Is it normal to feel like a slacking parent while pregnant with your second child?

[hollytheteacher]

I swear, I just feel like i have such little patience with my 3 year old lately and all I want to do is lie around like a blob.

In the back of my mind I imgaine ds and I doing all kinds of fun things and enjoying our last moments of just being "us" but physically I just don't have the motivation to do much of anything and when he makes messes all over the house i just see more "work" for me to do and i lose my patience

wah.

Just a sad whiny vent i guess.

[Aliy]

yup.... so tried little energy... walking hurts so much.. just want to do nothing all the time

[annettemarie]

Absolutely yes!

[MaerynPearl]

Yep... and so far it seems it gets worse with every child

[nadia105]

Originally Posted by MaerynPearl

Yep... and so far it seems it gets worse with every child

[fujbeck]

Wow, I'm glad to know I'm not alone!

[lillymonster]

my dd did nothing but watch tv for the first few months! Now I am feeling a little better, but I feel I can't play with her like I could because I am tired, my stomach hurts, I am hungry, and my belly is just to big to jump around and flop like we used to.

And yes I have a 3 1/2 that is really trying my patience. Today she locked me out of the computer and then locked me out of the house! I probably wouldn't have been so upset if I wasn't hungry and had to use the bathroom.

[desamom]

Totally! I am now just over 40 weeks and think I stopped feeling guilty about a month ago. My DD had watched about 2 hours of TV her entire life before I got pregnant and now it is a staple in our morning (only 1 hour max mind you).

The one thing I found helpful was planning to do something with her in the morning and then forcing myself to do it, even if it was just a trip to the park for half an hour. Then we were home before lunch and I didn't feel guilty sitting around in the house all afternoon.

I wonder if this is all part of nature preparing our older LOs for what's about to happen!

[sewingsparklz]

You should try having 4 little ones and feeling like a slacker!

[annettemarie]

Originally Posted by sewingsparklz

You should try having 4 little ones and feeling like a slacker!

I'll see your 4 little ones and raise you twins.

[karen1968]

Originally Posted by desamom

The one thing I found helpful was planning to do something with her in the morning and then forcing myself to do it, even if it was just a trip to the park for half an hour. Then we were home before lunch and I didn't feel guilty sitting around in the house all afternoon.

I find my energy really wanes after lunch. If we don't get out in the morning, an outing is unlikely to happen. And more often than not, I rely on an electronic babysitter to keep him busy for an hour so I can nap. I wish he would nap, too, but that rarely happens. It was easier in the first half of pregnancy, on days when nausea was under control.

[elmh23]

Yes, totally normal.

[Yuba_River]

Ugh, right there with you. The worst for me is my lack of patience--I feel so mean, and I hate that!

[love4bob]

Yes! I am feeling that way now, and I'm not even pregnant! My husband is deployed, and it has put me in that mode... Short temper, low patience, tired, and lazy.

[MamaPhD]

Yes, it's short cut time!
I've resorted to only bathing her when she asks for it instead of the every other day routine. At bedtime, I dress DD in clothes that she will wear through the night plus the next day. We usually go out in the morning & have lunch out so we can drive back and DD falls asleep. THis way the minivan does the naptime routine not me. Plus I don't make lunch, ha! We watch photos on TV (instead of tv tv) from my canon. This way we can re-live the fun outing many times before we have to go on another real one. What else.....?

[hollytheteacher]

Well I feel better knowing i'm not the only one!

Seriously though, some of the things I said to ds today sounded so mean. I was like, "did i really just say that?"

I like the idea of doing an outing first thing in the morning. That definitlely would work better for me because the more I put it off the less likely it will happen! lol

[PrincessWinnie]

Yup! I got pregnant in mid-May and then our area proceeded to have THE hottest summer on record. Yeah, DS watched a LOT of tv/movies this summer.

[Nicole730]

Yes - totally normal!

A few things I found to help is one: ask for help from anyone you can! Fortunately my husband was on board with doing dishes during the first trimester, which I gagged just thinking about. And then after that I just made sure to ask him if I wanted him to do something around the house (I'm a sahm, so I do most of the house stuff usually).

Also, I would try and just get in one good, dedicated hour a day of fun playtime with DS. It was long and exhausting, but seriously - one hour a day isn't much, even though it feels like it sometimes! During that hour no yelling allowed

[kissum]

I totally think it's normal. I've been really grumpy with DD. I keep trying to plan stuff with her, but I feel miserable by afternoon. The idea to do something in the morning is a good one.

I had these big ideas of all the things DD and I were going to do together before the baby comes, but we'll just have to wait and see. Don't feel quilty. The kids won't die of grumpy a grumpy mommy and too much tv.

[Just1More]

Yeup.

I have been lamenting this for years. As a pp mentioned, add in deployments and trainings, and I feel like I've been a jerk since my first dd was about 18months old. Sigh. Nobody warns you about THIS part of motherhood...the part where the rest of your life leaves you so drained you don't have anything left for anyone else.

I will say, though, it does at least seem to come and go. We'll have spurts that are really good...I just hope my kids remember those and not the grumpy times...