Bedrest and Book Reviews

 

Well, I have been on bedrest/couchrest for almost a full week now, and it has been even less fun than I thought it would be.

For those of you who don't know, I thought I was having a miscarriage last weekend, but when I went to the hospital, we found that there was still hope. My one-centimeter-long baby had a strong heartbeat, and the pregnancy hormone count in my blood was still going up. There is just a hemorrage behind the baby--which could be the beginning of a miscarriage, or could have no negative effect on the baby at all.

So, I was prescribed bedrest to give the bleeding a chance to heal--and it seems to be working.

It is not easy for me to lie back and enjoy time off of cooking, cleaning, and taking care of Ben and Janae, though--I'm way too obsessive for that. I've had to surrender full control of the household to Jason--although, not being UNCONSCIOUS, I have been able to "instruct." Maybe I'd feel better if I had a little bell. . . .

Poor Benjamin has started to insist that he is suffering from "the same thing" I have, and that he needs to be on bedrest, too. He takes it a step further than I do, though, carrying a blanket and pillow to the dinner table.

 

Janae has finally agreed to wean, although she still asks for "nursie" some days. She is happy as long as I'm willing to sing her favorite line-up of songs: "Away in a Manger" followed by "Jingle Bells" and then "Feliz Navidad." At least I can do that while lying down!

 

Anyway, I've had lots of time to worry about the pregnancy, but also lots of time to read--so why not write a couple of quick reviews? There's not much difference between sitting up in bed and sitting on the computer chair . . . is there?

 

Eragon
Before this all started I was reading Christopher Paolini's Eragon, which a friend sent me when Janae was still a baby. I wasn't really reading much at the time (except survival material--parenting books), but by the time Janae was one I was reading fiction again, and a month or so ago I picked Eragon up and thought I might really enjoy it. It turns out that I loved this story. At the beginning I thought it seemed a little unoriginal (it even had an entire monologue that seemed to be stolen from Shakespeare's Hamlet, of all places!), but the story was interesting, and it kept me going. My favorite part of this novel is the characterization. I became so intrigued by the people in the story, their identities and their relationships to each other, that I missed them as soon as the novel ended. Luckily there are two more books in this series (called Inheritance)--I can't wait to read them. Jason is going to get the second one, Eldest, for me today . . . isn't that right, Jason?

Eclipse and Breaking Dawn
Some of you remember that I didn't want to break the bank by buying the last two Twilight books in hardcover, so I requested them from the library at the beginning of January. Unfortunately, book #4 came in before #3 (and YES, the library did send me an email to let me know!). So I broke down and sent Jason out to buy Eclipse. Bedrest will do that to you. Anyway, I read it in two days, then Breaking Dawn in the same amount of time. I am so relieved to know how it all ended. My favorite thing about this story was the plot--I had to keep reading to find out what would happen, and it took on many different directions from what I would have predicted. I have to admit that I liked the characters, too, and found them interesting. My least favorite thing continued to be the love scenes--way too much detail in some parts . . . but never enough to make me stop reading. The series was very enjoyable, and I'm glad I finally gave in to my curiosity about Anita's recommendation.

Well, that's all I've got for now, but you can be sure more is coming . . . it's amazing what you can come up with while lying in bed!