Hospitalized friend

[jgibson2[$]]

A friend was admitted to the hospital a couple of days ago in pre-term labor. She'll be there for at least 4 weeks - or until she delivers, whichever comes first. Hopefully 4 weeks. The first 2 weeks, she's likely to be on medication which will make her feel pretty crappy. After that, it will be bed rest and less potent medications so she'll be bored.

Any entertainment ideas? Unfortunately, chocolate martinis and mojitos are contraindicated.

[emeleel]

Well, I know I would want lots of books. And if the hospital TV isn't much good, maybe a DVD player or laptop to play movies on, with lots of lent-out disks. Laptop with wireless would be great if wireless internet is available - lots to do online.

Puzzle books if she likes that sort of thing.

But mostly I bet she'll want real people to talk to. Nothing beats live interaction. Maybe friends and family could set up a rotation schedule that suits her needs/desires so that there's not 10 people there one hour and nobody there the next.

[theworm[$]]

crochet!!!

Seriously - if she doesn't knit of crochet, she might enjoy trying it. It's something she can easily do while on bedrest and she can make cute things for the little one.

[Prepoia[$]]

Laptop?
Coloring book and crayons?
I love coloring; it relaxes me.
Needle work of any kind keeps your hands and mind busy.
Journaling.

And lots of visitors to keep her mind off all that's going on.

[conradd]

Does she read? I've got a bunch of recently published paperbacks I could send along.

[jgibson2[$]]

Thanks for the ideas.

If her husband brings her a DVD player (likely) we have boatloads of DVDs to lend. Unfortunately they're mostly guy stuff. I"m not sure about puzzle books, but I can ask when I stop in to visit this evening.

Crochet? I'll have to ask about that as well. I could even teach her some basics. I haven't done any in a while - never got back into it after my carpal tunnel repair and I'd given it up because my fingers kept getting numb.

Deb,
She may not feel like reading, but she should in a week or so when they back off the medication. Before you mail, I'll check to see that she doesn't have a stack of books already.

Needlework might be an option if she's not on magnesium sulfate -- I've been told it makes you feel like you're drunk AND have the flu. Not much fun, but it works.

Coloring book -- great idea! There are some very grown-up ones around which have nice paper.

She has 12 and 15 yo kids who are likely to visit often, so maybe double duty for some of these ideas.

[lynnzop[$]]

Depending on how nimble she's feeling, there are a lot of different crafty things she could do. Scrapping or stamping baby announcement cards, maybe start on a baby book she can embellish.

[emeleel]

Oh, for coloring, if they're interested - try those stained-glass coloring books. They are so pretty!

[magenta321]

What about some fun but more grown up games with the kids when they visit, like cranium, balderdash, outburst type of things. Could have family game night one night with the whole family.

I think family and friends can bring parties to her too. Maybe have a beach party with themed music and a picnic lunch (or dinner) and watch some silly summer movies. She could have non-alcoholic drinks in fun glasses, maybe even with a cute little umbrella.

I think that type of thing will help her escape a bit from the reality of "bedrest" and more into "spending time having fun with my family and friends."

[jgibson2[$]]

Margaret,
Those are all great ideas!

I didn't get out today. I spent 3 hours on the Delta web site trying to book tickets for my husband and son to go to Rome in October. Part the glitchy Delta site, part the new MastercardSecureCode crap. Took me many phone calls to get it all straightened out -- while I was on the site.

[Helen_B[$]]

Are you allowed to bring her entertaining, nutritious snacks, to liven up the usually boring (and around here, inadequate) hospital food? I brought one of our friends fresh fruit, dried fruit, Vector cereal bars, soy milk drink boxes, and odds and ends of things. Our hospital's idea of a bedtime snack for an underweight pregnant woman was a lowfat Kraft single, and some crackers, and she was only offered that when she asked the nurse why the other women got a snack at night and she didn't. One day I planned ahead with her, and brought her something she liked that wasn't on the food plan: a big baby greens salad, and spaghetti with lots of ground beef in the sauce, grated cheese on the side.

[jgibson2[$]]

She's not diabetic, so I could take snacks. Anything she can't eat, her kids or husband can anyway, so definitely a good idea.

[Helen_B[$]]

Anyone got a Nintendo DS and some brain games they can loan her?

[jgibson2[$]]

Probably her kids.

[Prepoia[$]]

It's hard to concentrate on anything when in the hospital. My brain always turns to mush even when I'm not on heavy meds.

Oh, the coloring....make sure the figures are done in the bold, black outlines. They are the most fun to color. I hate the light lines because then it seems like to be bold with a crayon will offset the lines of the picture. With the bold lines you can color light, dark, a mixture of both, etc. They have a lot of nice coloring books out there from Cinderella to beginning books for children and they're all fun if the pictures use thick dark lines

[drmomentum[$]]

If she's not up to reading, sometimes books on tape can be good. Unless she's not up to concentrating either. But an engrossing book on tape can be distracting.

[emeleel]

If she likes books on tape. My mind wanders too much for audio books.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Me too.

One of the most relaxing things I did when I was in college was color a beautiful coloring book version of The Velveteen Rabbit. The classic book was classically drawn and made it more "formal" and sort of grown-up, in a weird way, to color. Good to use later when reading to Baby.

[thinkerlady[$]]

There is so much good that comes from coloring when someone rehabing or on bedrest. I know of a number of people that have been lucky enough to have someone get them coloring materials. It really helps.

[lynnzop[$]]

mjfrombuffalo said

Me too.

One of the most relaxing things I did when I was in college was color a beautiful coloring book version of The Velveteen Rabbit. The classic book was classically drawn and made it more "formal" and sort of grown-up, in a weird way, to color. Good to use later when reading to Baby.

OMG MJ, I thought you were trying to tell us something....

[emeleel]

I did, too, for half a second!

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

[lynnzop[$]]