Life Goes On While Pregnant

In the course of the third trimester, while nesting and resting are ideal pursuits, I'm unable to do those things.  My daughter simply won't allow it.  She had a week off of school.  We re-enacted school and got heavy into the arts and crafts. We baked. We decorated the apartment for Halloween. We shot a kids yoga DVD. We sorted through her clothes, toys, and books. The closest I got to readying for the baby was clearing a shelf out.  I thought about bringing the crib up from the basement but was stopped for two reasons: 1.) I had no one to help me. 2.) I still think I'm getting ahead of myself.  I am going about life, though carefully and healthfully, as if the big belly were just an appendage.  The apartment needs cleaning of some sort everyday.  I daily give my daughter care and attention and love. Job searching, studying my finance course, and helping with http://www.familyfitnessguy.com/ comprise my days. I still need to get through my 34 weeks. Life can't be interrupted by my condition of late pregnancy. And I'm glad I don't stop for it.  Women forever have been living their lives regularly up until labor comes. Except the wives of King Henry VIII who had to bed rest from the moment they found out they were with child.  When I wash my dishes, I notice my belly doesn't allow me to get too close to the sink, so my lower back aches while I'm scrubbing away.  Well, I can't let those dirty dishes stack up.  My daughter still needs her semi-weekly bath where I am finding it harder and harder to get down to wash her hair. But wash her hair I must.  What I am experiencing is what life requires of us. It is good to be pushed and challenged.  Even sweeping the floor is challenging to me. What a wimp I am to even say it.  Women are doing so much more all the time. I am glad to be in the periphery of their company.  I know that all life will go on except for those few days in the hospital where I will be essentially spoiled.  And I need to keep the complaints down now and the on day I come home with the fact that I have two kids, an ever-needing apartment to be cleaned and maintained, and bills to be paid.  Yes, life goes on. I will be bending, lifting, carrying, sorting, washing, cleaning, scrubbing, moving, placing, reaching, pressing, pulling, grabbing, rising, and turning everyday here on in.  No respites, as much as I would like to have them, they'd do me more harm than good. I need to be challenged lest complacency sets in, for I am susceptible to that and must fight it.  Bring on the chores!