The Pregnancy Bonus Part 3

My entire life I hadn’t stayed home apart from holidays and sick days. One month of staying home, no no, staying in bed baffled me.

I had never had so much time – unplanned, unproductive, unwanted.

They say the mental state of mom directly affects the baby in womb. So I needed to stay calm. That precluded TV, current affairs, any fiction books that would cause me to be emotional. Ditto for non fiction books. How many children’s books can an adult read anyway? I had had quite enough of them.

That left me with two options – learn something new or immerse myself in spirituality. I chose the latter as physical discomfort was too much to overcome to be focused enough to study.

The initial days were HARD. The constant heart burn, nausea and vomiting filled my days refusing to allow space for anything else.

Slowly, I made myself follow a routine. At least that gave some shape to my blank days. As I read about my religion, I realized how little I knew about it. Gradually my interest increased and I started spending almost all my time reading. The remaining time was spent in loving, happy discussions with family.

This was Pregnancy Bonus 4 – the deep insight I gained into my religion, my role as a wife and mother, all the while being surrounded by a loving family. The time spent was not unproductive. On the contrary, it was deeply enriching.

Have you had to cope with long periods of bed rest? What came to your rescue? Do share what helped you so that it might help someone else.