Now I Lay Me Down...

So I'm trying this little thing that's going to wreak a bit of havoc with my NaNo word count. It's called "bed rest".

That's not what the midwife said, technically. She said my blood pressure is pushing up to borderline (122/90, if it means anything to you), that I was on my feet too much (which anyone who knows my current sedentary habits would find a stretch), and that I needed to be off them. For three days. And it doesn't count sitting with my feet up; I have to be on my side. "You can get up to go to the bathroom," she said. Three days of rest and lots of good protein and several gallons of water should turn it around, she said. And that's what we want, because otherwise jeopardizing my ability to have a home birth, blah blah, increased risk of preeclampsia, blah blah. I can't get all exercised about preeclampsia, because Downton Abbey we ain't, but I did have some question as to whether my feet and legs actually had any more swelling room, so fine. It would be nice to see my ankle bones again. And I can't really get any of my shoes on except the kicks I wore around all summer, which are getting a bit light for the cool weather.

Obviously I'm fudging now, because I'm sitting at the computer writing this post, but that's because I thought, "Oh, I'll write on the iPad in bed, using the wireless keyboard," but it turns out that Darwin accidentally took that with him on a business trip to Washington DC, a trip which, coincidentally, is over the same three days I'm supposed to be supine. I like these charming touches; they prove that God has a sense of humor. The big girls are helping, of course, but I'm telling you right now that I can't see running a five-child household single-parent style for three days without being on my feet for just a titch longer than it takes to go to the bathroom, even if we've canceled classes and are eating easy canned pork and beans instead of the jambalaya I wanted to make for dinner.

On the other hand, the kids happily watched six hours of DVDs today (the old Pride and Prejudice series, so it's all right) and did their chores nicely and went to bed with only the slightest fuss about who slept in which bed. Some families, apparently, have this thing where a child sleeps in the same bed every night, but it seems that's not how we roll here, at least not until that front room finally gets painted. And maybe I'll finish my interlibrary loan book. And I'm going to take several technological leaps backward and try writing with my quill pen on foolscap, which is so crazy it just might work.

In the meantime, take a gander at someone else's finished novel: USA Today is running an exclusive book trailer for Cruel Beauty, Darwin's sister's debut novel, out in January. Also, she has a website, so take and read.