Ways to Keep Busy During Pregnancy Bed Rest

Being on bed rest can be a challenge no matter what the reason. Being pregnant can make this even more of a challenge. When a woman is pregnant, the order for bed rest becomes important because it affects the health of the baby as well as the mother's. Following the doctor's instructions can be very difficult, but is necessary to assure the health of the woman and her baby. Many times the reason a pregnant woman is put on bed rest is because she has started labor prematurely. If a baby is born too soon, he/she may not be as healthy as he/she should be. Being born early can even result in death of the baby.

The key for staying on bed rest is for the woman to keep her hands and her mind busy. There are several ideas here on how a pregnant woman can accomplish this. Some of these ideas are:

Take up a new hobby or restart an old one. If a woman on bed rest has an idea of some new hobby that she would like to start up, now is the time to do this. Provided however, that she can do it from her bed. Getting a back rest pillow should help this as well, or just get a number of extra pillows so that she can have some support behind her back, this is very important to keeping her comfortable while sitting up to do anything. Some ideas of different hobbies that she can take up are as follows, in the event that she has not thought of anything because she is a career type of person, or is just plain busy with work or older children or for whatever reason. These hobbies can all be done in bed with very little or no adjustments.

Crocheting is a good thing to teach herself from a book, or have a friend or family member teach her to crochet. She could start by crocheting a blanket for the baby, and then go from there. A crocheted blanket is called an afghan. This is a hobby that is not very expensive to learn, since to start out all that is needed is a crochet hook and some yarn and a scissors. As she gets into doing more difficult projects, she will need to get more crochet hooks of different sizes, some pattern books (or there are many patterns available for free on the Internet) but that is about all. Crocheting afghans, bonnets, and other clothing for baby will give the woman something that will help her to feel useful as she is 'stuck' on bed rest.

Knitting is another hobby that a woman stuck on bed rest can teach herself. This is a hobby that may be easier to get someone who knows how to knit already to help her to learn. Knitting afghans and other baby items will keep her feeling useful, since all babies need clothes and blankets. The companionship from a friend or family member to teach her to knit may also help to break up the monotony. This hobby is also a relatively inexpensive hobby to start doing as well. All that should be needed to start making an afghan should be, a set of knitting needles, some yarn and a pattern for the afghan of choice, and some scissors.

Embroidery or counted cross stitch. This hobby can be begun by a kit. This is probably the best way to start a hobby of this type, because everything is usually in the kit, including the needle needed to stitch the project chosen. If a book is chosen and then the cloth and the thread etc, this would probably be more expensive than buying a pre-made item to embroider or cross stitch. There are many different kits to choose from, baby bibs to crib blankets to hand towels and many more options to choose from.

Scrap booking is another option for a pregnant woman on bed rest. Kits for this purpose for many different types of albums are available There are many different subjects to choose from. Some of these options are things such as wedding albums, baby books, vacation albums, and even just all purpose albums. Just separate page kits are also available in all different topics as well. Many of the kits include glue, scissors, and everything one can think of that would be needed for scrap book creation. Journaling her pregnancy and other things like scrap booking the baby's ultrasound pictures, any baby showers she may have had and any other things to do with the baby.

Drawing or sketching would be something that some women on bed rest may want to try. Since drawing only requires paper and some pencils or pens, it may be the perfect hobby for a woman who is creative. Drawing allows the woman to get out feelings and thoughts or even just pictures of baby things may be something which could suit her fancy. She may even want to try pastels or other medium in addition to just pencils. Another option that is available now is water color pencils which can be used with or without water and or a brush.

Bead working is another option which a woman could use to keep herself busy. Making jewelry can be something that some women may enjoy doing to make gifts for friends, herself or relatives. Kits to do this can be purchased as well. The things that are needed to begin doing bead work are included in some kits. Some different choices in kits would be plastic beads, or glass beads, or metal beads or a variety of the different type of beads. The woman may even choose to make her own beads from a clay that can be baked to harden which comes in every color imaginable.

Working with clay that can be baked may be another hobby some women may choose. Beads, and other figurines and other types of objects can be made from the clay. The clay is made by many different companies but is pretty much the same stuff. The clay is molded into the shape desired and then baked in a low temperature oven for a period of time recommended on the manufacturers instructions. If the woman has a partner or other adult person who can bake the clay for them, this may be an option that she may enjoy.

There are many other craft hobbies or other hobbies that a woman on bed rest can choose from.

Other things that a woman can do to keep herself busy are read books or magazines, or read other items that interest her. Reading will keep her mind busy. If there is a laptop computer, or a desktop computer can be moved so that the woman can use it, she could read things on-line. She could also get some audio books to listen to if she does not wish to read. Some of these books can also be downloaded onto the computer for her to listen to. An i-pod or other mp-3 player may come in handy for this purpose, as well as listening to favorite music. An i-pod also would make it possible to watch television shows, movies etc.

A laptop computer also may also make it possible for some women to work from home. If possible, the woman and her partner should ask her employer and her supervisor if there is some way that she can work from home. This will keep the woman from worrying unnecessarily about money matters and also give her something to keep her mind busy and stay in touch with what she needs to from work. A phone line or cell phone at her bedside could also help in this manner as well.

Moving her television into the bedroom or getting another television for the bedroom either by buying one or borrowing someone's extra television. This will also help her to pass the time, as well as keep her in touch with what is going on in the world and no feel so isolated. Many people already have a television in their bedrooms.

Buying or renting or borrowing a game console will allow the woman to play some games, also many of the newer consoles allow DVDs or CDs to be played on them as well. This makes it possible to avoid having to have both a DVD player, CD player and the game console. Games of every type are available for the woman to play, dependent on her interests. The games do cost about $50.00 average, so this may also be a consideration. Borrowing some games from a friend or relative may be another option. Renting movies and games can also be rented from local video stores or from a mail order video service. Some of these also allow the woman to watch movies unlimited on her computer, as well.

Crossword puzzles, word search, sudoku, fill-it-in or other word puzzle books or logic problem books are also ways for the woman on bed rest can use to help keep her mind working. These puzzles can help to keep her mind working as well as to pass the time. There are also computer web sites for many of these games as well as web sites to play these and other games to play on the Internet. There are also mmrpg's (mega multi role playing games) the woman may wish to check try out. Many of these are relatively inexpensive or even free to play.

There are many other things that a woman on bed rest from pregnancy that are not listed here. Some things could also be done with a few adjustments of the bed or a bed table can be used for other things to keep her busy as well. Keeping busy is not an easy thing for a woman to do when on bed rest, but the results of a happy, healthy baby is worth the time she may have to spend in bed to insure the safety of both mother and baby.