You’d think laying on your tush all day would be an easy way to gain weight.  That’s what I always assumed.  Since being in the hospital on bed rest my highest weight has been 139 pounds (my pre-pregnancy weight was 122 pounds). That was a couple of days after I arrive here. I’ve watched my weight decrease to 137 then 136 then 134.  Now, although the 134 was a day after I was strictly on ice chips for 24 hours, my weight is still moving in the wrong direction.  I think this is for two reasons.

Reason 1: I am generally very active and usually burn a lot of calories in the day to help increase my appetite and the amount of food I eat.  When you live on bed rest island, none of that activity happens. I wake up in the morning and order breakfast.  I am in one position (minus turning from the right side to the left side).  Several hours pass.  I still feel full because I’ve done nothing to burn off the breakfast calories.  However, I know it’s lunchtime and I need to order food.  So I do.  When lunch arrives, I only eat half of it because I’m full.  Several hours pass again and the same thing happens for dinner.  I try to eat but I’m not hungry. The food on the menu isn’t bad and I get the select the items off the menu that I want – I’m just not hungry.

Reason 2: I am in bed all day, and get two wheel chair rides twice a day. All of that equals loss of muscle mass.  My muscles probably forgot that they even exist because they’ve been neglected for almost three weeks. All of gymnastics, cheerleading and track lessons in my youth to help my muscle development have been thrown by the wayside.  Perky booty be gone.

While in regular life losing weight would be opening welcome, it’s not suggested for Baby Turner’s healthy growth.  Baby Turner needs to be big and strong, especially since he’s a boy so we have to eat, eat, eat to grow, grow, grow.

Dr. Weeks’ suggestion was to add two Ensure’s to my daily intake. My first response – “That’s what my grandmother used to drink!”  Whenever Grandma Lottie would come visit from GA, we’d stock up the refrigerator with Ensure so she had something to drink. I was now going to be a part of Team Oldie in order to get Team Healthy.

I’m still not gaining consistent weight.  I’ll go up for two days and then back down a pound the next.  In addition to the Ensure, I’ve also been granted two 10 minute walks on my floor.  I asked the doctor if I could walk downstairs to the cafeteria and he gave me that “don’t push your luck” look.

Every day, every pound is a success – so we’ll carry on!!