Overdoing It

Sometimes I feel like I use being pregnant as an excuse to avoid things I don't want to do.  Sometimes I sit and watch when my brain tells me, You could help if you wanted to....  Sometimes I feel guilty or wonder if people are thinking I'm being a baby about being pregnant.

Well yesterday Dustin and I decided on a few things we needed to get done around the house, like laundry and errands and working on the baby room.  (Working on the baby room is on our list every Saturday....we usually don't end up getting to it for one reason or another).  After breakfast, we made the spontaneous decision to go see Harry Potter 7 with some of the Christmas money we'd gotten from our fabulous family, since who knows the next time we'll be able to go out to a movie together.  Then we ate lunch with my sister Miranda.  When we got home, we realized our fish tank was in desperate need of a thorough cleaning, so that became our next priority even though we hadn't really planned on doing it. 

I was getting a little worn out once we were done with the fish tank, but I was determined to get the laundry and baby room done that day because somehow I never get to them.  Besides, it was only about 7:00 at night, giving us plenty of time to get more things done. So we kept working.

My body was really protesting by the time we had been working on the baby room for an hour or so.  I realized we couldn't possibly get the whole room cleaned out and put together that night, so we decided to at least get the bookshelf put together and the books put away, since they were a big part of the clutter.  Well, we got it done and reached a stopping point at around nine thirty or so. 

By the time I was finally able to lay down in bed that night, my body was toast.  I was sore everywhere and completely exhausted.  I didn't feel like we had really done anything that strenuous that day, but I realized it was just a lot of bending over, sitting and standing, going up and down the stairs, driving around, and crawling around on the floor.  Nothing that would really affect me in a normal, "not pregnant" state. 

As I lay down to sleep, my body gave me this little talk.  Maryann, you are nearly 37 weeks pregnant.  You really can't do all the things you used to be able to do easily.  Stop feeling guilty if you don't feel like you can't do things you want to.  Take it easy. You can keep working on the baby room, but no more overdoing it!

The view from 37 weeks