T-minus 5 weeks April 10, 2009

Ever since I hit the second trimester, and then the holidays, the time has been flying by.  I am now counting down – five weeks from today is my due date.  As a major pre-planner, I am feeling woefully unprepared.  I don’t own diapers, a car seat, or lots of other things that will be necessary and/or helpful when the baby arrives.  But, a mini-shower tomorrow with Mike’s family in from Michigan and a real shower next weekend should remedy some of that, and then I can go buy whatever else we are going to need. 

We own all the nursery furniture that we need, but the crib hasn’t been put together, the armoire is in the dining room (as it is going to require taking the nursery door off the hinges to get it into the bedroom), the chair hasn’t arrived, and my mom is bringing the changing table next weekend.  So, right now that room is still just a total disaster area with the hand-me-down baby stuff scattered all around. 

Next week is my last week of work too.  I am cooking just one day next week and also finishing up the grantwriting project that I have been working on (due Thursday), so by Friday of next week, which also marks 36 weeks, I’ll be totally done working and I’ll be able to focus on getting stuff around here done.  I already have a to-do list that takes up an entire sheet of paper.  (Those who know me IRL would not be surprised by this!)  Hopefully the baby won’t come early and I’ll have time to get to all of it.  The nursery furniture situation probably won’t be remedied until the weekend of the 25/26, which is a little close for comfort for me, but with my parents coming in for the shower next weekend, that’s just the way it is going to have to be. 

Despite these rather minor stresses, we are just getting more and more excited.  I met four new babies this week, which helped with the excitement – 3-week-old twin boys, an 8 month-old that I hadn’t met yet, and a 2-week-old baby girl.  So fun.

A few people know the baby’s (probable) name, but we aren’t telling many people.  I did tell the nurses at the RE’s office and one friend in Maine. Everyone else will have to wait until May to find out.

We’re still debating cloth diapers – Mike is still pretty hesitant and I am a little hesitant – and are going to a cloth diapering class in a couple weeks to see what we can learn about it and whether we really want to take the plunge.  In the meantime I have registered for a few different types of diapers, so we’ll see if some nice family and friends will buy them for us so we can try them out.  We are finding out that more and more of our friends are using them and really love them.  In fact, all four of the new babies I met this week are diapered this way. 

Baby Ito has been moving around a lot the last couple of weeks, except for a couple hours this morning when I didn’t feel him at all – I drank some chocolate milk and laid down to see if I could feel him moving, and sure enough he did after a few minutes and has been moving ever since.  But I was a little nervous when I hadn’t felt him…I am still afraid that this miracle is going to be taken away from me.

But overall, all is well and I am both really excited for the birth to get here, and still nervous about the whole birth process.  I just can’t wait to see him!