Pregnancy always feels really long to me even though the reality is that it's never any longer than 9 months. There is so much change and anticipation and planning that fills those 9 months that each day is new and different and hardly ever predictable. There is joy in the journey but I cannot even begin to tell you how relieved I feel to be 34 weeks along and about 6 weeks away from bringing our bundle of joy home. My pre-baby to-do list is unrealistically long given the time frame at hand, but I have already made peace with every single undone item on the list.
For weeks now I have been sensing that it's time to wrap commitments up, slow down and simplify. My body is tired and I've been finding myself struggling to muster up the motivation to do even the most routine parts of my day like clean up our breakfast dishes or put away the laundry. I had to come to terms with the fact that growing a healthy baby takes work (and lots of energy!) and the pull that I feel to sit down and take a break is okay. As I am sure you can imagine, taking a "break" with a busy toddler underfoot takes a certain amount of creativity and intentionality but I've been doing my best to listen to my body and still meet the needs of my family each day.
One way that I've been finding time to rest is by reading lots and lots of books with Nicole. She loves to be read to so increasing the time we spend snuggled up reading together has been no problem at all. We have a few places in our house that we "snuggle up" and read and it is absolutely heartwarming to watch Nicole get ready for story time. When we sit on the couch we pull out a fuzzy yellow blanket and Nicole almost always holds my hand after we're both cozied up underneath it. She also loves to read books in my bed. While this new routine has not been very conducive to keeping our bed made throughout the day, it has become a routine packed full of sweet memories and lots of learning. Each time Nicole climbs into my bed, she snuggles her legs under the covers and joyfully kicks her tiny feet while learning back against Shawn's pillow. We read and read and read until we've read through our whole stack and we're ready for a new activity.
I am also creating a little more margin for rest by wrapping up some of our commitments. At this time last year, Nicole wasn't really big enough to participate in activities beyond story time at the library so I spent a lot of time pushing her in the swing outside. This winter has been unseasonably cold and wet so our outside play has been minimal and our structured activities have kept us both moving. Spring is rapidly approaching and so is baby brothers due date so it feels appropriate to start letting go of some of our commitments.
To start with, I have been semi-regularly hosting a cooking class for the last 2 years. I had plans of meeting 3 final times in January, February and March but after being completely exhausted after our January class, I knew I had to call it done sooner rather than later. We already had a February date on the calendar and I didn't feel great about canceling even though I knew I didn't have the stamina to spend all night in the kitchen. So, we switched the event to a celebratory dinner, which Shawn graciously cooked for us. Everyone came over Monday night and it was really fun to remember where we started and to hear that the girls feels more comfortable and confident in the kitchen as a result of our time together. I'm sure we'll cook together again someday, but it feels really good to know that at least for now, it's okay to shift my energy other places.
Next, we said a temporary goodbye to gymnastics lessons. Nicole has been passionately participating in tiny tots gymnastics lessons for the last two months and I have been blown away by how much she loves it. She has learned to do things that I have never been able to do and she has enthusiastically tried any and all new skills that the coach showed her. She looked forward to Tuesdays every single week and blissfully involved herself in each lesson. I have to admit that I feel a small amount of guilt wrapping the lessons up 6 weeks before we expect baby brother to arrive but from the start we had only committed to two months of lessons. My parents bought Nicole these lessons as part of her Christmas gift and it's not outside the realm of possibility that she'll be gifted a few months of lessons each year. In the meantime, we're pretty excited (and also a little nervous) to see how she applies her gymnastics skills on the playground.
Lastly, I am teaching my last parent-child swim class on Saturday. Nicole has been faithfully teaching with me since she was 9 months old and now that she's 2 1/2, she could probably run the class without me. It has been a treat for me to connect with other parents and equip them to help their children be safe and comfortable in the water. I spent a long time debating when to be done teaching but I'll be 35 weeks pregnant at my last class, and committing to the next four week session after that felt a little unwise. It's bittersweet to be saying goodbye to this very stable part of our weekend routine but I'm also looking forward to having our Saturday mornings back. We have big changes and many new needs on the horizon and I want to be equipped to tackle them with as much energy, grace and ease as I can.
We are joyfully anticipating the arrival of our new baby and we can't wait to introduce him to you! I hope you're having a great week.
Love,
Erica
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