How Come Everyone Else Makes It Look So Easy?

Pregnancy was definitely much easier the first time around. There was no toddler to chase after, no family to try to feed a decent meal to every night, no fighting over bath time or bed time, no toys to trip over and/or pick up, nobody to worry about but myself. What I did have was all the time in the world to sit around reading parenting books and magazines, sleeping, and daydreaming about the little angel that was about to grace my life. It was-dare I say-easy?

When I was pregnant with Zach, I had a little morning sickness, but it didn’t keep me down. I was tired much of the time, but I could rest when I needed to. I was a little more lazy, and hubby became a little more self-sufficient, but all in all our lives didn’t change that much until the baby arrived.

This time around things are much different. By the time I get up, shower, and get dressed in the morning I am already exhausted. Then I still have to get Zach up, dressed, fed, and dropped off at day care. It is actually a bit of a relief to get to work and be able to sit down for a while (in my new office!). It gets a little difficult to stay awake in the afternoons sometimes, but I can usually pep myself up with some music and a little snack. It also helps that the bathroom on my floor is currently closed for remodeling, so I have to go either up or down a flight of stairs every time I have to pee (which is pretty frequent these days) which helps wake me up a bit.

When work is done, I anxiously go pick Zach up, then come home to start the evening routine. Hubby tries to help out, but it just seems that there is always so much to do. By the time Zach gets to bed at night, I have no energy left for anything. Most nights I’m doing good to sit up and watch a little TV before I crash. On a rare occasion, I might fold a load of laundry or check my e-mail. We’ve been eating a few too many frozen pizzas and chicken nuggets, Zach doesn’t always get a bath, and my house is an absolute mess, but we’re getting by.

Things are getting better as I adjust and try to prioritize. It certainly didn’t help that I came down with a stomach virus not once, but twice, in the last couple of weeks. Now that that is over with and I’m back to just normal pregnancy nausea and tiredness (and can finally eat a semi-normal meal again), I’ve been finding a few spurts of energy now and then. I managed to clean the bathroom while Zach played in the bathtub last night, and even managed to fold three loads of laundry after that (of course the 3-hour nap I took that afternoon when I should have been cleaning probably helped out with that extra energy). And? I’m blogging for the first time in over a week, so that’s a good sign, right?

All of the griping and complaining aside though, I am getting really excited for this baby to make its arrival. In the meantime, I’m trying to cherish every moment I have with Zach. This morning as I was getting him ready to head off to school, he suddenly looked up at me and asked, “Where’s baby?” I explained to him that the baby is in mommy’s tummy and it had to stay there until it was big enough to come out. He reached his little hand up, placed it on my tummy, and said, “In there?” When I said, “yes,” he looked up at me with a glimmer in his eye and a huge smile on his face. Suddenly, it didn’t seem like it had been that long since he was “in there.” I think he’s going to be a very proud big brother.