Its not house arrest, its a triplet pregnancy

In our initial consultation with the high risk OB we asked about physical restrictions and the possibility of bed rest.  He said something that turned out to be so very true.  "I don't need to give you any restrictions.  Do what you feel up to doing.  Your body will tell you when it needs to slow down."  And so it did.  In the early months when my mother would tell me to slow down, I reminded her of this conversation and insisted that there would come a time when I wouldn't be able to do so much, so let me do it now.

I was fortunate.  I never went on bed rest or had any formal restrictions, though sometimes my frequent appointments felt like a restriction!  Sure enough I did slow down.  I continued to work to the very end, but pretty much went to bed as soon as I got home.  I also began to park in a reserved spot very near my building at work, rather than the lot a block away because I'd be winded, in need of a nap and having back pain before I sent

my first email of the day.  I found that I felt up to getting out and doing things, like going to my older kids' track meets and an outdoor summer movie series and things of the like, but my limited energy, the summer heat and the 18 pounds of babies, plus placenta, etc I was carrying made walking too far pretty difficult.  My close parking spot at work inspired me to inquire about temporary handicap tags for my car.

Just prior to 32 weeks I asked my OB about this and couldn't believe how easy it was.  I wish I had swallowed my pride and asked sooner.  Their office submitted all the paperwork and in less than a week the tags were mailed to my door.  This allowed me to continue to go to my kids' track meets without using up all my energy on the walk from the far side of the parking lot.  It allowed me to continue with some sense of normalcy which was really important to me for the big kids.

I'm sure the process is a little different state to state, but I urge you to look into it.  I didn't want to be thought of as handicapped but I also didn't want to be under house arrest.  The temporary handicap pass gave me some freedom to get out and about in my final weeks of this triplet pregnancy.