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Hi
it’s Renee Canham here to talk to you again about the joys of being
pregnant. This week I’m going to talk to you about how to get some rest and
relaxation when you have other little guys running around. When it’s not
just you and your baby it’s much harder to get the rest and relaxation you
need when you do have those little ones running around. You are going to
want to stay in bed when they are bright eyed and ready to go first thing in
the morning. You are going to want to nap even after your little ones have
long phased out of their afternoon naps so I’m going to give you some tips
on how to get that rest you need.
One
of the best things that we have done and I’ve done it through all my
pregnancies is reading. It’s so simple but it really helps you get the rest
and relaxation you need. My oldest is an avid reader, he loves to be read
to, and he likes to read on his own. So when I was pregnant with my second
I would just grab some books and have him come up on the bed and my son
would grab the books and he would come up onto our bed and he would read
books in bed while I got the extra sleep I needed in the morning.
As
soon as I woke up I would read them to him and then I could get some extra
snoozing and reading and extra bonding time with him in the mornings. I’ve
done that with all our kids. They all love reading in bed. I even read to
them at naptime since most of them have phased out of their naps it’s nice
just to get the lay down time, the rest time, the down time even though I’m
not actually taking a nap it’s really nice.
Another thing that seems kind of funny that we do is that we play doctor. I
get to have my laying down time, I get to put my feet up, I can lay in bed
and the kids get little doctor kit out that has a play stethoscope and some
other play doctor stuff and they get to take care of me. We even have a
real stethoscope and now that we are 28 weeks pregnant they can actually
hear the baby through the stethoscope so they are connecting with the baby
and trying to find the baby’s heart beat and things like that. So they get
to take care of me while I get some rest and they get to connect with the
baby and you are spending quality time playing with your kids.
Another thing we have is we have a school cupboard, we call it a school
cupboard but most people call it a crafts cupboard or something like that
but since we homeshool we call it our school cupboard. We put all sorts of
things in our school cupboard, we put crayons and coloring books, glitter
pens, tons of paper, fabric scraps, I put some workbooks in there, I put
little books that have different things the kids might be interested in that
they can read on their own, and some board games that they can play together
or on their own. Puzzles, all sorts of things in our school cupboard and
its all stuff that they can pull out whenever they want and just play on
their own.
Most
of the time I can just lay on the couch and I can get some quiet lay down
time and they play pretty much all on their own with stuff from the school
cupboard and it keeps them really happy and they really love it. Fabric
scraps have been a great thing! We have dressed dolls in them, we’ve built
castles with them, made pretend dog leashes, they love the fabric scraps. So
we love our school cupboard.
An
old stand by is putting on appropriate movies or TV. We don’t have regular
TV in our house so if they are going to watch something it has to be on DVD
or video. If I’m really desperate I’ll put on a movie for them and I can get
an hour of lay down quiet time while they watch a movie. It gives me a few
minutes to rest and relax, I usually lay on the couch right by where they
are and then I’m still there with them and they know I’m there and they know
I’m taking a little rest and they get to watch a movie that they want to
watch.
A
last resort in our house is video games. Our kids have the little handheld
video games and I can go lay in bed when I’m really desperate, when I’m
feeling very tired and they can sit on the bed with me and they can play
their video games while I get a couple snoozes in. That really helps just
to get that extra break.
So it
is very doable to be pregnant with other ones running around, it’s great.
There are lots of ways for you to be with your kid or kids while you are
getting your rest and relaxation and I love it, I love watching them connect
with the baby and being with me and being together.
So
next week I’m going to talk about things you can do to help your other kids
stay attached to you and to get ready for the baby. If you would like some
more information about me check out my bio it’s at
http://www.babytalkradio.com or you can also check out my website at
http://www.monkeybums.com. Thanks and I’ll talk to you next week.
