31 Wks, 3 Days: Feathering the Nest

Somewhere over the past few days, the nesting instinct has kicked in, big time! I have made J work his tail off! If I could tolerate it, I would be up and doing everything. J and I were talking and realized that I have about 2 and a half weeks (after today) before I am 34 weeks and they stop my drugs. If things go as predicted, Baby Zachary could be here in that little amont of time. I just feel like I have to have everything ready.

Over the past few days, we have managed to clean the basement, clean E's room, organize everything upstairs, clean out the car. Well, J has. I just perch somewhere with a cold drink and watch and direct. There are still a few more things to do. The kitchen cabinets need to be organized to find a space for Zachary's bottles, bowls, spoons, etc. And all of his clothes need to be laundered. I have those piled in baskets and ready to go in the wash, but cannot carry them to the laundry room, so J wil be doing that today.

We got the Pack and Play assembled and it is ready to go. The stroller is put together. I still need to stock the changing station in the Pack and Play and organize the drawers of the big changing table. All of the supplies are there, having already been purchased, but they are all still in the packaging. J can do that today,as well.

J finally installed the carseat in the car yesterday after he cleaned it out. It is so surreal seeing a carseat there. I thought those days were long behind me, yet here we are. It was tricky maneuvering it in there and finding it a permanent home. When E was a baby, there was no LATCH system, so we had to cruise my car's manual to find out where in the heck the hooks were in my seat. And first we had it on the side, and realized this was not good because of the side curtain airbags. My car literally turns into a pillow on impact, as there are 8 airbags in it, so we had to find a space where Zachary's carseat would fit that was safe from all of them. This also was not on issue with E, as airbags then came in the standard dual ones in front. Wow, times have changed! And poor E is going to be squished against one of the sides. Also not a problem when E was little: he was the only one, so he could sit in his throne in the center of the backseat without it impacting everyone else. Of course once we got Zachary's carseat in there, I realized that, while it is fine now, about the time he switches to foward-facing big-dog carseats, we will need a bigger vehicle. Unless I choose to only transport one child at a time,which is not going to happen!

So hopefully, after today, everything will be done. We'll be ready for him. All we'll be missing at that point is the baby. I cannot wait to see him, to hold him. But I am also scared. J's sister's baby was about 6 months old at Christmas when we went down there to visit. It was the first time we had seen him, and when I held him, it felt so strange and awkward. It has been so long since I have held a tiny baby. My life has pretty much consisted of work and school for so long, and E has been a big boy for years and years--I just don't encounter the little ones these days. So I am out of practice. I know I will be okay. I wasn't a baby person when I had E, but I learned. And I know that it is really different when it is your own.

So anyway, now we just wait.