And Then There Was... Bed Rest

You read that title right.

Bed rest.

Two words that literally encapsulate my own personal definition of hell. Bed bound. Couch bound. No exercise. No activities. No outings. No life. I have been put on bed rest for essentially the remainder of my pregnancy: for the next six weeks or until my condition stabilizes and improves.

I had initially typed up a whole novel, describing what happened - not in extensive detail, but the post got lengthy anyway. To spare you the boring, medical heavy read, I started to go into preterm labor. My contractions were painless, but I did have "back labor" that was INDEED painful. These painless contractions (called Braxton Hicks... Until you start to have them ten minutes apart) even started to dilate me so that this little 30 week gestation babe would come out. No no no!

Thankfully, my midwives were able to assess my situation and give me some tools to stay out of a hospital and keep this baby in and cookin' for a while longer. Best rest is a surprisingly controversial topic and medical practice. It's not my or my midwives goal to keep me on this obnoxious path; but drastic measures had to be taken to stop my body from going into labor, relax my muscles (including that big bully of a muscle, the uterus!), and get things back on track to having a full-term baby. I have another appointment in two weeks to reevaluate how things are going, and there is a chance I could  have some of my restrictions lifted. Then again, I potentially could stay on this path for a full six weeks. Exercise (at least, in the forms that I'm used to) are O-U-T until 37 weeks when I'm full term and baby boy can safely enter the world, but that's ok with me. I'd be happy with the ability to leave the house at this point!

I've now been on bed rest for two days. Oddly, it's FLOWN by. The truth is, I was feeling really, really crappy. With the nonstop rest, I'm actually starting to feel normal again! Go figure. I have to be horizontal (i.e. laying on a bed or couch), but am allowed a "two hours on, two hours off" ratio where I can get up and shower, make a quick meal, and stay seated/upright long enough to eat it and put my dishes in the dishwasher. So, it could be worse! I really believe in finding the positive and bright spots in a bad situation, so this is exactly what I'm drop-to-my-knees-thankful for right now:

• I'm writing this from my bed, not from a NICU. I'm feeling my 30 week old son move inside me, not staring at him wiggle and struggle to breathe in an incubator. He's still exactly where he should be and still getting exactly what he needs to make a successful entrance into the world.

• I'm not in a hospital with synthetic drugs running through my veins in attempts to stop a preterm labor AND I get brief periods of time throughout the day to get up and move! (I'm technically on a hybrid of modified and strict bed rest.)

• There's a chance I won't have to spend the remainder of my pregnancy on bed rest! If things have improved at my next appointment, I'll likely be able to incorporate light daily activities back into my day with scheduled rest time. I'm very encouraged that even in the short time I've been on bed rest, my contractions have DRAMATICALLY decreased - what I used to experience in an hour, I'm not even having in a 24hr full day. This is promising! At my next apt, I'll be 32 weeks and having multiple, painless contractions a day will officially be in the "normal zone." Yay!

• I have some amazing friends and family. Friends who have gone "on call" in case I need anything, and family who volunteered to fly to Dallas immediately or upon me/my husband's request to help out. Seriously, we lucked out with some great people in our lives.

• I got to spend what could be my last "baby free, bed rest free" weekend with my sister! We took AMAZING maternity shots, went to lots of yoga and ate good food. I have a lucky habit of going out with a bang (my husband and I took a weekend trip to New Orleans; two days after returning we found out about our surprise pregnancy!) and this was no different. Excellent :)

• All MAJOR baby preparations are done. He has all his furniture ordered and it will start to trickle in over the coming weeks; all important gear (i.e. car seat) is already in our home; registries are created; most new born necessities bought, etc. Any remaining things I need can be bought online and shipped to my front door, and I can use my two hours of "up time" to organize the nursery. THANK GOODNESS.  

And since sharing a pic of me on bed rest wouldn't be very interesting, nor is my view from said bed/couch, nor are my activities, here is a preview shot I received yesterday of our maternity shoot I referenced above! We lucked out with a beautiful, sun shine filled day to spend at White Rock Lake and the Dallas Arboretum. I love that we can have a March outdoor shoot in tank tops and blooming flowers in Texas!

Interior Design: Common Living Space Wall Decor

I mentioned in this post that I was working on a project for the living room. Last week, I posted this post about blending styles to create a comfortable living space when you and your spouse have, uhhh... errrrrr... Different styles.

I'm happy to report that I was finally able to complete our living room decor this past weekend! This project has been on my brain for well over a year. I had every intention of doing this in the townhome that we used to live in... But never quite found the time to select what prints with what frames to create a cohesive theme. Yadayadayada. I just never did it, end of story.

Alas, I did manage to get around to it in our new home! Without further commentary, our living room wall decor:

The silver frames are from Crate & Barrel; the black frames are unknown! You'll see there's room to add more frames as we expand our family and we also have the option to rotate out the pictures within the frames to keep our wall "current."

We have a "great room" type of setup in our home, so that the living room, dining room and kitchen are all open to each other. While this is a large space, we also have four massive, floor-to-ceiling windows. These windows let in a wonderful amount of light into the room, but REALLY limit the wall space for any sort of artwork/decor. So while we have this big space, it's broken up quite nicely with the windows so that we don't have one (or more!) massive, blank wall to attempt to cover up.

What I like about creating a "larger image" by grouping together multiple smaller items/frames is that you can customize the look and size to the room and the wall space you're working with. So, if you have a reeeeeeal big space, you can use a larger number of larger prints/frames to cover the space; if it's smaller, you can mix and match sizes to achieve the effect you're after. Also, we happen to have four large pieces of furniture in the room (sectional couch, 6' bookshelf, 65" TV and entertainment center below wall-mounted TV - men and their large TV's, amirightladies?! Every time my husband wants to go to the movies, I ask, "Why?! We have a home theater complete with blinding screen and surround sound, better food, cleaner bathrooms and no obnoxious teenagers on their phones texting throughout the whole movie!" But I digress...)

The same concept applied with four pieces of art, all the same size in the same mat and frame. This is the only wall space left with all the large windows in our Great Room! The curtains also work to add some texture to the room.

Having smaller pieces on the wall provides some balance to the room, so that it's not dwarfed by all the "big" things in it. Creating a wall decor look sufficient for the space out of smaller items helps provide balance when dealing with a large space full of large furniture. It can also break up consistent shapes in the room. For example, if you have a rectangle couch, with a rectangle coffee table, with the rectangle of your TV all in the same room, you can "break up" that shape by creating an array of frames creatively on your wall. In the picture above, I used a square to break up the long rectangles of the windows.

That wraps up our common living space updates! Up next: our master bedroom. We're juuuuuuust about complete with what that room will look like, so expect a post about how I got creative in that large, dark space (it really is the antithesis of our Great Room from a lighting perspective!)

Simplifying Your Cleaning Routine

Whether you hate cleaning, or you're insanely busy with work and hobbies and don't have time to clean, or you "make" yourself busy with work and hobbies in order to not have time to clean, one thing is pretty clear: Cleaning is a massive pain in the rump!

When both the hubby and I were working extra-full-time hours, we hired a cleaning service to come in every other week and get the job done. Outside of wiping down kitchen counters, we simply let the dust bunnies (really, these should be called the dog hair bunnies, because that's exactly what they were) pile up until our fantastic service would come and clean everything away.

Now that I stay home, a cleaning service seems a tad excessive to me. But staying home didn't manage to change the fact that I, like you, really dislike cleaning! So I had to get creative when devising a plan to keep this house clean. This is what I've come up with to stay on top of the cleaning without feeling like I'm ALWAYS cleaning, or that the house is ALWAYS dirty:

- Do a little bit each day
For me, I have my "daily" areas and my "rotation" areas. The kitchen gets wiped down and dishes get done daily (ahem, multiple times a day). I also run the vacuum daily, but have divided the house into two sections and alternate what part gets vacuumed each day. Now, this is because we have hardwoods throughout the whole house (zero carpet) and one massive doggie shed-er and one who tracks in grass, leaves, various forms of nature, etc. Bottom line, just figure out the part of your house that has to be attended to regularly given your life circumstances and add it to the "daily" list. I would try to keep it to two to four things that you can't stand seeing a mess - your whole house can't end up on this list :)

Major time saver: Dirt Devil Express V6. It's cordless and bag-less and perfect for picking up dog hair in corners and along baseboards of hardwood floors.

-Pick a task, not a room
The "rotation" consists of a task. I won't pick a room in the house and break out the duster, floor cleaner, Windex, and whatever else may be needed to clean it. Rather, I pick one cleaning item related to one task and do it throughout the whole house. For example, today I broke out the duster and dusted every room in the house. Tomorrow, I'll likely get a few bathroom cleaning products (say, toilet cleaner and soft scrub to clean the sinks) to work on our two bathrooms; then possibly the next day I'll break out the floor mop and cleaner to get the bathroom and kitchen floors.

Picking a task over a room means that you only have to prepare and put away one to two cleaning items. It's a huge waste of time to get all the stuff out to clean "just one room" - you'll spend half your time prepping and then cleaning up after your clean, as opposed to actually cleaning! Breaking it down by task enables you to get what you need out, get your work done and actually spend your timing cleaning, and then clean up only what you used for all the spaces in the house that used that cleaning item.

The Swifter Dusters makes dusting furniture and wall decor super easy: the replaceable wand covers actually trap dust so you don't push it around your house, nor have to spray toxic chemicals and then wipe them up for a proper cleaning. I can dust my entire house in 20 minutes with this little guy!

I've found this to be a really helpful cleaning "hack" that helps to simplify the cleaning process and make it much more bearable. Remember: Have your "daily" list of things that need daily attention and limit that list to no more than four items. Then pick your "rotation" that uses one cleaning agent, and clean all areas in the house that use that particular cleaning agent. Happy reduced stress and more efficient cleaning!

If anyone knows of any similar tactics to use for laundry, by all means send me an email! I despise laundry and would love to hear about any ways/methods you have to make that a more enjoyable process.