12 Things You Can Do to Make the Most of Your Time During Pregnancy Bed Rest

Although most pregnant women do not have to be put on bed rest, those with a high-risk pregnancy or complications that develop during pregnancy often do. I was one of those women. At 34, I was blessed to discover I was pregnant with twins. At 33 weeks, I went into premature labor and was told I had to go on bed rest for four weeks to make sure the babies got enough oxygen, and that I didn't go into premature labor. I was also put on medication to prevent premature labor. I had a 3-year-old at home, and could not imagine how I could accomplish four weeks of bed rest. With the help of relatives and friends, we made it happen. Never one to like to waste time, I found things to keep me busy. Here's a list of things anyone on bed rest can do to get the bed rest needed for a healthy baby (or babies) and make use of her time as well.

1) Read: There may never be a time in your life again, or at least not for another 18 years, where you will have time to read as much as you want. After all, you can't actually get up and clean the house. You have been sentenced to time in bed, or on the couch, to keep your pregnancy safe. So, make a list of all those books you have wanted to read all your life and ask friends and relatives if they have any books on the list that you can borrow. Or ask someone to run to the library for you and check out any of the books on your list. If worse comes to worse, you can order them over the internet, but I would advise checking out amazon.com or half.com first to see if you can get them cheaper than full price.

2) Write letters: Think of home bound family members or friends that would love to hear from you. Or adopt a missionary family from your church and start writing them letters of encouragement. It will do you good to reach out to others rather than feeling useless.

3) Keep a journal: When I was on bed rest, I kept a journal of the pregnancy and my feelings. I wrote in it much more when I was on bed rest because I had the time, and I wanted to remember how I felt. You could write the journal privately, for yourself, or write a journal to your baby of things you want to share with him or her once they are born, etc.

4) Write a blog: What better time to start a blog about the pregnancy of your baby. You can keep in touch with relatives and friends, and also reach out to the rest of the internet world, and promote your blog to other moms on bed rest. And it will be a great story to share with your baby someday, especially if you keep the blog posts from that period.

5) Write out your Christmas Cards: What better way to get your Christmas card list completed than when you have plenty of time. If you don't have Christmas Cards, purchase some online, or ask a good friend to purchase some for you. Then pull out your Christmas card list and address all the envelopes. If you know the sex of the baby or the baby's name, you can sign it and include the name, or if you just want to sign it from "The Smith Family" you will be all set come December. For an extra added goody for the Christmas cards, once the baby is born, have someone take a picture of your whole family, and insert it in each card before sealing. You will feel good that you accomplished something useful while on bed rest, and relieved come December when all your Christmas cards are already done and only require a stamp...or you can have someone stop by the post office for you and pick up some forever stamps and even stamp them while on bed rest. Then just drop them in the mail on December 1st. People will be impressed with how organized you are, new baby and all!

6) Enter Sweepstakes: Why not take this time that you have to enter sweepstakes from a laptop computer. You certainly have the time, and the daily entries will give you a leg up on others who don't have as much time and can only enter every few days. Also, sometimes on bed rest, pregnant moms have trouble sleeping at night because they have gotten so much daytime rest. Not many others are online entering sweepstakes in the wee hours of the morning. This would give you an extra chance at the prizes that are given out each hour. It would certainly cut down on the competition. Imagine winning free prizes, gift cards, money and more while resting for your baby.

7) Rent Movies: This is your chance to catch up on every movie you ever wanted to see but never had time. You can have someone stop by Redbox for you and rent a movie for $1.25 per night. Or rent movies through Netflix online, so you don't have to bother anyone to stop and pick up and return DVDs.

8) Invite Friends Over: What a perfect time to catch up with friends. Just because you can't leave the house, or bed, doesn't mean your friends can't come to you. Invite the girls over for a Friday night movie fest, or have someone bring a pizza after work so you can feel in touch with the rest of the world. Or have a crafting night and have a few friends stop by with some crafts they are working on. Situate yourself on the couch and make sure there's enough chairs, and maybe some TV trays for those who need a place to keep supplies while crafting. Doing an ordinary activity such as this will help you feel less isolated from the outside world, and also as though you made good use of your time along with your friends.

9) Christmas/Birthday shop online: This is a perfect time to get all your gift shopping done for the year, and all online with a laptop. Make a list of the birthdays and holidays you need to buy gifts for. Then look for coupon codes online and use them to save money or get free shipping while getting as much shopping done before the baby comes.

10) Scrap Booking: If you are a person who likes to scrapbook, once the baby comes, there won't be a lot of extra time for that. Gather together all your photographs and start creating scrapbooks now, BB ( before baby) while you have time. It's another activity that you may not have time for after the baby comes, and you will look back on those scrapbooks you created for your family at that time with fond memories.

11) Learn a new skill: If there's a craft or new skill you have always wanted to learn that can be accomplished laying down, or on your side, now's the time to learn it while you have plenty of time. You can learn to knit, crochet, hook rugs, take a short online class, learn to use PhotoShop, learn to create a website. The choices are many, and you have the freedom and flexibility to accomplish that goal now more than ever.

12) Write for Hub Pages: If you are reading this, you either are already familiar with Hub Pages, or can be soon. Start a free account with Hub Pages, and write about anything you want. It will help get your creativity out, and if you use Google Adsense or the Hub Page Ads program, you may be able to make a little extra money on the side as well. Hub Pages differs from a blog in that the author writes articles, poem, or stories called,'Hubs" and publishes them online on the Hub Page website.