women. For me, I have preterm labor which is a fancy way of saying that I'm having contractions and my cervix (the part of a woman's reproductive system that opens to let the baby out at birth) is already progressing. Gravity helps it progress because the weight of the baby and her fluids puts pressure on the cervix. The cervix is already soft (it shouldn't be this early) so the weight will make the cervix dilate and efface even more. By staying horizontal, I keep the weight off of the cervix.

Then, we get to throw in a bunch of rules about what aggravates the contractions (which also progress the cervix). For example, I'm not supposed to keep my hips level so I'm either on my side, or I have a pillow under one hip. The twisting to follow the rules makes my back and neck sore, but I manage. Plus, for now I'm taking the ibuprofen so it only really starts to bother me in the last hour before I take the next dose.

Basically, I can get up to use the bathroom and to get a drink or food. Beyond that, I'm supposed to be laying down. I'm supposed to try to limit myself to no more than 5 vertical minutes per hour. It's OK if I lump them together to get 10 minutes in a row, but mostly I'm supposed to horizontal.

Since we've been through the NICU with Zeke, we take the orders from the doctor pretty seriously. I don't want to do anything that could send us back there. For now, I lay here and we wait.