38 Weeks Pregnant: Being Super Lazy, Falling Down Stairs, and Other Adventures

The Lazy Part

I’m 38 weeks pregnant with Amelia Elaine; I have been as lazy as a momma cat about to bust with a litter of kittens. That’s how I explain my current stage of pregnancy to the kids.

Remember how our momma cats stretch out in the sunshine during the summer?  The skin on their bellies is pulled so tight and we know they can hardly stand to move?  That’s me. I’m the fat momma cat about to birth.

Most days I *try* to use my slight morning burst of energy to get done all that I possibly can accomplish. Some days this means I tackle little boys baths in the morning, along with changing toddler bed sheets and organizing Amelia’s growing mountain of pink clothes. Other days, like this morning, I make oatmeal for the crew and know as soon as the dishes are in the sink that I’m done for the day.

Yesterday my sweet twelve-year-old asked in a some-what shaky voice, “so will you get your energy back after the baby?”  You see we’ve fallen into the third trimester vortex where we know that we lived an active life before pregnancy – it’s just none of us remember it at the moment.

This is all normal for my pregnancies. I deal with fatigue in the 1st trimester, have amazing energy during the 2nd, and lose all steam by the third.  I keep our plans very loose these days. I honestly tell close friends and even family that we can’t make any commitments, because most likely we will break them.

For the past two months I haven’t even been once-a-month grocery shopping. I’ve gone to our local high-priced grocery store each week and used my printable meal planners. The big question, yes, I’m spending twice as much shopping each week for the moment. It’s another area where I’m giving myself tons of grace.

The Falling Down the Stairs Adventure

Oh, and the fall down the stairs that I mention in the title. It happened two weeks ago. It was about 8 pm and I felt like I could carry out some task. Our twelve-year-old was washing dishes. The nine-year old was bringing in a night-time load of wood. And the six-year-old was giving the kitchen one last sweep for the day. My great plan was I would go upstairs and change the sheets on the king size bed while evening chores were finishing up.

However, my bladder got in the way. I accomplished pulling off the old sheets and realized that I need to hurry to the restroom. As I was lumbering down the stairs with an armful of bed linen my pace was too quick. My socks on the stair carpeting didn’t help matters. Before I knew it I was in the air, flying down 8 steps, and landed with a thud with my mid-back taking the force. I screamed like a nut. I screamed more to make sure that my back wasn’t broken. Good hubby was right there to help and keep the children back (but encouraged them to pray).

Once I was able to get up I took Tylenol and a hot shower. I had fallen on ice when I was seven months pregnant with Zion and knew the main things to look for are bleeding or fluid loss. After a few hours though I had Googled myself into hysteria over all the “what ifs.” My main concern was having placental tear or rupture because the force of the fall. I had a restless sleep with my back pain (5 out of 10 on the pain scale) and decided by morning that I needed to go into the hospital just to be sure. We spent the day on the OB floor and passed every test with flying colors. We were even able to watch Amelia on the ultrasound and confirm yet again that she’s still a girl.

 We Really Do Homeschool (I Think)

In our homeschool  we continue to be literature heavy. Usually in the afternoons when our young ones nap we have a long 2-3 hour read aloud time. It’s the meat and potatoes of our homeschool. Every afternoon this week it was as if I couldn’t get my mouth open.  For the time being our afternoon read aloud time has become a quiet family reading time. Our older boys read a few more chapters in their Bibles and then dig into their chapter books. Zion is currently reading The Call of the Wild, and Jadin is lost in a pile of WWII history books. I’m working through the Jane Austin novels that I haven’t read. I believe in my adult life I’ve worn the covers off Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility. However, since I seem to be addicted to free Kindle books, I’m currently devouring Mansfield Park. Before bed and as I’m able during the day Naomi and I are working through the Little House Series and are on The Shores of Silver Lake.

For this season we watch at least one documentary together in the evenings. If the children need expanded life knowledge on the Iditarod Alaskan race for instance, we now have that covered. We’ve watched the entire season on Netflix

We’re certainly enjoying real life homeschool flexibility as we rest and prepare for our next sweet blessing.

Thank you for praying for our family!