Pacing Myself...

So I'm 33 weeks pregnant. My Lil Guy (Lil Brother) is already over 5.6 lbs (yowzah!) I'm carrying around an extra 30 lbs - or an extra 57.8 lbs, on the occasions where Elliot insists on "UP! Up PLEASE!" (I'm trying to encourage him to walk and hold my hand instead. And, in fact, yesterday he looked at me and said "Walk!" and held his little hand up towards me and... melt.) On top of all that, I've been felled now TWICE in the month of February by nasty, nasty bugs. First a flu, now a mystery flu/bronchitis hybrid that has my nose running like a faucet while my chest rattles with coughs. I need to work on pacing myself, clearly.

We had our first houseguest last week since we moved into our new place in December. It was awesome - but also meant that I had some serious work to do to get the room guest-ready. Two amazing friends came over in January to do all the heavy lifting to help get all the boxes out of the guestroom, since neither E or I are physically capable of doing so right now (THANK GOODNESS for our friends.) However, the room was still a hot (well, freezing actually, but that's another story) mess. Last week I stood staring at the room in dismay with absolutely zero energy for the task at hand. Hours of cleaning just felt so daunting. Then I just said to myself: "5 things. Find homes for 5 items and then you can stop for now."

5 things later, I stopped. Then after Elliot went down for his nap the next day, I put away 5 more... and stopped. The 5 things method held up all week, until the hour-long, curtain-hanging, bed-making frenzy that took place the morning of our guest's arrival. HOWEVER, it was only an hour of frenzy, and had it not been for the 5 Things I had been doing for days in my free moments, it would have been a lot longer. And the room is done... or, at least, as finished as it will be for now.

So tonight I stood looking at the mess that has become our master bedroom (my husband - whom I love madly - is a MESSY HUMAN BEING) while blowing my nose and hacking up a lung... and then I went and took a shower, sat on the couch, drank some fluids, and rested. Now I'm about to go put away 5 things before bed. JUST 5, then I'm going to relax and get some sleep.

A few weeks ago I would have never been able to stop after cleaning for mere minutes. The knowledge that the room wasn't finished would make it impossible for me to give up. I'm not an obsessive cleaner by any means, it's just that when I get my mind made up to start a project I don't like to stop until I'm finished.. even if it takes up my whole evening getting the job done. I would have knocked that guest room out last week in a 5 hour, one night frenzy. And then would have done the same tonight with my bedroom.

But tonight I'm going to be satisfied with my 5 things, and tomorrow I will do 5 more. I'm pregnant, I'm sick, and I have one little boy kicking around in my guts counting on me to take care of myself, and my Elliot running around the house holding out his hand to me asking me join him. I can't take care of my boys the way I want to if I'm sick. So I'm learning that sometimes to be the best mom I can be, I have to take time out to take care of myself. And seriously, trying to relax more? What a delightful new challenge. :)