Nesting: The Final Countdown

I don’t know about any other Mama’s out there, but the nesting bug has hit me HARD this week!  I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve waited so long to do remotely anything (talk about a fourth child alright!) or if the nerves and anticipation are starting to kick in. But either way, I am handing out cleaning “to-do” lists to everyone in my family.

Prepping Our Home

I’m feeling confident that we will make it through this week and then enter a crapshoot of ‘when’. So all these week I am taking time to focus on cleaning and reorganizing our home to get ready for the baby!

First up, our bedroom!  I am currently reorganizing the space to set up an area for the baby’s bassinet and all the nighttime things we will need to make it through those first few months. A few items I am adding into our room this time to make life a bit easier:

A mini fridge to store bottles and breast milk overnight and a bottle warmer. No way do I trust my over exhausted body walking down our steep stairs in the middle of the night to freeze the breastmilk. Phil is also going to tackle some overnight feedings this time around, so having those things readily accessible upstairs will be super helpful. Before you get ahead of yourselves, Phil has always taken on tasks outside of feedings. If you breastfed at all, I know you know my struggle! I would freak out about how much frozen/stored milk we were using knowing that I would need an ample supply when returning to work. So it would take a lot for me to allow him to tackle a feeding. But now that my schedule and routine looks much different and I won’t be returning to a 40 hour a week job outside of the house, I feel more relaxed on asking him for help in that department.

Other things I will continue to store in our room as usual:

• diapers
• wipes
• creams
• extra jammies
• pacifiers

All the things the baby will use throughout the night to spare us searching for any of it deep into the low-sleep hours of the night.

Secondly, the nursery!  Listen, I’m not even going to tailspin here. Is the nursery necessary to have completed before baby’s arrival? Nope. Because that baby won’t even see the nursery for at LEAST four months. But does my photographer self need the nursery finished? Yup. So that’s that.

Thirdly, unpacking and setting up the baby items! We still have to get the car seats unpacked from storage and set up. Be sure to check out the universal recall list if you are reusing an older car seat. The baby swing, breast pump, stroller bassinet, and baby carriers all need to be found. And I mean, found. I quite literally have no idea where we stored them since the last newborn around here.

Lastly, the older kid’s rooms, all need to be cleaned up and organized. I want to be sure that our older kid’s rooms are cleaned up and organized to help them be a bit more independent during those first few chaotic weeks. I want to be sure they are set up in needing little help with getting themselves dressed and ready for the day, ready for bed, bathrooms are stocked with shampoos, body washes, and toothpastes. And, of course, one last trip to Costco for a plethora of snacks that they can easily access to feed themselves when needed.

Emotional Rollercoaster Leading Up to the Big Day

Regardless of the rollercoaster, my main focus in these final weeks is just to take it all in. Enjoy every last moment of this pregnancy. Take a million and one photos. Spend time with our older kids before their world is rocked by a newborn. And just soak in these final moments as a family of five- before we become SIX.