Pregnancy bed rest absolutely stinks.  Bed rest when you have other little ones to take care of can be down right impossible.  How will you possibly keep your house clean, the kids fed, or even harder keep the kids occupied?  Well it all depends on the age of your kids.  Enlist help for the house chores if you can, having your husband pitch in or another friend who is willing to come dust.  I find that this is the easiest of the obstacles to hurdle.  There is always someone willing to come lend a hand with the house. 

Crock pot meals make a great way to get dinner going with minimal feet time on your part.  That brings us back to the kids.  We have what we call “Epic Story Time” here.  The kids each bring me as many books as they can carry.  Sometimes they take two trips.  We all pile into my bed and snuggle while we read all the stories.  This lasts longer for my four and a half year old than it does for my 21 month old, but I’ll take what I can get.  After our Epic Story time, my daughter likes to act out some of the stories that she has heard.  Little brother often joins in the play too.  I get to sit on the bed and enjoy them acting like little fools pretending to be characters out of their story books.  It is fantastic for their imaginations and frankly my daughter likes making up her own stories more than anything.  If worse comes to worse, your kids will not be completely ruined if they spend more time than usual watching television.  If you sit with them and talk about what they are watching, you can turn it into a perfectly educational experience.

-Stephanie Wright