Week 30: How can I possibly be this tired?

I’m currently sitting at home in Omaha and enjoying one of the blessed little treats that are occasionally awarded to us teachers—our very first snow day! Since the school districts called off school yesterday around 2 p.m., I had a decent amount of time to think about all the things I wanted to accomplish today with this gift of a day off. Make chicken noodle soup for dinner, put a batch of homemade applesauce in the slow cooker, and begin my long-range substitute plans for maternity leave.
Well, so far, I’ve cuddled with my daughter while watching my husband snow blow the driveway, realized I had no egg noodles and, therefore, cannot make chicken noodle soup, looked up the applesauce recipe and tried to gear myself up to peel apples, and thought about pulling my lesson plan book out of my bag. Then I “rested my eyes” for 20 minutes. Because I am oh-so tired.
I don’t know quite what the deal is. Yes, I’m 30 weeks pregnant, which I realize is in the third trimester. Third trimester = more tired … again. Maybe it’s because I know I can’t go anywhere today with all of the snow. Maybe it’s because I am still catching up from the exhaustion of our babymoon last week. Whatever it is, I can barely keep my peepers open today!
Of course, once I try to lie down to take a nap, my leg hurts. So I shove a pillow between my knees, and then my thigh goes numb. Then I start thinking about all the things I should be doing around the house. Is it time to start washing the baby’s clothes yet? Does the baby even have clothes yet? Should I do some online shopping for the baby so he or she can get clothes? And then I think I might have to go to the bathroom. Tired as I am, I can’t sleep. So I get up. Eat a little cheeseless (see Week 28) pizza for lunch and feel even more tired than I did before.
And speaking of exhaustion, let me just talk a little bit about the end of our trip last week. We had a wonderful time at Disney World—Olivia loved almost everything about it (except sitting still on the bus rides). Her first view of Mickey and Minnie was the best part of the whole trip. (See the photo.) Toward the end, we could tell the sleepiness and craziness was starting to catch up with our darling daughter (and her mama!).
I was looking so forward to taking her to see Disney Junior Live at Hollywood Studios. She would not sit still. And I’m telling you, it felt like she was the ONLY child in the entire theater who was not listening to her parents’ requests to sit down. Finally, the show started, and she got to see the beginning of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse—live! She was in awe … until Mickey, Minnie, and friends left the stage and Sofia the First and company entered. Her jaw dropped, and she looked all around, trying to see where Mickey and Minnie went. And then she freaked out. She started wailing and we gave up. We grabbed our sleepy toddler and booked it out of the theater.
That night, she was a handful at dinner. We went to Magic Kingdom for our last morning, and it rained on us. And rained. We had issues with transportation back to the resort, so we were super rushed eating lunch. The first leg of our plane ride home had crazy turbulence (which Olivia thought was hilarious and mommy thought was NOT). And after all of that, my big plans to return to work on Friday fell apart. I knew there was no way I’d be able to be at my best for my students the next day. And it was a good thing, too. Our family camped out for a two-and-a-half hour nap Friday morning (right about the time I would have been teaching reading).
So I’m feeling rather tired these days. For a number of reasons. I have 10 weeks to go, and I know the sleepiness now is helping prep me for living with a newborn again. Until then, I’ll grab a nap when I can—and I’ll cross my fingers for another snow day tomorrow!