While lying in bed

People have been asking me what I do all day, lying in bed. At my worst, I do nothing. When I'm in too much pain, it takes too much to read or even watch TV. All I need is to lie quietly with no sounds or noises around me. When I was pregnant with Caleb, I literally just looked out the window every day for about 3 weeks. I remember this, because it was spring and I watched the bare branches out my window grow tiny little buds and then blossom and grow into leaves. Real exciting, isn't it?

But I'm still early on in the pregnancy right now. The worst doesn't usually come until about 9-12 weeks, so I've still got another week before I descend into "bud watching" mode. Mostly I pass the time reading, watching TV episodes on DVD, or surfing on the web. Dehydration and nausea makes it difficult to concentrate on anything for too long, so I mix it up a lot, punctuating each activity with a rest, just lying still. If I sit up for too long my stomach muscles start to protest and the nausea gets really bad.

But today I realized there is something I else I can, for short amounts of time...learn to play my new violin! This is something I've wanted to do for many years, and after trading a clarinet for a violin with a friend a couple weeks ago, I can now start to realize this dream. So this morning I found a couple of online lessons on beginner's violin and gave it a go. Turns out I'm actually picking the basics up pretty quickly. After a few instructions, I started to just experiment on my own. Knowing the guitar helped a bit, but mostly I'm just trying to play different hymns (which are pretty easy and slow) and getting the feel for the fingering and the bow.

Granted, it doesn't sound fantastic yet, but the tunes are actually recognizable, and not scratchy and screechy at all! I definitely overdid it this morning, though. Even though I was lying in bed while playing, it still took a lot of inner muscles and my whole inner core is rumbly, and I'll probably throw up. Lesson learned. But I'm excited to give it a few minutes every day, and actually try and do something productive while lying in bed here!