Relaxation

For my birthday in June, P gave me a certificate entitling me to a pre-baby spa day and a post-baby spa day. Saturday, I redeemed the former and had a maternity massage, manicure, and pedicure. That night, we went to a friend's place and sat on her deck and ate chips and grilled veggies and other foods. Then Sunday, we had our family and friends baby shower.* When I thought only of those things, I concluded I had had a very relaxing weekend and couldn't understand why I felt so wiped out on Monday morning. Which I did. Not just that I-should-go-to-bed-earlier kind of tired but the I-can't-believe-I-have-to-be-awake-ever-again kind of tired. And I still feel that way.

Then I remembered that we went out to dinner and to see the new Batman movie at the Imax on Friday night with good friends of ours.** (I highly recommend seeing it on Imax.) It wasn't an incredibly late night, but we don't usually go out both nights in a weekend these days. And late on Saturday night (post-BBQ) I also cleaned out the closet in the nursery when P was at a friend's place playing video games with the boys. I got all the junk out, moving most of it to the attic, but some to other places. I swept decades of dust off the top shelf and off the top of the built in dresser. I cleaned the nasty crap out of all the drawers. I cleaned the floor. And it finally looked like a place we could actually put things, for the first time in the three and a half years we've owned our house. Oh, and I watched some Olympics. Then Sunday, before the shower, I went to church. And we went to the hardware store to get a rod for the closet in the nursery, since there wasn't one. Then the shower, the first half of which involved a lot of standing around and talking to people and the second half of which involved sitting and being stared at (while opening wonderful gifts). I am not a big fan of being the center of attention, and having to sit in front of a room full of people while they all stare at you is exhausting. Then my dad, his fiancee, my brother, and SIL all came over to our place: my dad and his fiancee for a tutorial on using an iPod, since that's how they plan to play music at their wedding this weekend; my brother and SIL just to hang out. It was between 8 and 9 by the time everyone had left, and we still had to unload the car from the shower since it had been pouring when we got home. And then I stayed up late watching the Olympics. Oh, and I continue to do my best to gestate a person.

Perhaps this week's exhaustion is less inexplicable than I thought.

*More on that in a separate post -- I want to include a few pictures, but don't have them yet.

**Our friends started Lupron in preparation for their first IVF cycle early the next morning. I hope you will join me in sending good thoughts their way.