I can admit that I was not mentally prepared for how tired I would be during pregnancy.

Even before I knew I was pregnant, I was exhausted. As the weeks went on I was debilitated with fatigue and I found myself in this constant internal struggle wanting to work and get things done around the house while being acutely aware that I simply could not do it. When my Husband would come home I would be apologizing endlessly and then trying to force myself to rush around and get as much done as I possibly could to show him I wasn’t a lump.

After a couple months of me pretending to get stuff done and pleading my apologies of resting instead of checking things off the list, my Husband sat me down and lovingly put me in my place. The thing I hadn’t considered is that during pregnancy our bodies are doing double-time. There is SO much going on and changing that our focus genuinely should be on rest + nutrition. Anything beyond that is a bonus accomplishment!

Here’s the thing about rest: it is a conscious action.

It’s not laziness.
It’s not doing nothing.
It’s not just sleeping.
It is choosing to rest for the betterment of you, your body, your mind and overall well-being.

Rest can also look differently for each of us depending on our lifestyle, our responsibilities (the ones we cannot avoid like other children), and our culture. I invite you to look at this closely and consider what is an absolute necessity along with a realistic timeline. An example: Thursdays used to be my day for laundry, it was a mental thing for me that if I did it on Thursday evenings, my weekends wouldn’t be bogged down with a task like this and we’d have clean clothes for the weekend. With pregnancy, I had no idea how I was going to feel on Thursday, so putting a timeline for it wasn’t making sense. I had to let go of my expectation and just get laundry done whenever I felt the energy (or the bin was overflowing).

My point is, we have to be flexible and we must give ourselves grace. If we won’t give ourselves grace in times when we aren’t functioning at 100%, how could we ever expect anyone else (including our partner’s) to give us grace?

The other key here: allow others to help.
Whether you ask for the help, or it is freely offered to you, learn to accept it.
When we decline help, we aren’t being Super Woman. What we are being, is the type of person who denies another human from being a contribution to ourselves.
Read that again.
We are being the type of person who denies another human from being a contribution to ourselves.
Oooof.

THAT is reality though! And why would we want to prevent someone from expressing kindness to us? Why would we block generosity from those that love us?
Pride.
This is a perfect lesson to learn during pregnancy so that when we have days in early Motherhood when we really need the support, we have the ability to accept help and even potentially ask for it (that part is necessity). That’s a topic for another day…. But for now, ponder Rest, how it occurs to you and how to create more conscious Rest in your life.