Bed Rest or House Arrest?
As soon as I found out we were expecting twins a lot of things changed.
At the 12 week mark my doctor’s visits to the GP became trips to the OB. I became a regular at the ultrasound technician’s office getting multiple photo’s of my babies-to-be. Twins, in our case mono-di twins, meant I was a high risk pregnancy. Being high risk, especially following my miscarriage, meant trusting my OB completely in all aspects of the pregnancy including what could or should happen during labour and all moments leading up to it.
When I hit the 21-week mark my OB told me that I might have placenta previa. I really had no idea what that meant. He explained to me that my placenta was basically covering where the babies needed to come out and it needed to move, but it needed MY help to make that move.
After chatting about my situation with my OB I had asked him if I should let my boss know that I might not be back to work after the Christmas break, to which he answered, “No, you’ll tell them that you WON’T be back after the break.”
I had a feeling that I wouldn’t work right up until my due date, but I had no idea that I would be leaving work so soon…or did I? I had cleaned my desk as I do every December leading up to the holidays, but this time I didn’t stop at just throwing out some obsolete files and documents, I started organizing files, saving key items to a usb and making a ‘how to’ document for whoever took over my duties. I guess women’s intuition (or in this case mommy’s intuition) is a real thing.
Needless to say, I was organized and ready, before knowing that I needed to be.
My bosses were very understanding and supportive of me having to go on bed rest, and even the third party that handles our disability claims was actually very easy to deal with.
The difficult part of bed rest, was the actual resting part. The first two weeks was a tough transition from always being on the go, walking the dog, driving myself places and being able to do…well…anything. Now, I was limited to lying on the couch or the bed. My poor dog was so confused, our mommy-puppy morning walks had been replaced with morning talk shows.
Eventually I got used to the new routine and so did the dog.
My husband was very strict. He was not only my husband, but also my ‘warden.’ If the doctor said ‘no driving’ or ‘no vacuuming’ my hubby ensured that I followed the rules.
My friends and family helped keep me sane with numerous visits to the house, Skype dates and phone calls and before I knew it eight weeks of bed rest had flown by.
As difficult as it was to be so limited with my day to day routine, the bed rest did pay off. Listening to the doctor was the best thing I could’ve done. After weeks of taking it easy, my placenta did exactly what my OB had hoped, it moved far enough away to make my placenta previa scare a thing of the past.
My advice: listen to your doctor…and don’t just listen, actually hear what he/she has to say. If you have a question, ask it and fully understand the importance of the recommendations you’ve been given. Also, listen to your instincts. If you feel like you should start cleaning your desk or organizing certain things in your life a bit earlier than the books tell you to, it’s probably for a reason.
