Adjusting to being home again

I know it seems weird that it is an adjustment to be home when we were only gone for two days, but it kind of is.  In the hospital, other than the hour or so yesterday when I was making contingency plans for work, the only thing I had to think about was Michelle and our three munchkins. Now that we're home I have to think about work, getting and making meals, cleaning, taking care of the animals, marking things off the pre-baby to-do list, and making sure Michelle is as comfortable as possible.

The drive home today made us both realize just how tired we were  so the first thing we both did was take a nap. It was lovely to be in our bed and neither of us wanted to get up. I got up and went on to work to see one kiddo and take care of a few paperwork things and then went grocery shopping afterwards. But before I left for work I put the ted stockings on Michelle (which was quite the feat), macgivered a "work station" for her on the couch, and made us both a quick late lunch.

Being in the hospital all weekend sure makes it tough to roll right into the week because we missed our usual meal planning and grocery shopping time. So off to Trader Joes I went...and boy did I buy food. I broke our record for money spent in a single transaction today. Check out that receipt and counter full of groceries!  Having had the scare we did this weekend I was on a mission to find some pre-made food to help stock the freezer for post-baby homecoming and to find meals and snacks that will work for me the next time we're back in Danville, which hopefully won't be for another month!

Michelle is also adjusting to being home on a new level of restricted activity. I think they called their recommendation "limited bedrest," meaning she can walk to the bathroom and around the house a bit, but no shopping or housework. It's not really that different than what she's been doing, but a little.  She says she feels like such a bum, just laying around all the time. And it's tough to find good positions where she can actually do schoolwork without sitting at the kitchen table, which we're trying took avoid because then her legs are down and likely to swell even more.  I need to take a picture of the swelling for you tomorrow so you can appreciate it. The swelling is starting to cause her some pain in her knees and just adds to an overall sense of discomfort and immobility.  The docs don't seem too concerned about it, saying its a normal part of late pregnancy, but I don't like how quickly and intensely it came on. She went from very mild ankle swelling only at the end of the day to pitting edema (where if you push down with your thumb on her skin the imprint stays for a bit) of her whole legs. So we are doing what we can to manage the swelling so it doesn't keep adding to her discomfort. Her stomach/digestive system has also been giving her heck today so that stinks. I think it's just getting so squishy in there that it's tough for the system to work normally. But the annoying thing is that the heartburn means she needs to be more upright rather than laying down, which would help her legs!  Oh well...we do what we can. Here's a pic of her work station. :)

I know that Michelle and I are a good team I general in life, but having her not really be able to contribute much to the day to day running if our household has really made me appreciate just what a good team we normally are.  It's a lot to manage all the "chores" and just day to day things by myself and I generally just miss having a buddy to do things with like making meals. Michelle feels really bad that I have to do all of this myself now and hates just having to sit around and hates having to ask me to get things for her or help her move. But of course, helping her is a main priority for me and it doesn't bother me at all because I feel bad for her not being able to be well and generally being so uncomfortable. Lets just say we are both very empathetic about what the other person is going through in this home stretch before the babies arrive.