Before I got pregnant with Baby B2, Ellie and I were in a great rhythm.  I felt like I really had a good handle on housecleaning, other projects, cooking, baking, hanging out with friends, and generally feeling like life was really in control.

Here’s an example of a typical week in my planner in the good times:

lots of jobs accomplished on the right, lots of fun appointments on the left

Then everything fell apart.

First, Ellie got sick and stayed really sick for almost a week.

Around the same time, my first trimester sickness hit.  I wasn’t nauseous per se but my abdomen hurt, all the time.  There never seemed to be the right combination of food that I could eat that would get me to feel better.  I tried all the tricks (ginger, lots of protein, etc) but nothing really worked.  This was almost exactly how I felt with Ellie but slightly less intense, thankfully.

In addition, I was extremely exhausted and had no motivation (NONE) to do anything.

So here’s what my planner looked like doing those times:

During the day, I muddled along, doing just the bare minimum that I had to do to make it until Nik got home and I could go to sleep.

In the evenings, my habit had been to also be productive – sewing or other projects.  That went out the window too.  All I could do was read and even then, I couldn’t even read worthwhile interesting books.  So I read a lot of really light fluffy books, which I generally avoid.  In May, I read almost 25 books.  I do read a lot but that’s a lot, even for me.

Then, the summer happened.  I started feeling better (Praise God!!) and then we went on a three-and-a-half week vacation to Europe.  Then we got home and it was the chaos of summer.  We were getting lots of projects accomplished but still, I definitely didn’t feel like I was in any sort of good rhythm.

Now, it’s September, and I’m just now trying to get back into a good routine again, trying to keep the house relatively clean, trying to get my “must do before baby comes” list accomplished, trying to make Christmas presents, and on and on.

But, here’s the problem with letting yourself get a little bit lazy:  It’s really nice.  It’s great to just sit around every night and read a book.  It’s nice to not push yourself all the time.  It’s hard to break that “easy living” habit and get back into the “be productive” habit.  It’s been particularly hard for me at night to not just come in from nursing Ellie to sleep and just flop on the couch with a good book.*  Part of this is just being pregnant and tired but part of it is just being a bit lazy.

During the day, Ellie and I have been doing better, going for a walk most mornings then trying to get our key jobs accomplished for the day.  In the evenings, I’ve been trying to balance resting with doing some fun projects.

So things are getting a little bit better, a little bit easier, and probably will be perfect around the middle of December.

Then the new baby will come and life will reset again! 🙂

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*I keep track of all the books I’m reading on Goodreads.  So if we’re not already Goodreads friends, you can join me there, we can be friends, and see what each other is reading!