[Kontessa]

For those of us not working a "paying" job I was wondering if you started cutting things back yet? This is what my weeks tend to look like and I think I need to cut back already, I am so draining.

Mondays:
Pick up Litia drop her at home.
Back into town ofr Tobys morning play date and mama breakfast with friends.
Shopping day! So very draining with kids.
Home to drop off food and Toby with friend.
Drop Litia off on way to Cheer practice.
Pick up Toby
9pm home
Get kids to bed, and finally get e-mail and me time.

Tuesdays:
9am Circle time.
Kids get ready for Day and Mommy eats breakfast (Kids do before circle time) and gets internet time.
10am-noonish Main Lesson for the day.
Lunch
Toby nap
Craft time for DD and I.
Second block lesson.
Toby gets up and snack time.
third lesson.
Cooking Lesson for DD that we bring to church that night to share.
Dinner
6:30 off to choir practice.
9:30 home to put kids to bed.
Me time and hopefully energy to clean.

Wednesday:
Looks like Tuesday but that evening is a committee meeting for church or actually a free night! Have to fit some things in the week though so normally have to fit in missed lesson durring this night.

Thursday:
Day looks like the last two but have Cheer practice again.

Friday:

9am Toby goes to day care (We just started this)
9:30 I open church for homeschool co-op
12:30 close building up.
Afternoon depends on many things. Should be at homeschool games till late afternoon.
Pick up Toby.
Some fridays there are faith things I have to do, others it is holistic moms and waldorf book group. Those nights I get home very very very late.
Saturdays: DD cheering at football games. Hard on both of us in the sun! Rest of the day I tend to crash and plan the next weeks to dos and lessons.

Sunday: Church, choir, GI Rights, CYRE......... depends on the week really. Home by mid afternoon and I try to clean while Toby naps. Fit in extra lessons. tack care of fish tank and pool and yard stuff.

There is more I know I am forgetting but still. I just know I need a break.

I tried to get out of church tofay but friends would not let me. They just have no clue how badly I need some quiet peaceful time.

How in the world am I going to fit in learning Hypnobabies and finishing Birthing from within?

People are not going to be happy with me when I start cutting back! I feel like I need to though, I hurt all over most day and the BH get scary some times.

 

[StacieM]

Yes - I have started cutting back. I no longer feed all of our dogs by myself (it requires a lot of bending). DH and oldest DD have also taken over all the dog walking as well. I will NOT weed eat our back yard any more....DH will have to take that over. I do NOT pick things up from the ground unless I feel like it...the kids are doing all of that since it's usually them that caused the objects to be laying around on the ground anyway. My kids are also the ones to move clothes from the washer to the dryer and from the dryer to the couch.

I also stopped coaching softball about half way through this pg...this is the most time off I've had from softball in years.

So, though I don't have a paying job....I have already cut back and will continue to do so as the weeks continue.....it's one of the perks of not having a paying job...I have more leeway to cut back.

 

[BF124497]

Every day has been packed full for me: moving in, working on home-improvement projects (putting up shelving, creating wine storage, refinishing bookcases, countless trips to IKEA...), shopping and meal prep (for now and post-partum), and trying to get some yoga or walking in at some point. Before that, I was also teaching yoga and doing some volunteer stuff with refugees, so in that sense, moving across country made things a bit easier.

Tonight we had family over to celebrate the home finally being done, and this marks the end of so much work! Beginning tomorrow, I'm cutting back to regular home maintenance, working on a cookbook, and getting-ready-for-baby stuff. I don't have kids, or a "regular" job, so part of me wonders how I'll fill the time...but the past few months have been a bit overwhelming, and I feel some rest is really necessary now.

 

[renaissanceed]

As of today, yes!

I'm working part time and will continue to do so until Nov 2nd (my official EDD). But in terms of what other committments I have, I managed to survive the weekend and I'm now officially giving myself permission to sleep and rest as much as possible.

This weekend, I organized a Babywearing Fashion Show as part of the Breastfeeding Challenge in our city, an event held across the Canada. The fashion show was a lot of fun, but in between soliciting models, photos, doing layout and design and write-ups for the poster board, writing the script for the announcer, dealing with creating handouts, having a last minute printer disaster and then dealing with myriad last minute changes was rather exhausting. It all turned out great but I am so glad it's over.

That was SAturday. On Sunday we were a participant house in a local tour of renovated older homes. THat meant that after the challenge on SAt and on Sunday morning, we cleaned like crazy people (having already spent about 2 weeks prepping for this by doing all of those things that you don't do to a house until you are going to sell it - like fill the holes in the walls from pictures, tidy the open closets etc). DH said he can't remember the last time the whole house (1800 square feet plus basement) has been vacuumed at the same time, the bathrooms clean, the beds made and the dishes done!

Tomorrow, we are hosting our weekly potluck group, but we decided to do that since the house would already be clean, and it'll be the last time we do it before Sprig arrives and then we likely won't host for a couple of months after his/her arrival. Of course, weekly potluck group entails anywhere from 10-25 adults and 5-15 toddlers and babies, so the clean up afterwards can be daunting, but I'll have no one to impress so I can take my time.

As for regular activities, we are trying to just maintain the core ones - playgroup on Wed and music on Monday. Aside from that, we stick close to home.

 

[scheelimama]

Kimmy, I think it sounds like you need to cut back. I couldn't keep up with that schedule. I found very early on in this deployment that I really had to pace myself or I would get sick or not be a nice mommy (because I'd get too tired and overwhelmed.)

During the week, I get up at 6:30 to get myself and the girls ready for the day and take Scheeli to school by 8. We usually have something going on in the mornings, but I often have an hour before any playdates/bible studies etc. So, I come home, do the dishes, sweep the floor, and do a quick pick-up. Then Bronwynn and I take off, unless we actually have or simply take the morning off. Really, the only mornings we don't do anything is when I'm just really not feeling up to it physically, so those mornings, Bronwynn ends up watching t.v. most of the time while I doze and just relax. Then we pick up Scheeli at noon, come home, eat lunch, then the kids play for awhile while I relax. Lately, we've had mommy nap time a lot in the afternoons. We all go to my bedroom, I turn on the t.v. for them, and I nap. Then I play with them outside or inside, then it's time to start dinner. After dinner, I almost always take them outside to play for awhile, then bath time, and bedtime routine. Then I get time to myself and often chat with dh for awhile. We rarely do anything in the evening. I'm too tired by that point and my kids have to be in bed by 7:30 with how early we get up. It seems like I'm not doing much already, but I'm thinking about putting Bronwynn in daycare 2 mornings a week at CDC just to get a bit more break. I haven't been dealing well lately and have been utterly exhausted.

 

[AimeeandBrian]

I'm just going into overdrive now. I haven't done anything to prepare, so now I am very stressed out.

Since I'm a SAHW w/o kids, I wasn't painfully busy before anyway. I filled my days, but I wasn't stressed. Now I feel like there aren't enough hours.

 

[YankeeMomInVA]

My body is now FORCING me to cut back. I have been very resistant to doing less until recently, when my efforts caused a few bleeding incidents.

I have a hard time asking for help. I like being self-sufficient.
And if it wasn't for the fact that it's not just my life and health that can be affected but the baby's, too , I'd probably keep going until I dropped.

I now have us down to the basic activities... Colin's swimming, gymnastics, and t-ball (which is on weekends, so daddy is there!) ... and once a week we go to the playground so Colin can play with his friends. Mixed in are some playdates. I like to have a minimum of one day during the week where we have nothing at all planned...so Colin and I can bum around the house together and read, bake, play games, etc.

 

[JamesMama]

Yup.

I no longer do the dishes. We don't have a dishwasher and washing them by hand is too painful. DH is supposed to keep up on it, but there is a whole sinkfull right now. I might have to break down and do them myself.

I don't do as much of the laundry, I 'help' DH but for the most part he does it. We live in an apartment complex and we're on the 2nd floor, the only washer and dryer is on the 1st floor. DH doesn't like me to carry heavy laundry baskets up and down the stairs. If I do do the laundry I put them in a laundry bag and just kick it up and down the stairs. LOL

Thankfully, my older DS isn't involved in any activities so I don't have to worry much about him. We just fly by the seat of our pants. Sometimes we go to a friends house, sometimes we stay home, sometimes we go on a walk.

I'm having to limit our walks due to swelling in my feet.

But right now I'm realizing I've done NOTHING to prepare for the new baby so I'm jumping into hyper drive and trying to get as much done as possible before I reach 38 weeks so I can totally rest and relax for the last bit of my pregnancy.

 

[melissakc]

I am definitely cutting back. I fell asleep with my head on the kitchen counter last week and DH was like, you have got to slow down! I run out of steam around 3 or 4pm and I still have so much to do! I've decided to stop doing anything in the afternoon so that I will have the energy to cook dinner, do the dishes, and do the whole bedtime thing with DD. So if I have errands or playdates or appointments, they have to be in the morning from now on.

I think it's a good warm-up to being the mother of a newborn. We're all going to have to say NO to lots of things soon!

I agree you need to slow down, Kimmy. What friends would convince you to go out to church instead of resting when you are dog-tired and this pregnant?

: I hope they'll be more supportive in the future.

 

[boogiemonster]

I agree with the PPs, Kimmy. Take it easy. You don't want to end up with PIH because you burnt yourself out.

I WAH (I own a theatre school), and it's been crazy here, but my classes get up and running this week, so it should slow down until December/January. I still haven't found anyone to help out around the office then, so I'm in a bit of a panic, but at this point I'm ready to let the gods present me with an answer rather than making myself bonkers over the whole thing.

I'm trying to take it easy around here...actually, my body doesn't give me a choice most of the time. I lie down with DD to help her fall asleep at nap times, and, unless I have really pressing work for my business, I just let myself konk out with her most days. I really needed an afternoon nap in my third trimester the last time, too. The nighttime sleeps are just too interrupted with frequent bathroom visits to be enough.

On a side note (not trying to hijack the thread though), my DH and I are in the final days of remortgaging our home, which means we'll have the money to completely pay off our (daunting) student debt and our car loan. Wheee!

I posted about my WAH stress here a few months ago:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=703705

Our house has more than doubled in value since we bought it and this remortgage will be a major step in allowing me the freedom to give up my small business if I just can't keep on top of it all anymore. I'm thrilled.

Okay, side note over!

Rest up, mamas. We have a long road ahead!

 

[*Lindsey*]

Well...

Since I was put on bedrest, I was forced to cut back at 27 weeks. Since being released from solitary confinement,

I'm enjoying being able to do things for us myself. Granted, my energy is sapped and if I do too much I start having contractions, so everything in moderation.

I don't go crazy mind you. Just dishes/laundry/sweeping floors/cooking. I take the kids outside to play and I sit in a chair and watch them.

 

[GinaRae]

I cut way back about the time I hit 5 weeks pregnant! Now I can pick up a few more things, depending on the "thing."

I am not doing anything for the schools this year, I am not bending over unless absolutely necessary, and I have been forced to lay down again for a while each day in the afternoon/evening simply because the couches/chairs in my house are now so uncomfortable!

But I have begun sewing and working on my biz a little again. I am shopping more now and doing the laundry and cleaning things in the house (from my waist up

)

So I've picked up a few things, but I am still on light duty.

 

[De-lovely]

I have cut back on outings and having the kids doing too much but I am in nesting overload. I have been cleaning out closets and freecycling and throwing things out like mad. I really want my house to be in tip top shape when Cora comes. One less thing to worry about with the holidays and my girls' birthdays etc.....

I think its good for all of us to be cutting back at this point. MAKING ourselves sit down to read, relax, knit, write etc.....so we feel like maybe we are some what replinished once our births begin.