A Day In The Life (hospital bed rest)

The days seem to sort of blur together. With people constantly coming in and out of my room there just doesn’t ever seem to be a good enough time to sleep.

My day usually starts around 4am. My nurse or caretech will come in to get my vitals (blood pressure and taking my temperature). If I am sleeping, they do wake me up for it, but I try to go back to sleep right after.

Around 615am is when rounds start. The student doctor will come in, ask me about 10 or so questions, listen to my lungs and heart, push on my belly, check my feet for swelling, and ask if I have questions or changes in fluid or pain. Once the student leaves, within usually 10 minutes the resident doctor(s) come in and repeat all the same things the student doctor already did.

Depending on which physician is in for the day, they come in between 7 and 11am. Ask all the same questions and some do the same routine checks.

Shift change for the nurses is around 730am and pm. (I have had roughly 20 different nurses since I got here).

Around 8am, my nurse for the day comes in for vitals. Typically after she is done I will check my menu and order breakfast (it takes about an hour to get). However, some mornings, like today, I really just needed to sleep and wound up waiting until nearly 10am to order.

After breakfast I do my morning monitoring on the fetal heart rate and contraction monitors.

Usually it lasts about 30 minutes or so depending how cooperative little man is being. He has been playing chase the last few days.

Sometime between 1130am and 1230pm my housekeeper comes in and takes care of emptying the trash, sanitizing things, and mops the floor as needed.

Around noon, we do vitals again. After that is usually when I start to feel tired again so I will try to get a nap in. Depending on the day, I will order lunch and eat before my nap. Days like today, the nap outweighs the idea of lunch (I am still full from my late breakfast). I also get my vitamins and medicines for the day (I am off the IV and antibiotics now).

Most of my time is spent browsing articles, pinterest, or Facebook on my phone. Learning about preemies and nicu experiences. I also have a tv, which I basically leave on HGTV all day long. I also have a paint by numbers that I am working on that my aunt brought me. I also get to video chat and text people. Sometimes I have visitors throughout the day as well.

Around 4pm, vital time again. If you haven’t noticed yet, vitals are done every 4 hours. This helps them track the start of an infection if I were to develop one.

At some point in the evening I order dinner. Usually, Chris comes to see me (usually with the kids, depending on the day). Around 9pm I get monitored again. Then around midnight I get vitals checked again. After midnight is when I try to go to sleep.

Some nights are easier than others. Other nights I lay here with my head spinning in 47 directions. Mostly though, I am mentally fine. Probably more lax than a lot of people would be in this situation. I think it is just because I am good at being a hermit crab. Being alone does not typically bother me.

As of today it has been 10 days since my water broke. The doctor told me 75% of women deliver within 10 days of rupturing. I like to beat statistics, so I feel pretty good about that. We have 3 more weeks to go to make it to the 34 week mark. So far so good- I will take it!

From my hospital bed,

Jenn