Thursday, 28 November 2013

A lesson in slowing down


Today I've gone from the giddy heights of happiness to the draining collapse of exhaustion. If it wasn't for being in the 3rd trimester, I'd assume I was bi-polar!
Today, I have collapsed in a heap. I didn't have a great night sleep but I hazard a guess its more than that. In my first week of maternity leave, I have been out and about every day. Between baby shopping, visiting child care centres and a few trips to the shopping centre, I think it's been a bit too much. Moving furniture around the nursery probably didn't help either.

I thought I was doing well, planning my days to be out in the morning and home in the afternoon. I now turn into a pumpkin at 3pm and need to be able to just sit or lie down. Clearly, I have been doing too much.

I was looking forward to maternity leave to do everything I needed and wanted to do. I had dreams of getting out and about, going out for lunches and catch ups and finishing my shopping. I am going to have to take a different approach.

I forgot to factor in that my sleep will be more interrupted as I get bigger and the pressure on my bladder increases. I forgot to factor in that I will need to use more energy to do the basic things because just walking is harder. I forgot to factor in that summer will hit and drain me more. 

Today has been a wake up call that I need to take each day as it comes. I need to be prepared that I can crash and burn at any time. I need to accept I have to slow down. The whole point of being on maternity leave was to rest up and prepare for Sticky's arrival. I think I've been focussing more on the preparing than the resting so now I need to find more of an equilibrium between the two. 

One of the greatest challenges throughout the pregnancy has been learning to slow down so maybe I have some resistance to the fact I need to change my lifestyle. I simply cannot be the mover and shaker I use to be. It seems a funny thing to resist because how I lived my life before pregnancy is the old me. "Mum" life is soon to become the new me. I just need to learn how to do it! 

Image by foto76
Courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net

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