“We have to stop thinking that anything less than perfect is failure.  We have to choose grace for ourselves and our abilities.  Because the minute we decide we’re going to stop being defined by what we don’t get done and instead take pride in what we are able to achieve, grace lets truth win and unnecessary shame gives way to hope.” – Shauna Niequist in Present Over Perfect

Since December we have had a LOT of sick days in this household.  From stomach bugs, to back-to-back-to-back colds, to even a whooping cough scare, we have been living most of life in quarantine!  And when you’re super pregnant, sick, and have a one-year-old that’s also under the weather, there is a lot of t.v. parenting going on.  I am optimistically “hoping” we are finishing up the last of our last colds this week.  At the very least, I won’t be pregnant for much longer and then will hopefully get my immune system back somewhat!

Tuesday morning started off like all mornings of late seem to do – 1am, me in bed, a kicking baby shoving his feet up under my ribs, and scrunched up tissues littering the dresser with a borrowed humidifier.  Levi likes to save his exercise for after midnight so we don’t get to sleep very early around here anymore.  Sadly, it was also my turn to get up early with Micah, which made for a very tired momma indeed!  After two bottles of milk for him, a glass of orange juice for me, some time quietly playing in the living room, and a whole lot of “Full House” binging, I finally put him down for his morning nap a couple of hours later so that I could get ready to zip out to the clinic for my weekly blood work.  Sharing one vehicle means some less than ideal arrangements, including this particularly early, particularly wet, venture out.

I came home around 9am to find both Micah and daddy still sleeping, so I jumped back into bed myself for a quick cat nap.  After that, dad was off to work and not too long later, Micah was up looking for breakfast.  Crackers, toast, and fruit for him (no eggs, as his appetite isn’t as large as normal when he’s sick), and cereal for me.  Then I dragged my bedding out to the couch, plunked him in the corner with some toys, and turned “Full House” back on for the rest of the morning / early afternoon.

Micah is phasing slowly out of two naps, but usually still needs a shorter one in the afternoon to get him through until his 7pm bedtime.  (Now that it’s Daylight Savings, we put him to bed at 7 instead of 6).  I tried to use this opportunity to grab another nap myself, but with baby Levi looming any day now, and some outstanding editing to do from the weekend’s wedding show, responsibility won out and I tip-toed downstairs to get as much work done as I could before snack time.

Snack time looked much like breakfast time – more crackers and more fruit.  While he munched away, dinner was thrown in the oven (Costco lasagna cause that’s all I had the energy for), and the t.v. was turned back on for the same reasons.  After which, Micah decided he was bored with his toys and started to roam the house exploring any unlocked cupboards instead.  I quickly fixed this by dumping out a box of diapers on the living room floor.  Between the box itself and slowly removing one diaper at a time from the bag, this served as a suitable toy for the rest of the afternoon!

Daddy came home just after 5pm and helped make a salad while Micah went back to exploring the cupboards.  We have either locked or emptied his favourite ones, but he still likes to check them all out.  I totally meant to ask Nick to grab a “bump” photo of Levi while it was still light out, but forgot, so I grabbed a couple from him a couple of days later before dinner to put in here.  Almost 38 weeks!  Tuesdays are guys’ night out, so Nick left about 45 minutes after getting home, and I cleaned up Micah and put him to bed at 6:40 because he can’t tell time, and I was worn out from the early morning, lack of napping, and a monster cold.  Again, the looming arrival of baby sent me downstairs to do more editing, though I stopped by the garage on the way to grab a treat out of the deep freeze.

After my brain started to give out at the computer a couple of hours later, I retired back upstairs to play games on my phone and have a nice, long, relaxing bath in our beautiful tub full of rainbow coloured toys that I’m too lazy to remove because this is my life now.  A life I want to remember and treasure from every tired minute, to the runny-nosed cuddles, to the floating ABC’s in my tub.  Because while the days are often monotonous and exhausting, I already know I’m going to miss them dearly when they are gone.  And they go so, so fast even now.

If you want more daily life from another pregnant photographer momma, eagerly awaiting her second (we’re having a race to see who pops first since we’re due within two weeks of each other), check out my friend, Alysha’s blog!