If pregnant tribal women can do it, then so can we.

6 weeks away until Go-Day. What’s driving me crazy (the most)? Everyone keeps telling me to sit down and take it easy. With all respect, YOU sit down and take it easy.

Strangers in the Nordstrom Ladies’ Lounge tell me I shouldn’t be picking up my 23-lb toddler. My mom tells me not to bend over to wipe up splattered food under her table. Hubby tells me not to carry the laundry basket. (If I don’t do it, who the eff IS?) I’m pregnant. I don’t have the plague. I’m all good. I finally asked my OB/GYN if I was the delusional one and should be laying down with my feet up for the next several weeks. Her response? “If you feel good, then go on as usual. Think of all the tribal women in Africa who are pregnant and carry toddlers on one hip while balancing cargo on their heads?” Thank you! (I knew I picked this doc for a reason – love her!) But she did caution me to listen to my body, rest if I needed it and not to get too ambitious. I guess that means no moving any furniture.

That said, I give those African women credit. They make us American women look like a bunch of wimps. And truthfully, I kinda think we are (myself included, although I’m resisting). We’re ‘tired’ because we take care of kids. We’re ‘tired’ because we have to keep house. We’re ‘tired’ because we must cook dinner. We’re tired when/if we go to work. Please. What would we do if we actually had to wash our own diapers, hang our clothes out to dry and kill our own meals? And yes, even though pregnancy sucks energy from your body and soul… it doesn’t mean that you aren’t capable of doing anything normal (unless you have a medically-determined high-risk pregnancy and are on bed-rest, but I’m not talking about that). I’m finding that the more I bend over, the more I keep busy and the more I keep my butt in motion… the better this whole preggo-thing works out on a mental and physical level. I also have a belief (based on nothing scientific but my own experience with LadyP so far) that the way you treat your pregnancy is the way you’ll handle mommyhood. Tough or wimpy? Capable or crumbly under pressure? These days I gain inspiration and energy from tribal women a lot.

But maybe I’m the stupid one? Should I should shut my mouth, claim “PREGNANT” and make everyone wait on me for the next month?