My Rest-imony

I'm tired.  I need more naps, more sleep at night and just general rest.  There's something in me that cries out, "that's not a good use of time - inefficient! Think of all you could accomplish in those hours."  I war with myself about rest. I have too much to do to rest. But I'm so tired and so slow because I'm tired so not efficient anyway.

So since I have pregnancy and childbirth on the brain, I thought I would share with you my experience and my plans for this birth regarding rest.

When my second baby was born, we had her in a birthing tub in our house.  It was awesome.  I said afterward that if God gave us more children and allowed - I would have all my babies in water!  Since I had a traditional birth with Gracie (my first) I was expecting to rest a day or two, then get back into the swing of things.  When she was three days old, I was at Old Navy looking for a pair of stretchy pants that would fit.  I knew lots of moms and everybody was back at church or out and about within a few days.  So I was just like my friends.   ......tired.

I felt tired for months with Gracie - she was my first baby.  She was a good sleeper and nurser but I was so tired and the weight just hung on.  When she was a year old, I was still three sizes bigger than I was before I had gotten pregnant.

Since I had never had a homebirth before, there were a number of surprises that came along with Faith's birth.  One of the biggest was my assignment from my midwife after Faith was born.  I was instructed to spend 10 days in the bed, 10 days on the bed and 10 days near the bed. what???  That's a month of rest - how could that possibly work?

But I am a rule-keeper so I had to do it.  Gratefully my mom, dad, sister, mother-in-law, father-in-law and sister-in-laws all were on board.  For the next month basically my mom and Pete's mom took turns staying a few days at a time - cooking, cleaning and taking care of me, Pete, Gracie and newborn Faith.

It was hard.  I was bored (no TV in the room, no books set up, no computer).  But Pete set up the laptop so I could watch videos online and books were brought up to me (as well as all my meals). Faith had some trouble getting the latch down for nursing but I pulled up websites that helped tremendously.  After 30 days of rest, I was finally able to get back to "life."

I felt great.  I was truly rested.  My body dropped the weight so fast.  I could hardly believe it - you would have thought my muscles would have atrophied, but I was able to go right back to the gym and my stamina was amazingly high.  I cannot speak highly enough of a good solid rest after childbirth.  I didn't need to go find new pants - I was in my nightgown a good bit of the time. I was blessed to have the help I needed to take the rest I was assigned.  I am so grateful.

So what's on schedule for this birth?  Debbie requires 7-7-7 so about three weeks (instead of four) I'll be in, on or near the bed.  This time I know what's coming so I have books already prepared, we're birthing in a room with a TV (hello more HGTV and Food Network overload) and a futon that folds into a bed.  My mom and Pete's mom are already making plans for tag-teaming the function of the house.

Since I'm already so tired - I'm actually looking forward to my after birth rest.  Seriously - I'm yawning right now.

Love,