Nesting? Not quite. {38 weeks, 1 day!}

Supposedly, when a pregnant woman feels that labor is imminent, there's a nesting instinct that kicks in and said hugely pregnant woman will suddenly get the urge (along with the necessary energy) to clean the house top to bottom in preparation for their little one's arrival.  I know some people who swear it really happens, but in my experience it's nothing more than another old wives' tale.  Last time I supposedly had a little burst of energy and motivation during my 39th week, but it really wasn't much to brag about. 

When we saw friends and family for the holidays I was repeatedly asked if we were ready for this little one to arrive and I kept saying that no, we weren't, and I was serious about that.  I feel like maybe Mark is more ready for this little one's arrival than I am, but I was quite serious about not being ready for several reasons including the fact that we had done very little in the way of preparations.  However, once Christmas actually passed us by it was really apparent that it was time to get moving on preparing for this baby's arrival.

I'm a total procrastinator.  I always work better when I'm up against a deadline so maybe this is just the way I nest.  It's not a natural thing that comes along with a burst of energy, but rather I get slapped in the face with just how soon baby is arriving (and how much I have put off) and it forces me to start getting things done.  I'd really rather that whole natural nesting instinct kick in because even though we're now getting things checked off my mental list (yeah, I don't write stuff down either...) I don't actually want to be doing these things.  I'm tired.  And very pregnant.  And my belly feels heavier every day (although... I'm still feeling relatively good so I'm hesitant to complain too much!).  And all I actually want to do is lay in bed with my body pillow and a book because that's the only place I feel comfortable anymore.  Although, I'm not to the point of discomfort that I'd rather have the baby out quite yet so... that's saying something!  We still have more to do!

Since Christmas we have:

- purged outgrown toys to make room for the new stuff and put new stuff away (although, I still feel like my family room is a disaster area.  I'm not really sure how that's possible since we found space for so many things.  We still have stuff everywhere and I'm not really sure how I'm going to rectify this situation...)

- went through the baby clothes that we had in storage to pull out what we wanted for newborn - 6 months.  Put the other things back in storage and washed all the clothes we're keeping out.  Yesterday I finally folded the clothes and put them away.

- made a dozen breakfast sandwiches, a homemade frozen pizza, and 2-8x8 Chicken Broccoli Rice Casseroles (which also involved making a whole chicken and using the scraps for homemade stock) for the freezer.  I was also supposed to have a batch of Cheddar-Stuffed BBQ Mini-Meatloaves, but I think the boys are actually going to polish those off before they make it to the freezer.  Oh well, I tried!  I've been slowly stocking our freezer with meals for after the baby arrives.  I need to organize in there so maybe I'll get a post up sharing what we have.

- transitioned Jack to a toddler bed!  We kept putting this off.  We're only on day 3 (so he's slept in his bed 3 overnights and 2 naps), but it has gone really well so far.  (Thank goodness!)

- cleaned our room including the windows, washing curtains, dusting, and vacuuming.

- mixed up a batch of homemade detergent and started prepping the newborn diapers (they have to be washed and dried multiple times before first use so they're absorbent enough).


And of course this is in addition to the usual household stuff.  Although, Mark has been super helpful with the day to day stuff as well so that's nice.  I still have plenty of laundry to keep up with and dinners to cook.  I keep saying that at this point I feel up to about one task a day.  That really needs to be dinner because by the time I get other tasks done and dinnertime rolls around I'm SO not feeling cooking, but with pinching our pennies take-out really isn't an option right now so I've been at least trying to keep things pretty simple because even though I usually enjoy cooking it's quite the chore right now.  I get tired so easily just being on my feet and the Braxton Hick contractions start up and it's just not fun anymore!

On tap for today is finishing up diaper prep, washing all of the covers on things like the baby's carseat, swing, bouncy seat, etc., and putting away indoor Christmas decorations.  After that I really need to take stock of what's in our freezer to see if I need to make anything else as well as make a list of any other little things we need to pick up for baby and the things I'm going to need for postpartum and go shopping for said things.  And of course deep clean the house, but you'll notice this is last on my list.  We'll see if that actually gets done or not.

We're getting there!