Discovering New Limits

It's a fact of life everyone is going to have to face sooner or later: at one point or another, your body is no longer going to cooperate with all of your ambitions. For me, I first experienced this yesterday, at age 27.5 and almost 12 weeks pregnant.

Yesterday's ambition was actually a project started over a year ago; a mammoth goal of completely cleaning and organizing our old stone basement. We cleaned and organized so much, but by the end of last summer we ran out of motivation and energy. Though it was semi-organized, the space was left looking chaotic and cluttered with shelving units unopened in their boxes waiting to be assembled. We finally both went down there yesterday, and started moving stuff around. First, we took all the recyclables and moved them to the car. Cardboard, five paper bags full of newspapers, and a huge bag of plastic bags I've collected to recycle the past couple years Michael said looks like the size of a barrel of oil! Then Michael assembled the shelves, and one by one the boxes and bins were removed from the piles and stacks on the floor. I carefully used a canister vacuum to sweep up some of the dust, covering my nose and mouth for safety's sake. If you would have seen the before and after, our basement could have been featured on one of those shows on the Learning Channel. It was truly an effort we were proud of. The once embarrassing nightmare now looks spacious and organized at last, my vision is a reality! I even wiped down the 2.5 years of grim and lint from the washer and dryer.

There are still a few things we still need to remove, like the old sink the previous owner left us. But I was able to find a non-profit organization that sells home improvement items and things people will reuse for their projects. Tomorrow they'll even come pick up the solid, cast iron beast for only $25! Finally, we're reclaiming our space. The final step will be either throwing away or giving away left over stuff from a yard sale I had last year. But it's all only in one small corner now. Michael moved a table down in to the basement that he will now use for his model railroading projects and painting. It will be a nice place for him to work that he won't have to clean up all the time, nor worry about me or Baby having to smell fumes when he's working with paint, epoxy, resin casting, etc.

I had no clue I had overexerted myself until it was too late. After emerging from our basement, I noticed I had this headache that came in and went with varying intensity for the rest of the night. I also became aware had a sore tail bone, and tight upper back. Thankfully a Chinese couple (she is 33 weeks pregnant) had us over for dinner so we didn't have to cook. I definitely was not feeling so great at all. The headache was still lingering this morning, but drinking a little tea and making a point to relax really helped. As for the tail bone, this is going to prevent me from attempting to do too much today. It aches the more I walk, and when I tried to bend over and wash some dishes in the sink I stood up and had shooting pain! Yes, new limits are in place, and I'm going to respect them. I also know, this is only the beginning.

Tomorrow again I will take pictures, and these will be the last from the first trimester. I discovered the second trimester officially begins at week 14, so I have only two more weeks to go! I am still a little hesitant about really shopping for clothes (for me or baby) too much until after that point, though I know all should be fine and though I have had a couple offers from people who want to take me shopping. I am truly planning to take them up on it later. I really just want to get through this first trimester first at least. Plus, part of me feels awkward shopping for real maternity clothes when I'm not even showing yet or know what that will be like. It's like a young girl shopping for a bra before she has even developed! I also plan to wait until after 20 week ultrasound to really think about registries and all the other details. Until then, I'm content just taking one day at a time and even relaxing a little before diving into all that.