Pairing Wine with Motherhood (and Bed Rest): Chapter 3
This post was going to be another installment of my equal parts hilarious and frustrating collection of parenting stories. But right now, my situation is making me feel pretty grateful for all of the craziness of being a mom.
After having relatively complication-free previous pregnancies, I was diagnosed with mild preeclampsia at 30 weeks with this one. I've been on modified bed rest ever since and will remain here until I'm induced at 37 weeks, hopefully not earlier. As someone who routinely carries WELL beyond her due date, this was hard for me to fathom at first. The night before I had the OB appointment that brought the illness to light, I was remarking to my husband how quickly and easily this pregnancy is going and that I felt so good that I barely felt pregnant. Well, the next morning at my check up, my blood pressure was very high and I was sent to the hospital for monitoring, which turned into an overnight stay with 24 hour monitoring, blood draws, and collecting my pee in jugs. Good times. My blood pressure was much lower than at my appointment, but it was still in the mildly high range, so I was given the diagnosis and directed to lay down as much as possible, log my blood pressure throughout the day, and visit the high risk doctor twice a week to check on me and the baby. Thankfully, my husband was able to stay home with the kids for a couple of days while I was in the hospital and he had cleaned the house and had ALL of the laundry done when I came home! What a man! My mother in law flew out right away so that my husband could return to work while she took care of the kids as I was posted up on the couch. My parents are both retired, so they are coming out here next week and will stay until I have to be induced in the next 3 to 6 weeks (please, please let it be 6!). So, it really couldn't have worked out better because how is bed rest even possible when you already have kids? I still get to bond with my littles by cuddling with them while they watch their shows, I'm able to put them to bed, and I can sit in the grass and hang out with them outside for a little while. So far, I've been able to keep my blood pressure stable when I'm not being crushed by anxiety over my baby's wellbeing. To keep my mind busy and off of Dr. Google, I have a big stack of books to get through, I finally have time to listen to some podcasts (which makes me feel like a regular hipster), I'm planning on learning a new language and figuring out Lightroom and Photoshop. This is going to be a very educational bed rest! I could easily feel sorry for myself or give in to the fear of what's happening or could happen, but I'm trying to stay positive and make the most of this very rare extended downtime.
Needless to say, this situation has given me some perspective. It's not that I didn't appreciate my kids before this, I certainly did, but it's easy to get lost in the day-in-day-out of motherhood.
Yes, our kids destroy our house with varying degrees of permanence on a daily basis, they instigate fights with one another, my 4 year old talks back and is often super rude, my almost two year old is in a big tantrum and hitting phase, and sometimes no one listens or eats their thoughtfully prepared dinners. But they are happy, healthy, and loved, and when they're not acting like a pack of the cutest wild Sith lords you've ever seen, they are sweet, jubilant, deliciously feisty, loving, thoughtful, sensitive, and absolutely hilarious. My son has begun to shed the "Effing Fours" phase and is showing an impressive emotional intelligence. My daughter is joyful and fierce, which is going to serve her very well as she gets older, and she is just as much into trucks and trains as she is dolls and horses. I'm so proud of my kids and I'm blessed to be their mom. What wine do you pair with that? Literally whatever you enjoy drinking! Since my diagnosis, I haven't even thought about how many weeks I have left until I can drink wine again. Instead, I'm counting down the weeks until my little girl will be developed enough to safely come into the outside world. Then I'll start dreaming about my meal of baguette, an entire log of goat cheese, and a super precise dry Riesling ;)
Happy Mother's Day to all of you mama readers! Run around outside with your kids today and get that blood flowing. I'm living vicariously through you for a little while!
Cheers!
M
