Day 11 at Home

Tuesday, June 18th
Eleventh day of bedrest at home

I've come to the realization that I could stand to mix things up a bit (ha!) in terms of things to put on this blog.  I mean, yeah, I'm still going to blather about all of the thing going on in my confined little space, but I think it would be more interesting to read later on if I left little things to look back on laugh at, or reminders to myself or something along those lines.

Also quite random, I'm realizing that I'm losing track of the date and my number of days at home so far...sometimes it feels like a lot, sometimes not!  Is today Tuesday?  Yeah I guess it is!  Only way that I deduce that it's either Tuesday or Thursday is that Mike is at the office today and not working from home.  At least that's something.

Anyway, something that I've thought about recently is trying to prepare for the unexpected.  With the idea that there's less to scurry around for if a particular situation were to arise, and the superstitious part of me saying that if I prepare, it will keep something crazy from happening.  Wishful thinking, but I'm going to plan anyway.

Today's planning has to do with what happens if I have to go to the hospital for more monitoring/another stay before the baby is born.  I was not at ALL prepared for the last hospital stay, but I did have a mental list of things that are essential (for me, at least) to grab before heading to the hospital.  But I can improve on that...so here goes:

Amy's Must-Haves Hospital List

Cell Phone Charger
Laptop/Charger

PJ Pants and/or Shorts (for when not wearing hospital gown)
Tank top, loose shirt, or otherwise (same)
Clean underwear

Hair brush
Deodorant
Toothbrush/toothpaste
Contacts/case/saline solution

Now, at the risk of having that "moved in" feeling at the hospital, I guess there's a few other things that might have been nice to have with the last hospital stay. And mind you, I didn't have everything on the above list with me...most notably missing were the hair brush, deodorant and toothbrush/toothpaste.  So here's the list of "if you can grab it/it's in the bag, bring it!" items.

Amy's Optional Hospital Items List

Camera (will explain later)
Batteries
A movie to watch/something to watch it on
Cables to watch said movie in room
Craft interest of the day/week

Wet wipes
Nice smelling body spray
A razor

Snacks and drinks of various types (for Mike)

OK, I put the camera and batteries thing down JUST in case a hospital stay turns baby delivery.  Our cell phones have cameras that will do in a pinch, but I'd rather have the good one.  The movie thing...it's tempting to just say "oh, bring the Roku", which would be fine, but I don't know how well it works on hospital wifi.  And with too many options, and nothing in particular picked out in advance, the tendency is to spend a lot of time wondering what we should see.  If we keep in mind what we want to watch in advance, then we can!  Obviously, having the cables to hook up whatever movie we want to watch to the TV in the room is another thing.  I seem to recall the TV in the room having the standard A/V cables, but it might have an HDMI in (I never was up that close to it to see).  Figure we can watch it on the laptop if needbe too.

Crafts.  Ha!  I always think that I'm going to have loads of time to do that sort of thing, but the time I tried to do Daniel's birth information cross-stitch thing in the hospital, I didn't get very far.  Wishful thinking, but one of these times I'll get something completed!  In any case, cross stitch, crochet, and my chainmail stuff (the 3 C's!) pack pretty lightly and they're a good thing to keep occupied.

I put the toiletry things on there as not MUST haves, but in hindsight they would have been nice.  I was sweating like a pig (both this last trip, and I remember doing the same after both Daniel and Jared were born).  A few times the nurses had wet wash clothes to wipe down with, but occasionally I though it'd be handy to have baby wipes or something just to get the yuck off.  Body spray, same concept.  Razor...well...I've moved past worrying about being Sasquatch or something, and my hair doesn't really grow THAT fast.  Nice to have though.

Well, now that the lists are done, they're now handily online in case it does come down to throwing stuff in a bag (vs having it already in there).

Now onto today.  Pretty good, again (I say that all the time!).  I went kind of in and out of sleep when Mike had to get up at around 4:30, just checking to see if he had come back to bed or not.  So, I slept better than he did...hoping he gets a better sleep tonight!  Cramping really hasn't been there, but I'm noticing a few more tightening spells.  Still not a lot, definitely not more than 6 times an hour, and not as intense or frequent as they were before this whole thing started.  I do question myself, though, because the tightening happens in one of three combinations.

1.  Baby stretches and tightens the side she's on (usually right)
2.  Baby moves or stretches, and my whole belly goes tight
3.  I can't detect the baby moving, or she might move a tiny bit, but my whole belly goes tight.

So, I can't tell what is triggering it (is it the baby?  did she cause it or is she reacting to it?).

Mood is pretty even today...I'm feeling a bit productive with grading today, and I have visitors lined up for possibly tomorrow evening and on Thursday/Friday during the day.  That, and tomorrow is doctor's appointment day!  Until next time!