Feeling Unprepared

Coordinating life to prepare for a second baby is much more challenging than with the first. Everett is such a good helper, which I love, but naturally his presence can be more of a hindrance than anything when a deadline is in place: February. Most of our prep work must then be done after he goes to bed, but after working a 9-hour shift while pregnant, I can tell you the last thing I want to be doing at 8pm is painting/laundry/planning. As a result, I have done a lot of hiding my head and pretending that things will eventually work themselves out. Not a good solution.

Last week my boss shut down work an hour early, and I danced (with a waddle) a victory dance out the door. A WHOLE HOUR TO MYSELF. To tackle this giant mess...

This is the nursery. Don't judge! I honestly wish I had a before picture from a few weeks ago, because it was even worse.We have managed to purge a couch, chest freezer, TV stand, old chandelier, and queen box spring, and now we are left with this. This room has been a catchall for months, so much of the setback has been from our organizing the rest of the house before facing the nursery design.

It is amazing what one can get accomplished in an hour, especially when it is during a period of the day that isn't plagued by heartburn. I wouldn't necessarily say I've made a New Year's resolution, but I have definitely been better about writing things down and making lists to organize my thoughts after the chaos of the holidays. Doing this helps me compartmentalize things, as well as prioritize, and pregnancy brain is a bit more controlled when there is a visual reminder. A whole hour last week gave me the chance to create a list, as well as begin a few of the more daunting items.

By setting realistic goals for myself ("I will accomplish 3 large tasks on my list over the weekend."), I finally feel like I can pull myself together to get things in place for when the baby comes. As we speak, car seat covers and baby clothes are being laundered. We have manged to blow through many of the projects on the to-do list, and we have managed to add many more. I call this progress. This weekend we plan to install the car seat bases, which blows my mind that we are at this point already. Soon we will be packing our bags and putting our contacts on 24/7 alert.

Baby is coming!