Giving up to Survive

I'm around fourteen weeks now, and I've started to acclimate to the nausea. In order to reduce my stress I have given up a lot of things that I thought were permanent parts of my life! I am starting to function so whatever works, right?

Here is what I have given up.

1. Cloth diapers. Reuben is wearing plastic on his butt. Gasp.
2. Making my husband lunch. He just starves. I mean, he eats at a restaurant for lunch.
3. Worrying about our budget. I'm pregnant and miserable and just need to eat, not item crunch. Or make lunches for my husband.
4. Unpaper towels. We bought paper towels for the first time in two years. The Earth can look after it's own self for a few weeks while I figure out how to walk without getting dizzy.
5. Facebook. I needed to simplify. I've been having panic attacks and stress trying to keep up with my interpersonal relationships. I usually love facebook, but for right now it has to go! I need to get my own ducks in a row before I can worry about toddler advice or vaccine debates.
6. Worrying about how much TV we are watching. Am I able to lay on the couch? Is my toddler's attention not on me? Yay, who cares what else is happening.
7. Making videos. Nope, not happening. I can barely feed myself, so filming stuff is at the bottom of the totem.
8. Finding a picture for this blog post. I mean, all blog posts need pictures, so I slapped one up from Reuben's birthday drive on the blue ridge parkway, but it really isn't relevant to this post. Oh well, I don't care.

Downsizing all these things may not seem like much, but it really has been the world for me! I feel better equipped to deal with my two year old (who is suddenly so two, tantrums and all) and attempt to get something done with my life, like make food. And feed myself. And try to relax so I don't have panic attacks.

You know, priorities.

How are you guys?

Week 94

The week I threw up a lot. The week I got my hair cut. The week of morning sickness. Take your pick. Ugh. I only vlogged twice because I was having a hard time holding it together. Literally.

One year ago is here!

I'm not doing well

What do you do when you are at the end of your mom rope? This is week five or six of survival mode. Nauseousness is becoming my new normal. Reuben has not been sleeping well. Right now we are both sick; Daddy has been working 11 hour days and I just realized yesterday that I need help.

I need help but I don't know where to find it. All my friends are also exhausted overworked moms. My sister just had a baby and I can't even take care of myself right now, much less help her. My mom has chronic lyme and is also in need of help I can't give. Everyone needs help! We all need help but I'm still slowly drowning over here.

I'm so behind on everything. I feel like I will never be caught up. Every day I get through the day and my toddler is fed and usually I am fed and that is it. I feel like I am intellectually and emotionally starving. I have not been able to work on my book, knit, crochet or make a video. I miss those parts of myself because they were cathartic.

Everything feels insurmountable. Dishes? I get ill looking at them. It takes all day to have the energy to do them sometimes. I am so tired all of the time. I don't function well on little sleep. I have not had alone time with my husband in weeks, since Reuben is refusing to go to bed until we do. I don't have the energy to fight him every night, when my "morning sickness" is the worst and I'm exhausted physically and emotionally. 

I feel like my life is on replay. I watch Reuben and try to connect with him and try to nap when he naps and watch way to much TV and get annoyed with him because he has to touch everything all the time and specifically he has to be touching me and nothing makes my anxiety skyrocket then sticky toddler fingers in my hair. The poor dude is sick too, and thus wanting to nurse extra.

I love nursing. Well, I loved nursing when I wasn't pregnant. Now it is kind of like a slow torture. I don't even know if I am making any milk to help him!

Well, then daddy gets home and we both collapse on the couch and eat whatever I made or usually what he brought for dinner and I cry inwardly from exhaustion while he changes Reuben's diaper and we watch more TV because we can't function.

I'm not fuctioning.

I love being a mom. I love Reuben, I love that we are being blessed with a new baby. But I am so mentally and physically tired. I don't know how to pull myself out of this hole. I am trying to fall on my face before God but I am even too tired to do that most days! It does not help that I am bad at accepting help from others. I feel like I bother them, like I'm some giant inconvenience. The further I get behind the more guilt I feel. We've been missing church and small group--connections as an extrovert that I really need not to miss! Last week our washing machine AND our mower broke. Our budget is shot. Everything feels out of control.

new lawn mower

Lately I've just felt...that I can't do this anymore. That something has to change. But I don't know what, where, or when or how. I feel like I'm failing as a wife, a friend, a mother, and as a creative person.

Reuben also turned two yesterday and I was too sick to take him anywhere to celebrate. I still have his cake to make him, he's excited to make it with me. He doesn't know he's two. When I ask him how old he is, he says "two in July" because that is what I have told him for the last six months when anyone asks. I always said "he turns two in July". It is so cute. He really makes me happy. If only he wasn't so high maintenance sometimes! I have no idea how he is going to cope with sharing mommy and daddy with a new tiny human. My gut tells me it is going to be a huge adjustment for him, just like I am sure it will be for me.

I'm dying and I can't get up

Well, I might be the most melodramatic person on the internet: but baby number two nausea has been the 5th circle of hell. Reuben's pregnancy was only the 10th circle so you can see things have escalated quite a bit.

With Reuben, my nausea was gone by 11 weeks. Completely gone. I'm 12 weeks with this bean and still confined to the fetal position trying not to throw up most nights. 6 out of 7 nights. Some days I have ALL DAY nausea. Oh, and not just nausea. I ALSO have vertigo and I feel like I'm going to pass out all the time.

literally me all the time. not pictured, the bucket to my left

Everyone keeps telling me that second pregnancies are usually worse then first ones. I thought since my body already did this once, it would know what it was doing and be easier on me! Oh well. Lesson learned?

I like to rationalize my nausea. It ranges from 30% to "get me a bucket NOW". I tell husband the percentage so he can gauge my mood. Thirty percent means there might be a dinner when he arrives home. Anything over 50 and he needs to bring take out. Anything over 70 and he can expect to find his mom watching Reuben when he arrives home with me sobbing in the bathroom.

I hate nausea. I don't care what level of nausea you are having--any is bad. A lot is horrible. All day? Good luck getting anything done. I am so far behind on laundry that my husband went to Walmart and bought himself NEW BOXERS to wear instead of washing the 6,405 dirty ones piled up in the washroom. Men.

I have not knit a stitch in four weeks, filmed a video, or showered without calculating how far I am from the toilet. Because I need to know. Really, I do. Mistakes, or missing the toilet...are not fun.

I have not vlogged or cleaned. My husband has been doing the grocery shopping while listening to me whine about how much I hate being nauseous all the time.

Oh and the crusher....we bought Reuben a book about having a sibling. After reading said book to him, daddy asked him if he wanted a sister. He said no.

Later I asked him again. He said, and I quote "not right now mommy."

I just hope he sleeps through the night before the new baby arrives.

Week 93

One year ago vlogs are here.

Week 92

The week I found out I was pregnant! I hope it's a girl. Daddy wants another boy. Who knows?

One year ago is here!

Crochet Ruffle Boot Cuffs

I've made knit ruffle boot cuffs so of course I had to make crochet ruffle boot cuffs! To make these cuffs you will need a 4.25mm crochet hook (size G) and around 300 yards of worsted weight yarn. Crochet eats up yarn like crazy! I used about 50 yards for each base cuff (so 100 yards total) and about 30 yards for each color ruffled row (so 60 yards total per row per ruffle).

I did rainbow ruffles, but you can do one color or two or six like me! The options are limitless. You can also leave more space between the ruffles if you desire by adding more rows of hdc in the back loops. This is explained in the pattern! Good luck.

You can view the PDF pattern here and the YouTube video below (or here) Happy crocheting!

Crochet Basic Booties

We need more basic boot cuff patterns! I have a lot of funky ones that I love, but sometimes I just want something normal. That's why I designed this pattern!

For these boot cuffs you need worsted weight yarn and a 4.25mm crochet hook. Download the PDF file here, or watch the video below. Happy crocheting!

Week 91

One year ago here!