Ready for Baby?

With my due date only a week away, the countdown has begun!

“Nesting” has kicked in and made me desperate to get “everything” done before baby comes, impossible as that is. So I have to prioritize. While my heart is ready for this baby anytime, my home and my to-do list are another matter. (And with the experience of raising two previous babies, I can’t kid myself that taking care of a newborn isn’t an all-consuming job.)

Here’s how my list looks as of today:

Nursery
Decorated, cleaned, and stocked. Baby clothes are washed and folded and ready in the drawers. Really the only thing missing is a crib mattress. The new one I bought didn’t work because the fitted mattress protector and sheet actually compressed the mattress so much that it created an unsafe gap between the mattress and crib. I need to find a sturdy, non-shrinking mattress, and quick!

House Cleaning
My house does not stay clean for more than a few minutes. Reason? Two kids, 5 and 2. That said, a quick pickup of toys, sweeping, and vacuuming will do wonders. (Okay, the floor could use mopping, as well.) I really, really, want to come home from the hospital to a clean house. Sooo…I’d better not clean too soon. Maybe when I start to feel those first mild contractions, I’ll start scrambling. Such a good plan, huh? Give me some credit, though. I did three loads of laundry today. (Wonder when they’ll get folded, though…)

Baby Books
Is it just me, or do other moms feel the guilty pull of completing these little mementos (overwhelmingly detailed encyclopedias) for their babies? All I know is, I can’t keep them up-to-date and they hang over me, taunting me. (Gotta go research how to spell that Great-Great-Grandma’s last name for the family tree…) But I did spend some hours this past week doing my best to “finish” the two baby books for my 5- and 2-year-olds so that I can begin fresh with this new baby. And I won’t fall behind, this time, I promise! I will write a complete description of her first day home and the current events going on in the world. That sounds so much better than sleeping!

Hospital Bag
I put the bag in my room and I wrote a list of the things I should pack. Good enough for now, considering almost everything I will be packing I use on a daily basis, so it makes no sense to pack yet.

Christmas Gifts
Since I will now have two children with birthdays sandwiching Christmas, let’s just say gift-buying and wrapping will be a challenge each year. This year, though, I’m pleased to admit I did shop ahead. I’m almost done. For any remaining gifts that need to be bought, I am very thankful for Amazon.com. I doubt I’ll do any wrapping before baby arrives, but I think I’ll do that as one big marathon some magical, sleepless night in December.

Writing My Latest Novel
My goal has been to write a good chunk of my sequel to Frozen Footprints before this baby is born; this goal, I’m happy to report, I’ve accomplished. I’m currently working on chapter 15, which is probably about halfway through the novel. I’d like to complete chapter 15, but either way I’m fairly satisfied. Keep in mind this is only a rough draft. I’ll take about a month of “maternity leave” (though I hope my imagination doesn’t) and return to the manuscript (with new ideas for the remaining chapters, please) in January. My New Year’s goal is to complete the entire rough draft and then begin revising, editing, and polishing. If things speed along smoothly (and my children let me work?), Ivory Tower Press may release the sequel by the end of 2014, although I can’t promise there won’t be major rewriting that could push that date into 2015. But I’ll do my best. It’s just nice to have a goal to shoot for.

Writing Book Reviews
I still have several books on my “to-review” list that I still haven’t gotten to, so I apologize to any authors waiting on me. I must admit that the wait will continue for a little while longer…

Sleep
Personally, I’d like to stock up on about twenty hours a day right now to make up for the coming deprivation. But if I did that, I probably wouldn’t get any of the other goals accomplished, would I?

A good start would be to get off this computer.

So there I have it. Practically, I may never be quite ready for this baby.

Yet in my heart, I’ve always been ready, even long before this baby existed. So come anytime, dear baby. I’m so very ready!