working mama's, how are you doin'?

[texmati]

I'm at the point where I constantly remind myself that I get paid for my work, so I should not tell my boss to 'do it himself!'.

How are the rest of ya'll hanging on?

[redclover]

I am freakin' exhausted. Every night when I come home and face the WALL of house work that is neglected by everyone else in my family I have no choice but to cry. And colapse on the couch. I've been sleeping 10 hours a night, but it doesn't combat the six days, eight plus hours I have to be on my feet being somebody polite.
Unfortunately, my six year old thinks I'm a cranky mama. She did tell me, even though, I laugh a lot which made me feel good.

Sigh.

[kythryne]

I'm counting down the weeks until I go on leave, let's just put it that way.

I'm a one-woman retail business, and October through December is when I make about a third to half of my income for the year. I was NOT happy when I realized this meant I would be working my butt off right up until a couple of weeks before my due date. Luckily most of my customers have been with me for years and are very understanding about the fact that I'm having a rough pregnancy, but in the name of professionalism I'm downplaying just how rough it actually is and pushing through as best I can. At least I have Zofran and a flexible enough schedule that I can sneak in a nap most days...

[Simonsez2u]

I'm okay so far. I am fortunate in that I really like my job and the people I work for are great. That makes a difference. When I was pregnant with my last I worked for a different company and it was a struggle to get through the day. My biggest problem is that I am getting to the point where I am uncomfortable sitting (or lying down for that matter). I have a short waist and it already feels like something is jabbing into the underside of my ribs.

Lately I find that my energy level goes down around noon (to the point that I would LOVE to take a nap right at my desk). My DH and I have always shared the housework load so that is not a stressor for me. I cook for the week on Sundays, so when I get home from work I heat up whatever is available and spend the rest of the evening with my son and DH.

[stormgirl]

I work for myself, and with the diffficult pregnancy, that seems to equal a lack of motivation to create in my studio, and exhausting days trying to sell my work. I, too, make a sizeable chunk of my income at the holidays, but also because every other year I've made sure to sell almost every single day in December. This year, I have to pick and choose where to be more carefully, as I just don't have the energy to give that many days to the world. Crossing my fingers that the holiday retail for local handcrafts picks up a little this year!!!

[venusthrow]

I have mixed feelings about work. I just got back from a trip to disneyland for work/vacay and honestly sitting in a chair every day has been very very nice. But I miss my girls and the stress of the job does get to me. The pregnancy dreams don't hep. Especially when I am dreaming about work.

[texmati]

I feel so tired, and have 0 motivation. I'm worried about not having enough work to do, but a little voice in me just says, don't worry about it-- you are exhausted!

[mamatoElias]

I am only working part-time (20ish hours per week), but I'm exhausted. I work a 12 hour shift once a week and then work one or two short shifts as well and I am exhausted. I feel like it takes me a couple days to recover from that one long shift!

I'm behind on housework, have nothing ready for the baby, and my energy level is dropping by the week. I try to keep time with my kids and husband as my priority and just do what I can to get through the rest, but my five-year-old told me yesterday that I'm not very much fun when I'm growing a baby and that I don't play with him anymore. Fortunately, no one except me cares that the house is a mess, I'm never caught up on laundry, and we had nachos for dinner last night. Actually, my husband very sincerely thanked me for the nachos and said they were great. I just don't remember being so tired ALL THE TIME with my other two pregnancies.

[Pirogi]

I thought it would be a lot harder, actually. My first pregnancy, I hated work, and it was only part time in hours. This one I am working full-time, a 10-hour day with the commute. I will have to work up until I have the baby, and then return at 6 weeks pp. Hopefully my general feeling of well-being will continue until the baby gets here.

[HippieMamaBE]

I'm only working 24 hours a week, sometimes less, but I'm on my feet all day. By the time I get home my feet hurt so bad I can't wait to go to bed. I actually am on work limitations(my normal hours are 24/week) but my MWs won't let me work any more than that since a mandatory 16 hour shift a few weeks ago sent me into contractions that took two weeks to settle down. The last few days after work I've noticed when I lay down at night I still seem to be contracting. Guess I'll be chatting with my MW at my appt. I do plan on working only two days a week starting in December, I'd really like to work until I deliver this time.

[danipoppins]

oof... I work 40 hrs and sit at a desk a good portion of the time, but am also in and out of my car and doing home visits. I'm starting to get really uncomfortable at my desk and getting in and out of the car. I'm pretty sure I quit driving about this time when I was prengnant with my son.

I have 7 weeks left of getting new cases then I'm just finishing up my work and helping other folks out as needed until I go into labor I'm counting down the minutes until I stop getting new work, hopefully that will make the last few weeks feel more tolerable.

[plenilunio]

Originally Posted by redclover

I am freakin' exhausted. Every night when I come home and face the WALL of house work that is neglected by everyone else in my family I have no choice but to cry. And colapse on the couch. I've been sleeping 10 hours a night, but it doesn't combat the six days, eight plus hours I have to be on my feet being somebody polite.
Unfortunately, my six year old thinks I'm a cranky mama. She did tell me, even though, I laugh a lot which made me feel good.

Sigh.

That's me, minus the luxury of 10 hours' sleep you're getting every night! I have pregnancy-induced insomnia to top it off!

[DaisyMae08]

I teach high school and then teach horseback riding lessons in the afternoons/evenings and on weekends. I'm trying to start cutting back on the riding lessons, but I feel badly letting down my clients. It's just getting too exhausting to work two jobs - particularly since when I come home from teaching lessons I still have stacks of papers from school to grade, housework to do, etc. My husband is trying to get me to give up the lessons, but I'm hoping to stick with it a while longer so I can stash some more money in savings since I'm taking a pretty lengthy maternity leave from the high school. It wouldn't be so bad if I could actually sleep at night.

[mra]

I lucked out this year because I don't have a full time classroom like I normally do (thank goodness because there are about 30 kids per class due to budget cuts). I help coordinate the reading program so I teach a reading class for two hours in the morning and then tutor kids and do other curriculum work during the rest of the day. I actually get to sit down to eat my lunch, snack when I'm hungry, go to the bathroom when I need to and enjoy some peace and quiet, unlike the years when I'm a classroom teacher. I get to stretch and sit/stand whenever I need to. No lesson planning for half my weekend, no dealing with parents, no report cards...

I'm still looking forward to my leave. The plan is to take the rest of this school year off starting in January and then the entire 2011/2012 school year.

I don't get too tired during the day, but I do find that my patience isn't that fabulous (and it normally isn't that great when I'm not pregnant). I tend to get annoyed pretty easily. Despite having easy days, I'm ready to go home at the end of the day so I can do some exercises and then relax so I can get to bed early. I pass out on the couch around 8:00 every night. I can't keep my eyes open.