‘Tired’ doesn’t even begin to cover it

One of the questions I field most frequently is, “How are you feeling?”

Usually, this is just one of those obligatory niceties and no one expects you to go into your gripes about sleep or nausea or stretch marks. In polite company, you are expected to say you’re doing well so no one has to worry too much about you and everyone can go about their day.

In my situation — I’m at the 22-week mark in my pregnancy — and I have to be honest, I’ve been lying to people for the most part.

Now, it’s not like I’m having an awful go of it. Millions of women have severe morning sickness at some point in their pregnancy — although why they call it “morning sickness” when it strikes at just about any time of day is beyond me — and I’m a lucky duck as far as that’s concerned.

And I feel like I don’t have much of a right to complain at all. After all, anyone who reads this column knows I tried to get pregnant for two years and fought long and hard along the fertility treatment path to happiness. So after all that, I’m pretty sure I’m a schmuck to whine at all.

The only reason I even bring it up is because I feel like I’m outright lying to people, even my closest friends and family.

The truth is I’m tired. I mean drop-dead, bone-weary tired. Sure I’m not sick per se, but for the past month I’ve felt like I can barely do anything. I walk across the room and I’m wiped out. I fold a load of laundry and I need a nap. Someone suggests any sort of outing that involves me getting out of a vehicle and moving any part of my body and I have an entire inner-monologue session to convince myself that no, this is not, in fact, a death sentence.

I just don’t know how I did this the first time around. I first pregnancy was a dream. It was my regular life with the addition of some kicks, a waddle and some heartburn. This time around, I can barely get everything done.

Maybe it’s because I’m older. Someone suggested it’s because I’m already a mom this time around. My theory is that I have a parasite. Not trypanosomiasis (otherwise known as African sleeping sickness); I mean a literal parasite sucking everything it can out of me to grow big and strong.

I say that with no malice in my heart. What baby wants, baby gets. But now that I just wrote a 400-word-plus column, I’m pretty drained. I think I’ll just lay down for a bit.

— Sarah Leach is editor of The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at sarah.leach@hollandsentinel.com or on Twitter @SentinelLeach.