Bed Rest
It's not me who is on bed rest, everybody. I just wanted to say that up front, lest y'all think some kind of miracle has happened. It's my friend who is confined to her cushy prison. She is expecting twins in November, and her doctor has ordered very strict bedrest--flat on her back, basically. She can be up in a semi-reclined position for short periods of time. She can get up to pee, and, presumably, to shower. She can go to the doctor. That's it. This is a woman who used to work in a high power DC law firm. In a word, she's going bonkers.
Also, she needs some help. I'm going to help her out for a few days, and I was hoping to come armed with an arsenal of activities. But, sadly, I'm not all that creative. Help, please. If you were flat on your back (or if you have been flat on your back), what would you like to do? And if you had a friend around (who does have to bring her 4 year old, by the way), what would you want to do with her?
Any and all ideas are welcome.
posted by Heather O. at 8/30/2006 11:56:00 AM
20 Comments:
Get the whole box set of something fab that you never saw the whole thing of (bad sentence construction there, but you know what I mean)...like Buffy (I was talking about that show earlier today with a friend).
Let's see, I was on bedrest with my first baby, but it only lasted a week since my water broke. But the boredome comes on fast. I don't know how much you can do being flat on your back, but here are some ideas:
Knitting
Anne of Green Gables
Email
A friend brought over a bunch of dvds and magazines
Talking on the phone
food
books (The books on CD idea is a great one)
I have a friend who just had her baby after being on bedrest for 6 weeks. She said the best thing was just to have someone to talk to. Laying flat on your back you don't get much interaction with anybody. Also, being pregnant and not being able to reach your toes anyway, a mini pedicure, or "spa" treatment is always fun. Face maskes, exfoliating your hands and feet. Whatever you can find at the local store.
I so vote for the pedicure. And also the movies. And something funny. There must be laughing.
I might suggest renting a gaming console like an x-box, or nintendo and a few games. Most video rental places will offer both the consoles and the games for renting. There are plenty of non-shooter games that she might like. It's much more interactive than a lot of stuff, and all she needs is to be able to see the TV and hold a controller.
Netflix
Also, most libraries have a delivery service to shut-ins, etc.
A laptop and access to blogging sites. :)
When my cousin was on bedrest, I would go to help out with her other daughter (I'm assuming this is your friend's first pregnancy, though) and just so she would have someone to talk to (like others have already mentioned).
Although this may sound lame, when I was recuperating from pneumonia, the YW in the ward came over and cleaned my house. That made my day --knowing that my house was clean even though I was down.
my younger sister was on bed rest last year w/twins also, she was down for about 3 months (I think, it seeemed so much longer !!!) And her favorite thing was to have someone to just talk to. Her friends and our family would try and make sure that she had a visitor if possible every day or almost every day, she said that helped alot. And we would try and bring her lunch a couple of times a week. I second the house cleaning, some of her close friends came over and spent hours one day cleaning her house and putting her babies room together for her.
The first thing that came to my mind was a target on the ceiling and some sort of gun with those little suction cup darts or something. Or maybe one of those velcro dart boards. You and J could fetch her darts and you all could have a tournament?
Oh man bed rest sucks.
I'd definitely recommend taking her a laptop and wifi! It saved me thru 3 months of bedrest with #3 daughter.
And the books on tape or Ipod, etc. is a WONDERFUL idea.
Games got old - fast. At least, they did for me. 0_0
The more you're in bed, the more tired you get and for me, it even became a chore to answer the phone. I was too tired. Funny how that works. But if she's more energized arrange times for ppl to call and surprise her!
Another fun thing - invite her friends over for bed-lunch (my gf's did it for me once a month - LOVED it!!!)
If you can find a satin pillowcase, that will really help with the awfulness of what will happen to her hair lying on it all day. A hairdresser friend of mine saved me that way.
Speaking of beauty stuff - spa in bed might be fun! Do a facial - do her toes and fingernails - it's a great time to deep condition or moisturize since you're not in a hurry for it to soak in. :)
When it came right down to it - what kept me sane was the Net and TV. And loads of sleep. I slept and slept and slept. And sleeeeeeeeeept.
I did the bedrest thing for four of my five pregnancies, the last time for nearly 4 months. That was '83, long before laptops and wi-fi, but since they wanted me on my left side, not my back, my husband kindly rigged up a low table by my waterbed, and set up our H-89 computer(16k of RAM!). I wrote, typing one-handed. It turned out to be one of my more productive periods (I know, awful pun) since those three articles turned out to be the only ones I succeeded in selling during my brief career as a freelance writer.
My favorite day of the week was Wednesday, when a crew of RS sisters would invade my home to cook and clean and do laundry. I craved adult company.
One other thing I really appreciated was mail. My sisters took turns mailing me daily little activity packages -- joke books, logic puzzles, paperback romance novels, simple counted cross stitch kits, a roll of lifesavers, paperdolls, anything to brighten my day.
As it happened, I spent most of my time facing the sliding doors of my bedroom closet. My visiting teacher turned it into a constantly rotating display of cards and kids' artwork.
Hope these ideas are helping!
I remembered one more thing - MAGAZINES! They were perfect! I could read a few pages - sleep - read a few pages - talk on the phone - you get the idea.
Bite sized media was awesome. As were catalogs. Ohh - how I loved me some catalogs. Someone brought me the huge Christmas ABC Distributing catalog and I remember being in heaven for hours. I became a Lillian Vernon junikie - ROFL!! :)
I was on bed rest for 8 weeks, find someone who knows how to knit and have them teach her because heaven knows if she's going to make anything crafty there won't be time when she has twins. Any celebrity tabloid is money too. I even had someone shave my legs for me, and have a nice ol' pedicure. (Make sure whoever does it knows where not to touch.)
(From Vacation, if you can still call it that!) There are some great suggestions here. When I was on bedrest with both Eric and Abby, I went bonkers too. There is only so much daytime tv anyone can handle....
1. Learn to knit- fun, productive and creative.
2. One very nice thing a friend did for me was give me a pedicure and foot massage. It was hard to let her, but was wonderful once I got over my pride.
3. Another friend came over with pre-cooked breakfast, pancakes, boxes of cereal, milk and homemade cookies for my kids- it was tender and very thoughtful, and nothing had any strong smell for nauseated mama.
4. Go to the library and pick out all kinds of different, funky and fun books about anything and everything.
5. A girlie-pack is awesome too- another friend sent over some gossipy magizines like People, Us, some chocolate, fun nail polish, favorite muchies and yummy smelling stuff...
6. Another friend came over and did all my kids laundry. This was tough for me to allow, but seriously, was a blessing to my husband, since I was unable. Another dose of humble pie, thanks.
7. Offer to paint the baby's room and get the crib and other personal touches she cannot take care of...
8. Offer to do her grocery shopping for her- If she is like me, her husband is trying to pick up the slack, but he is feeling pretty overloaded too. A friend came each week to my house, took my grocery list, and returned with everything my family needed... Again, hard on the pride, but very good for my family.
Be home and back on board next week!
I was in the hospital on bedrest for 12 weeks before my son was born(and 6 weeks at home before that!) It was HELL.
My suggestion: books on tape, frequent phone calls from friends, and visits. I loved visitors, even if they had small children with them. It's just so nice to have someone to talk to!
My VERY favorite thing? My visiting teacher came 3x a week to wash my hair (I was only allowed 3 QUICK showers a week.) It made a world of difference in how I felt.
Kate
http://babybrody.typepad.com
I can't believe no one mentioned this - Sudoku!
I think knitting was mentioned, but without someone to guide you that can be pretty hard to figure out. I vote for crocheting, the chain stitch is easy to learn from a book and she could easily accomplish a blanket for the babes.
Embroidery has become my new hobby, that is very easy to do from the bed.
I second the magazines- she'll read through them fast so see if you can contact your library or the magazines yourself to get back issues for her to read
Books...Wicked, Confessions of and Ugly Stepsister-both easy entertaining reads.
A tea party in bed. oohh...make it like a party. A pregnancy shower with activity gifts for the mom, not baby gifts.
I was on bedrest for almost two months (would have been almost three if my water hadn't broke). I read the all the Harry Potter's, Da Vinci Code, and Angels and Demons. THen I did do SUdoku, and I ran out on the way to the doctor and got a CD-Rom that teaches you how to knit. By the time my son was born I had a little hat for him.
Thanks, everybody. These are all great ideas. Keep 'em coming.
There's a two-person word game called Jotto that you only need paper and pencils for - you each choose a 5 letter word and you have to try and figure out the other person's word by taking turns guessing various 5 letter words and telling how many letters are correct. For example - if my word is CHAIR and you guess ARMED, you have 2 right. And by process of elimination you figure out the word - whoever gets it first wins. It's hard to explain - you can email me at stephsterr at gmail dot com if you want better instructions. It might be good for her if she wants to do something with her brain and is tired of sudoku and crosswords! Good luck!
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