Early pregnancy is no joke.
Early pregnancy with two toddlers around? Yikes.
Even though I worked almost up to the day Caden and Brooklyn were born, I more or less had control over my schedule. In the early days, I often came home, ate dinner, and went to bed...around 6 pm. I was exhausted even when I woke up at 7 the next morning. I could eat what I wanted more or less when I wanted it, and banned Tyson to another room when I couldn't stand to look at or smell what he was eating. These days not only do I have to look at and smell a lot of things that make my stomach turn, I have to prepare them, too. Scrambled eggs, usually a staple around our place, have become my nemesis. (Fried eggs, though, are okay. Go home, food aversions, you're drunk.) Chicken nuggets, which I bought as an easy out as meals for Caden and Brooklyn, (organic, gluten-free...oh who am I kidding? They are still chicken in nugget form.), are not friends with me these days. Veggies? Don't even look at me. Carbs are great, though! If Caden and Brooklyn turn into the kind of kids who only eat mac and cheese, it's totally this third baby's fault.
We've had to scale back our schedule, limiting our two outings a day to maybe (hopefully) one. And not in the afternoon. By the time 2:30 rolls around I'm ready to go to bed. For the night. The park is kind of exhausting, and I know it's summer, but can we just go to the library again? Horizontal parenting of the just-bring-all-your-toys-and-books-here-while-I-lay-on-the-couch variety has been my parenting "style" as of late.
Don't even get me started on the last time I cleaned anything in our apartment. (In the back of my mind I'm thinking, "We're going to be moving soon...it can just wait, right?") I'm lucky if the toys even get picked up anymore, which I usually tend to religiously every night and naptime.
(So bored from being inside that they've resorted to playing with mine and Tyson's laundry hampers. Which we may have had since college. Don't judge.)
And still...we're surviving. Caden and Brooklyn are learning more and more to be independent in their play and activities. The other night I put a lasagna in the oven for dinner (don't sound too impressed, I bought it from the local Italian deli) (garlic bread, too) (MOAR CARBS PLZ) and during the hour it baked, Caden and Brooklyn played by themselves. THE ENTIRE TIME. While I read a book and dozed on the couch. It was amazing. And while I sometimes feel guilty for not interacting with them much, (mom guilt, it'll get ya every time), I know that the more they learn to do things on their own the easier it will be once baby comes. Lord knows I'm with them all day, every day anyway. They can do with some independent play. Tyson and the kids have been on their own more and more for dinner, while he runs to get whatever sounds good to me at THAT EXACT MOMENT for my dinner. We've been eating more takeout, and since we're not really doing anything else, it hasn't really taken a toll on our budget like I thought it would.
Despite our lack of nutrition (it's getting better...salads sound good again!), I know from last time that this is all just a phase. I will cook again. The nugget-shaped foods will remain out of our cart and on their frozen grocery store shelves. I'll be able to get up and moving and we'll get outside and to the park again. And, probably pretty soon, I won't be quite so tired (y'know...until the baby arrives).
Until then, you can find me on the couch.
Until then, you can find me on the couch.