It's been a long ass time since I did a substantive update. I honestly think the last two--well, one month really, have been the most challenging for me as a parent so far . . .
Started crawling at 7.5 months, a week later was pulling up, a week later was cruising. Since then it's been a lot of all of those things: lots of balance and strength training. For the first couple weeks he was just CONSTANTLY falling with bumps and bruises all over his head. Thankfully he's better at it all now and, also, I think, more used to falling.
And so baby proofing began. Add this to the mental list of things I said I wouldn't do and am now doing. The main problem here is not that my house wasn't baby proofed, but that it wasn't CLEAN. And, I've learned by now that some people apologize for the state of their house and really it is immaculate? I'm not like that. If my house was semi-clean, I would admit it . . .
I'm a "throw things to the side when I am done with them willy-nilly" sort of person. And a "out of sight is out of mind" sort of person. And a "I won't look down" sort of person, LOL! Add all these together with having a husband that is the same and four cats? And an ant's view of my house would be like "cloudy with a chance of meatballs (and cat hair)."
The first few weeks/days of crawling were like . . . I would look away for a second (to try to clean and/or baby proof something, usually) look back, and james would be bringing a (clump of cat hair/bit of stale food/leaf/etc) to his mouth and I would run over and excavate. Or I would look away for a second, and then hear a thump and he'd be crying with another red lump on his head . . . or pulling on wires, or pulling the vacuum on top of him, or climbing the stairs, or eating cat food or . . .
If it was JUST baby proofing--JUST figuring out what he was able to reach and making sure it was safe for him--well, that I think I could have handled? Or not even done!
But it was more like, all of my life I've been trying to:
-Have a daily routine
-Get exercise
-Keep my house clean
And in the last two months, finally I've achieved it. (Almost). But it was a hard transition for me. It's a lot of work to keep your house clean. I see now why I avoided it for so long.
But we are pretty much done, now. Well, what I am learning is that you are never done. BUT, our entire downstairs is now pretty much safe and accessible to james. And honestly I like it. I love it. It's nice that I can turn my back on james for awhile now, without worrying about what infinitesimal speck of poison he was able to eat.
And honestly it's sort of awesome to have a clean house. AND to have a routine. Another thing that happened over the past two months. Here's pretty much what we do now:
james wakes up between 5-6, nurses awhile, crawls all over us until we get up.
Dad changes the baby's diaper
I get up between 7-7:30, dress me and james
Then I take james on a walk--I'm up to about 1.5 miles a day!
He falls asleep on this first walk, sleeps 8-9 outside in his stroller
While he sleeps, I start laundry, straighten the living room, eat breakfast if I'm lucky, etc.
james wakes up, play a bit
Nurse and Pump around 9:30
After nursing, eat breakfast
While he eats, I load/unload the dishwasher, deal with the breast milk, other kitchen cleaning
Clean up baby, possible sink bath, possible outfit change, change diaper at least
Read books
james takes 2nd nap, 11-12
While he sleeps, I eat again or for the first time, do laundry and other cleaning.
Wake up, nurse, play, read books
Back to sleep at 2--if I'm lucky this is a long nap. I need a real break by now but if I was really smart I would use this time to prepare dinner?
Wake up, nurse, eat food again around 4:30
Clean up baby, possible sink bath, possible outfit change, change diaper at least
And then I'm not sure because I think he's dropping his evening nap, and lengthening the afternoon nap? (I hope!) Anyway, we eat dinner in there somewhere, sans le bebe.
Dad changes into nighttime diaper and PJ's, reads books, Momma nurses
Baby sleeps 7:15-8:30 in swing
After wakeup, LONG NURSING in bed with Momma to sleep.
And then ideally he would sleep until we went to bed at 11-12 and then nurse again.
So yeah, I think we are doing pretty good!
But it has been a challenging few months. I was prepared to take care of a newborn, for some reason (well, I had an easy one, too!)--I don't mind nursing a lot, or holding a little baby, or changing lots of diapers. But I don't think I was prepared for the adorable baby to become mobile. I was in denial and totally held out . . . I saw he was starting to learn to crawl--I should have started baby proofing then! But I didn't realize how fast it would be.
I'm slow. I do house projects on several year time lines (hence the fact that our "nursery" is still full of random crap). But babies don't grow slow. They grow fast. So I'm continually getting kicked in the pants but HONESTLY? It's good for me, and I appreciate it! But change is hard.
And learning how to take care of my house, my self, FINALLY, after 28 years? Is hard, too. . . it took a baby to motivate me, but it feels good . . .
BUT it's not the only thing I need to take care of my self.
I'm realizing that I need this blog. I need to write, I need to take pictures. While I've been baby proofing and cleaning and organizing my entire life and house, something else inside me has been neglected. Things stir which have not been released.
So, in the words of Yoda: Balance Find I Must.
Expecting our Little Brother in November!
Showing posts with label Cleaning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cleaning. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
I am Getting Sucked into a Teething Vortex (and other Problems)
So, I REALLY wanted to post an update at least for james 8 month birthday and also post his 7 month one which I never did. But I haven't had time/energy. Why?
Crawling and pulling up and teething AND hand foot n mouth disease. Not to mention a bunch of other things. Which maybe would be fine, but . . .
My house is a baby death trap! Not really but we have four cats and there is fur and hair floating everywhere (not to mention animal bits that go unfound, ehhh), I have always sucked at cleaning (esp vacuuming/sweeping/mopping--though I'm getting better fast) . . . not to mention that James is ripping up the floor in the kitchen, so there are bits of linoleum and god knows what else scattered everywhere . . . basically, I can't let james in hardly any spaces by himself because he is CRAWLING FAST and pulling up on EVERYTHING.
I finally MOSTLY baby-proofed my porch, so we are good out there and I can watch him there from the kitchen or laundry room, but I really want to make more of the house accessible to him so that I don't have to watch him every second. The living room is sort of okay, and our bedroom is nearly baby-proofed, but the rest of the house needs to be done.
Another problem is that he's been super fussy from teething, and he gets up SO early, awake by 5:30/6, I put him down for his first nap now (by going on a walk) before 8 am, and then he hasn't been falling asleep until like . . . 9 some nights? I feel like I have no time to myself, he's nursing so much in the middle of the night lately, I'm just exhausted.
So, even when he's napping, I'm too tired to babyproof or clean half the time. Siiigh. And when he's awake, well, I just have to watch him 24/7 because my house is a deathtrap, as I mentioned. And I won't even go into the fact that he's CONSTANTLY falling and hitting his head (with all the pulling up). I feel like an awful mother. Gah!!!
AND I also haven't had time to do any of the things that make me feel like me--blogging, going on IV, taking pictures, I just feel overwhelmed. :(
Crawling and pulling up and teething AND hand foot n mouth disease. Not to mention a bunch of other things. Which maybe would be fine, but . . .
My house is a baby death trap! Not really but we have four cats and there is fur and hair floating everywhere (not to mention animal bits that go unfound, ehhh), I have always sucked at cleaning (esp vacuuming/sweeping/mopping--though I'm getting better fast) . . . not to mention that James is ripping up the floor in the kitchen, so there are bits of linoleum and god knows what else scattered everywhere . . . basically, I can't let james in hardly any spaces by himself because he is CRAWLING FAST and pulling up on EVERYTHING.
I finally MOSTLY baby-proofed my porch, so we are good out there and I can watch him there from the kitchen or laundry room, but I really want to make more of the house accessible to him so that I don't have to watch him every second. The living room is sort of okay, and our bedroom is nearly baby-proofed, but the rest of the house needs to be done.
Another problem is that he's been super fussy from teething, and he gets up SO early, awake by 5:30/6, I put him down for his first nap now (by going on a walk) before 8 am, and then he hasn't been falling asleep until like . . . 9 some nights? I feel like I have no time to myself, he's nursing so much in the middle of the night lately, I'm just exhausted.
So, even when he's napping, I'm too tired to babyproof or clean half the time. Siiigh. And when he's awake, well, I just have to watch him 24/7 because my house is a deathtrap, as I mentioned. And I won't even go into the fact that he's CONSTANTLY falling and hitting his head (with all the pulling up). I feel like an awful mother. Gah!!!
AND I also haven't had time to do any of the things that make me feel like me--blogging, going on IV, taking pictures, I just feel overwhelmed. :(
Thursday, April 28, 2011
james' own room?
I just realized that another goal I had by the time james was 6 months was to have the room across from ours cleaned out so that we could start decorating it as a Toddler room for james. I'm thinking I'll transition him into napping in there first, between 9-12 months (whenever it's finished being decorated and it's ready). And then sometime between 12-18 months I can start transiting him to sleeping in it during (most) of the night. So that's my goals on james' room situation!
My progress at this point--welllll, there has been some. The room is particularly problematic because when I was pregnant and trying to get the rest of the house prepared and cleaned and ready for a baby, I basically stuck all of the most-difficult-to-deal-with-junk (for instance, boxes of old bills, paperwork, tax info, old journal print outs, all my stuff from teaching, boxes of clothes that don't fit, etc) into this one room so that I could keep a good flow on the rest of the cleaning . . . so then it was crammed full of stuff and very overwhelming.
We started making progress on it a few months ago when we cleaned out a lot of stuff. And since then we've gone a couple times and just spent 10-15 mins trying to clean, organize, and throw away trash and useless junk. So it's improving. Also part of why it's improving is that some of what was in it was gear, toys, diapers, and clothes for james that were too big and waiting to be used. Well now that he's five months old, I'm shocked how completely we've depleted the waiting stash. He's in 9 month stuff now (and six month stuff with a crotch extender), and in a few more months we'll start needing to actually shop for clothes for him because we've finally used most that we got at our shower!
Anyway, back to the room--we've made some progress. But we need to decide what to do with some of the things in there:
-The desk that is in there (and the one we have downstairs here). I'm thinking of setting up a computer/bills area somewhere and potentially we could put both of our desks there . . .
-And we need a place to put the filing cabinets (two small metal ones), and we have about 5 boxes of bills and paperwork to go through. That will be the hard part, going through all of that stuff. Ideally, we'd condense everything into the two filing cabinets and put them near our desk area!
(And ideally we would clean out the garage and sell a bunch of stuff (from that room and from the garage) at a garage sale this summer and/or fall, but that's more a 9 month goal I guess, haha.)
So maybe I'll be able to work more on that this week. I'm REALLY excited to paint and have a great idea for the room but I'll need to work on it. It needs a lot of planning still. A rough idea is that it will be a woodland scene with trees, birds and animals. The ceiling will look like the blue sky. But when you turn out the lights there will be glow-in-the dark stars and constellations! So fun!
I'm going to design it as a room for all my children to use between 1ish and 5ish (or when-ever they get pushed out by younger siblings). Since it's right across from us, it will be easy to put up a baby gate at night so they can reach us without the danger of stairs or getting into the rest of the house.
My progress at this point--welllll, there has been some. The room is particularly problematic because when I was pregnant and trying to get the rest of the house prepared and cleaned and ready for a baby, I basically stuck all of the most-difficult-to-deal-with-junk (for instance, boxes of old bills, paperwork, tax info, old journal print outs, all my stuff from teaching, boxes of clothes that don't fit, etc) into this one room so that I could keep a good flow on the rest of the cleaning . . . so then it was crammed full of stuff and very overwhelming.
We started making progress on it a few months ago when we cleaned out a lot of stuff. And since then we've gone a couple times and just spent 10-15 mins trying to clean, organize, and throw away trash and useless junk. So it's improving. Also part of why it's improving is that some of what was in it was gear, toys, diapers, and clothes for james that were too big and waiting to be used. Well now that he's five months old, I'm shocked how completely we've depleted the waiting stash. He's in 9 month stuff now (and six month stuff with a crotch extender), and in a few more months we'll start needing to actually shop for clothes for him because we've finally used most that we got at our shower!
Anyway, back to the room--we've made some progress. But we need to decide what to do with some of the things in there:
-The desk that is in there (and the one we have downstairs here). I'm thinking of setting up a computer/bills area somewhere and potentially we could put both of our desks there . . .
-And we need a place to put the filing cabinets (two small metal ones), and we have about 5 boxes of bills and paperwork to go through. That will be the hard part, going through all of that stuff. Ideally, we'd condense everything into the two filing cabinets and put them near our desk area!
(And ideally we would clean out the garage and sell a bunch of stuff (from that room and from the garage) at a garage sale this summer and/or fall, but that's more a 9 month goal I guess, haha.)
So maybe I'll be able to work more on that this week. I'm REALLY excited to paint and have a great idea for the room but I'll need to work on it. It needs a lot of planning still. A rough idea is that it will be a woodland scene with trees, birds and animals. The ceiling will look like the blue sky. But when you turn out the lights there will be glow-in-the dark stars and constellations! So fun!
I'm going to design it as a room for all my children to use between 1ish and 5ish (or when-ever they get pushed out by younger siblings). Since it's right across from us, it will be easy to put up a baby gate at night so they can reach us without the danger of stairs or getting into the rest of the house.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Hoarding and Unhoarding
Okay, so I guess I'll admit it: James and I are sort of hoarders (though not "compulsive hoarders" like you see on TV). We are both highly sentimental, hate wasting, have trouble throwing things away, like collecting different things, etc.
But we are not compulsive because junk does not fill very much of our house, and it gets less every year. Every year we get a little better at organizing and utilizing some things and parting with others. Over the summer, my parents came to help us, and my Dad and James cleaned out a LOT of stuff out of the garage and basement, and organized everything that we kept. Our attic is fairly clear, some of our closets are fairly clear (or at least, well organized), and all of our living areas are clear. Our house is generally messy, but not unusually so, and it definitely gets cleaned on a regular basis.
Basically, we moved into this house the summer before we got married--the summer of 2006, and it took us a LONG time (like two or three years) to get totally unpacked--there were several rooms--at least one upstairs and our dining room downstairs--that were filled with half-open boxes and things that had been unpacked and thrown aside willy-nilly, probably in the search for something specific.
Several of these rooms were still an issue when I got pregnant, and one of my goals during the pregnancy was to resolve these things, and I was pretty darn successful. I cleaned and organized every room in the house, save one bedroom upstairs. Part of the reason I was able to clean was that anything I wasn't sure what to do with (or was part of a serious organizational process), I stuck in this one bedroom. This enabled me to stay focused and clean the rest of the rooms.
But over the last couple months, some junk got piled in our library, and it was the tough kind--like years worth of paperwork that needed to be gone through and filed. So this has been James' project, and this weekend he really did a great job and the library is nearly clean again.
But our real progress happened on Saturday. I just got motivated. I went into the junk room and pulled out several boxes of old clothes that had previously been put aside because it didn't fit or was not often worn, and donated most of it to Salvation Army, with a few things pulled out with specific people in mind who might want them.
I also pulled four old computers out of that room (the big ole tower kind) to recycle, and a box of old notebooks from college to recycle as well.
Another great unloading was that we finally found a place to recycle our bottles. James and most of our friends tend to drink these really obsolete beers, and every time I would go to the bottle redemption center, I would come home with at least half of the bottles that I went there with--so they've just been piling up. But we found a place in a neighboring town that will take pretty much everything. So we went there and got 10 dollars for all our bottles!
It was a really productive "unhoarding" day--but not without its struggles. James lamented the computers and worried about people getting personal info off of them--but we worked through it. He set aside a pile of clothes, originally intending to keep them--but I convinced him to donate most of the things. I had trouble parting with an old mini-backpack that was my purse for 2 years in college, so James suggested that we take a picture of me with it (one technique that helps with sentimentalism).
So we loaded up our car on Saturday with all of these things and we returned home with it empty. Furthermore, we "threw away" very few things--we mostly recycled them or donated them.
The lesson here is that we are slowly learning how to improve our house and get better. Even though James was totally dragging his feet during the decision making process, he was ELATED when we returned home. It is very freeing to say goodbye to a bunch of junk that you aren't using!
I hope more "unhoarding" days are in our future!
But we are not compulsive because junk does not fill very much of our house, and it gets less every year. Every year we get a little better at organizing and utilizing some things and parting with others. Over the summer, my parents came to help us, and my Dad and James cleaned out a LOT of stuff out of the garage and basement, and organized everything that we kept. Our attic is fairly clear, some of our closets are fairly clear (or at least, well organized), and all of our living areas are clear. Our house is generally messy, but not unusually so, and it definitely gets cleaned on a regular basis.
Basically, we moved into this house the summer before we got married--the summer of 2006, and it took us a LONG time (like two or three years) to get totally unpacked--there were several rooms--at least one upstairs and our dining room downstairs--that were filled with half-open boxes and things that had been unpacked and thrown aside willy-nilly, probably in the search for something specific.
Several of these rooms were still an issue when I got pregnant, and one of my goals during the pregnancy was to resolve these things, and I was pretty darn successful. I cleaned and organized every room in the house, save one bedroom upstairs. Part of the reason I was able to clean was that anything I wasn't sure what to do with (or was part of a serious organizational process), I stuck in this one bedroom. This enabled me to stay focused and clean the rest of the rooms.
But over the last couple months, some junk got piled in our library, and it was the tough kind--like years worth of paperwork that needed to be gone through and filed. So this has been James' project, and this weekend he really did a great job and the library is nearly clean again.
But our real progress happened on Saturday. I just got motivated. I went into the junk room and pulled out several boxes of old clothes that had previously been put aside because it didn't fit or was not often worn, and donated most of it to Salvation Army, with a few things pulled out with specific people in mind who might want them.
I also pulled four old computers out of that room (the big ole tower kind) to recycle, and a box of old notebooks from college to recycle as well.
Another great unloading was that we finally found a place to recycle our bottles. James and most of our friends tend to drink these really obsolete beers, and every time I would go to the bottle redemption center, I would come home with at least half of the bottles that I went there with--so they've just been piling up. But we found a place in a neighboring town that will take pretty much everything. So we went there and got 10 dollars for all our bottles!
It was a really productive "unhoarding" day--but not without its struggles. James lamented the computers and worried about people getting personal info off of them--but we worked through it. He set aside a pile of clothes, originally intending to keep them--but I convinced him to donate most of the things. I had trouble parting with an old mini-backpack that was my purse for 2 years in college, so James suggested that we take a picture of me with it (one technique that helps with sentimentalism).
So we loaded up our car on Saturday with all of these things and we returned home with it empty. Furthermore, we "threw away" very few things--we mostly recycled them or donated them.
The lesson here is that we are slowly learning how to improve our house and get better. Even though James was totally dragging his feet during the decision making process, he was ELATED when we returned home. It is very freeing to say goodbye to a bunch of junk that you aren't using!
I hope more "unhoarding" days are in our future!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
My Mom's Visit
My Mom came to visit for a few days to help me clean, cook, and generally prepare for the birth. I feel like we got a ton done which is super exciting.
She arrived on Sunday at nearly 4pm while James, Marilyn, and I were carving our pumpkins. Then as soon as we finished our pumpkins we had to run out to my friend Amy's birthday dinner. I asked Amy if I could bring my Mom along to her dinner and she said I totally could! As it turned out, her parents were there, too, so it was nice to give them a chance to meet and chat. We had a great dinner and basically turned in early when we got home.
Then on Monday we sort of had a lot going on! We had a plumber coming to our house at 9 am--he fixed our water pressure and now my washing machine that used to take nearly an hour to fill now only takes like 10 mins. I can't even believe the difference, but since we plan on cloth diapering this was a necessity before Lil James arrived!
Next we had to bring Monty to the Vet because he had a funny growth on his face that I wanted them to remove. That also went very smoothly.
Then the plan for the day was to make tomato sauce. This was a good pre-baby meal plan because pasta is easy and fast to make, and if we had some jars of canned sauce, it would be really easy for James (or other helpers) to make pasta and then just heat up some of the pre-made sauce. So before making the sauce we went to the Willi Coop to buy all the veggies we needed.
When we got home, we had lunch and then started making our sauce. At the same time we were cleaning up the kitchen, washing and putting away laundry, etc. We cut up all the veggies, stirfried them a bit and threw them in a huge stock pan to which we added many jars of diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes and several other secret ingredients. Finally around 2 or 3 we were completely done and the sauce just needed to sit and cook a bit more.
At this point we got even more into the laundry (which desperately needed to be done) and worked on that until around 5 when I had to leave for my Bradley Class.
Then, the next day (Tuesday), we got three main things accomplished. We canned all the sauce we'd made the day before, and ended up with 13 quart size mason jars full of sauce! That will end up being more than two weeks of meals! Woohoo.
The next thing we did is FINALLY switch out our winter and summer clothes--I know I had previously blogged about attempting to do this multiple times but I think I just needed some support since the maternity aspect of it made everything that much more complicated. But we DID IT, and reorganized my clothes shelf and James' clothes drawer at the same time. Wooohooo.
Finally, we finished cleaning my bedroom (my Mom was awesome with vacuuming), and we rearranged the furniture to fit the birth tub, and then we brought all the birthing supplies into our bedroom so it is totally ready to go now!!
Last but not least we cleaned up the library, which has a guest bed in it, made the bed, and moved a bunch of the plants which had recently come inside around the room and other rooms in the house.
We got SO SO much done! Now I feel super ready for Lil James to be born! :-D
THANKS MOM!
She arrived on Sunday at nearly 4pm while James, Marilyn, and I were carving our pumpkins. Then as soon as we finished our pumpkins we had to run out to my friend Amy's birthday dinner. I asked Amy if I could bring my Mom along to her dinner and she said I totally could! As it turned out, her parents were there, too, so it was nice to give them a chance to meet and chat. We had a great dinner and basically turned in early when we got home.
Then on Monday we sort of had a lot going on! We had a plumber coming to our house at 9 am--he fixed our water pressure and now my washing machine that used to take nearly an hour to fill now only takes like 10 mins. I can't even believe the difference, but since we plan on cloth diapering this was a necessity before Lil James arrived!
Next we had to bring Monty to the Vet because he had a funny growth on his face that I wanted them to remove. That also went very smoothly.
Then the plan for the day was to make tomato sauce. This was a good pre-baby meal plan because pasta is easy and fast to make, and if we had some jars of canned sauce, it would be really easy for James (or other helpers) to make pasta and then just heat up some of the pre-made sauce. So before making the sauce we went to the Willi Coop to buy all the veggies we needed.
When we got home, we had lunch and then started making our sauce. At the same time we were cleaning up the kitchen, washing and putting away laundry, etc. We cut up all the veggies, stirfried them a bit and threw them in a huge stock pan to which we added many jars of diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes and several other secret ingredients. Finally around 2 or 3 we were completely done and the sauce just needed to sit and cook a bit more.
At this point we got even more into the laundry (which desperately needed to be done) and worked on that until around 5 when I had to leave for my Bradley Class.
Then, the next day (Tuesday), we got three main things accomplished. We canned all the sauce we'd made the day before, and ended up with 13 quart size mason jars full of sauce! That will end up being more than two weeks of meals! Woohoo.
The next thing we did is FINALLY switch out our winter and summer clothes--I know I had previously blogged about attempting to do this multiple times but I think I just needed some support since the maternity aspect of it made everything that much more complicated. But we DID IT, and reorganized my clothes shelf and James' clothes drawer at the same time. Wooohooo.
Finally, we finished cleaning my bedroom (my Mom was awesome with vacuuming), and we rearranged the furniture to fit the birth tub, and then we brought all the birthing supplies into our bedroom so it is totally ready to go now!!
Last but not least we cleaned up the library, which has a guest bed in it, made the bed, and moved a bunch of the plants which had recently come inside around the room and other rooms in the house.
We got SO SO much done! Now I feel super ready for Lil James to be born! :-D
THANKS MOM!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
One Month to Go: Back Pain and Nesting
My ticker is in the last box and tells me I only have 30 days until my due date! Shall we crunch the numbers?
2 is the number of days until I can go into labor and still have my home-birth (36 weeks)
9 is the number of days until I am full term (37 weeks)
30 is the number of days until my meaningless due date (40 weeks)
44 is the absolute maximum number of days that I could be pregnant (42 weeks)
12 is the number of things on our "to do before the baby comes" list (which is actually going to be updated now, and get a lot longer again, but we definitely making progress).
Anyway, needless to say, we are in the home stretch! As I enter the ninth and final month of pregnancy, I am forced to conclude that this might be the worst month of all for me.
I was very lucky to have little to no morning sickness, to find my emotions and health stabilized by pregnancy, rather than disrupted, and generally to be a pretty happy and care-free pregnant lady. In retrospect the second trimester was such a godsend! Even my issues of heartburn and being uncomfortable tend to go in waves, where it will be bad for a few days, and then I'll feel better again.
But now, for over a week (maybe even two), I have had persistent and killer back pain. Whenever I have to sit or lay down, I have to arrange a million pillows around me so that I'm not horribly uncomfortable, and even then, it is pretty bad. I am still getting regular adjustments from the chiropractor, but it seems to make no difference. Basically, I have a 20 pound uterus (baby, uterus, placenta, and fluid) pulling on my weak back muscles. The fact that the same area is always in pain seems a testament to this theory. I can practically feel it happening as I type.
Several times a day I beg James to rub it--I get down on my hands and knees to relieve the pressure--I bounce on my birth ball hoping for a miracle. But it only seems to get worse. The only time I feel relatively okay is for a few hours in the morning. :-/
A few days ago I remembered with a cry of joy that I am able to take tylenol. Now I'm struggling not to take it around the clock. I take some and then a few hours later I start wondering when I can take more again. It is fairly miserable.
And yet despite my complaining, I'm still grateful for the fact that this is the worst part of the pregnancy for me so far. At least there is an end in sight!
Okay, moving on.
We had/are having another productive weekend. As I reported earlier, we finished installing our changing area and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! James loves it, too, and keeps saying how nice it is and how glad he is that I envisioned it. :-)
Today we also gathered up the blankets, pillows, and couch cushions from the living room and are doing a flea "fogger" in one of the upstairs rooms. We don't have a serious flea problem at this point, but I have had several itchy episodes and I think there were/are a few living in our couch area. So the fogger is supposed to work for seven months, and I love that I won't have to worry about fleas for all that time. So that is happening today.
We also moved the rug in the living room back a bit, which is part of getting the woodstove ready for inspection. As part of this, we got into dusting and vacuuming some of the surfaces in the living room--the old-fashioned radio and the lamps. I was recalled back to this post as I watched James vacuum off the lampshades, but they WERE super dusty so I'm glad he thought to do it!
Hopefully the rest of the day will be equally productive. We have to wash all the blankets and pillows that just got "fogged", and I need to switch out the summer and winter clothes. (You may be thinking that you are SURE this has been on my "to-do today" list before. You would be right, readers, and yet it is still undone.) :-/
James is studying for his big exam right now, so it would be an ideal time for me to start dealing with the clothes. Will she do it, folks? WILL SHE DO IT?
2 is the number of days until I can go into labor and still have my home-birth (36 weeks)
9 is the number of days until I am full term (37 weeks)
30 is the number of days until my meaningless due date (40 weeks)
44 is the absolute maximum number of days that I could be pregnant (42 weeks)
12 is the number of things on our "to do before the baby comes" list (which is actually going to be updated now, and get a lot longer again, but we definitely making progress).
Anyway, needless to say, we are in the home stretch! As I enter the ninth and final month of pregnancy, I am forced to conclude that this might be the worst month of all for me.
I was very lucky to have little to no morning sickness, to find my emotions and health stabilized by pregnancy, rather than disrupted, and generally to be a pretty happy and care-free pregnant lady. In retrospect the second trimester was such a godsend! Even my issues of heartburn and being uncomfortable tend to go in waves, where it will be bad for a few days, and then I'll feel better again.
But now, for over a week (maybe even two), I have had persistent and killer back pain. Whenever I have to sit or lay down, I have to arrange a million pillows around me so that I'm not horribly uncomfortable, and even then, it is pretty bad. I am still getting regular adjustments from the chiropractor, but it seems to make no difference. Basically, I have a 20 pound uterus (baby, uterus, placenta, and fluid) pulling on my weak back muscles. The fact that the same area is always in pain seems a testament to this theory. I can practically feel it happening as I type.
Several times a day I beg James to rub it--I get down on my hands and knees to relieve the pressure--I bounce on my birth ball hoping for a miracle. But it only seems to get worse. The only time I feel relatively okay is for a few hours in the morning. :-/
A few days ago I remembered with a cry of joy that I am able to take tylenol. Now I'm struggling not to take it around the clock. I take some and then a few hours later I start wondering when I can take more again. It is fairly miserable.
And yet despite my complaining, I'm still grateful for the fact that this is the worst part of the pregnancy for me so far. At least there is an end in sight!
Okay, moving on.
We had/are having another productive weekend. As I reported earlier, we finished installing our changing area and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! James loves it, too, and keeps saying how nice it is and how glad he is that I envisioned it. :-)
Today we also gathered up the blankets, pillows, and couch cushions from the living room and are doing a flea "fogger" in one of the upstairs rooms. We don't have a serious flea problem at this point, but I have had several itchy episodes and I think there were/are a few living in our couch area. So the fogger is supposed to work for seven months, and I love that I won't have to worry about fleas for all that time. So that is happening today.
We also moved the rug in the living room back a bit, which is part of getting the woodstove ready for inspection. As part of this, we got into dusting and vacuuming some of the surfaces in the living room--the old-fashioned radio and the lamps. I was recalled back to this post as I watched James vacuum off the lampshades, but they WERE super dusty so I'm glad he thought to do it!
Hopefully the rest of the day will be equally productive. We have to wash all the blankets and pillows that just got "fogged", and I need to switch out the summer and winter clothes. (You may be thinking that you are SURE this has been on my "to-do today" list before. You would be right, readers, and yet it is still undone.) :-/
James is studying for his big exam right now, so it would be an ideal time for me to start dealing with the clothes. Will she do it, folks? WILL SHE DO IT?
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Surprise Shower (and aftermath!)
So on Saturday I headed off to what I thought was a dinner for my Dad's birthday at my Grandma's house. I had made a version of a pineapple upside down cake where I put the pineapple in the middle of two layers and frosted the top (it ended up amazing, OMG!). Pineapple Upside Down Cake is my Dad's favorite. :-D
James and I arrived with presents in hand for my Dad for his birthday and my Mom for her birthday which we'd neglected to give her months ago. :-/
My Mom and Grandma said that we should go down to the community room to find my Dad who was apparently down there for some reason, and to see a new painting she had done that was hanging there.
I walked in to a roomful of my nearest and dearest friends and family members shouting "surprise", and was shocked and pretty immediately overwhelmed--see it here--I wasn't even sure where to start and what to do!! But I recovered, hugged everyone, and got down to present opening.
I got SO many amazing and beautiful things! I will right now thank my family for getting me SO much useful stuff off of my registry--I have heard from (online) friends in other regions of the U.S. that no one EVER buys off of the registry where they are from, and they always get just clothes and cute things from their shower but not any of the big useful things. I'm SO glad we don't live in any of those areas!
I still got a TON of adorable clothes, blankets, toys and homemade things that were not on my registry (which I also adore), but it is definitely amazing that I got so many of the practical things (car seats for both our cars, cradle/swing, high chair, boppy, thermometer, moby wrap, activity bouncer, cloth diapers, etc). These things make us so much more prepared to welcome little James into our life!
Now there are relatively few things that James and I need to get to be totally ready for Lil James and it makes it a lot easier. (Especially since we also got some gift cards and coupons!).
People have asked me repeatedly if I was really surprised. Well, I was definitely shocked and surprised. However, of course I had some thought that this could be my shower because I only have 6 weeks left until my due date now--so any situation in which I was asked to be somewhere at some time I would have had the thought that this *could be* it. So of course I sort of thought it could be it, especially when I actually got to Grandma's house--something just seemed funny and being asked to walk down to the community center of course I thought it could be it.
But Mom and my sisters (and James) did a really good job of throwing me off and making me unsure or think that I guess it wasn't going to be the shower--like telling me that Mare wasn't going to be there because she made plans with a friend, or asking me to make a cake, or talking about how Gram M. was really excited to have us over for a vegan dinner, etc.
So while I was suspicious, I think I was the least suspicious I could have been at that point. I was also suspicious at the last 4 family gatherings, so I was definitely still surprised.
It was amazing to see everyone--especially those people who had to come from far away/busy life situations--Heather, Jessie, Yaling, Clare and Beth . . . I LOVE that people were able to meet some of my loved ones that they might not have met before. :-)
Aftermath:
So we brought all the stuff home, luckily Marilyn lives in the same town as us and was able to bring stuff in her car.
When we got home, Mare (and James, since he hadn't seen it all in the first place) insisted on going through everything again--which was good because it gave us a chance to organize a bit.
James set up the cradle/swing right away, and then the high chair. We took the car seats out and played with them, went through all the clothes again, took off tags and labels from toys and some of the things. I put the waterproof cover and slipcover on the boppy pillow . . .
And then we were still surrounded by mountains of baby stuff--some set up and in place and others still piled. James said it looked like our house with baby things superimposed into it.
I think for both of us, things have seemed a lot more "real" since we came home with all these things and started integrating them into our lives. I washed the receiving blankets and put them away, I washed the adorable hooded towels and baby washcloths and put them with our towels, I sorted the larger sized clothes from the smaller sized, and washed the first load of white T shirts, little socks, cloth diapers, bibs, and burp pads . . .
I am still surrounded by mountains of baby stuff but every day I do a little bit and things get a bit more under control . . .
And yet last night was the first night since the shower that I didn't have baby-anxiety insomnia . . . plenty of friends of mine have had this throughout the whole pregnancy, but I am a champion sleeper and have lost little to no sleep throughout the entire pregnancy experience. Until now. It is suddenly real in a whole new way--it's like there is no going back from here (not that that hasn't been true for awhile, but my mind just got it)--I'm not nervous about the birth or having a baby, but I guess our life is about to change drastically--it's a lot to take in.
But the excitement now is also palpable. I can't wait to meet my squishy baby.
Thanks for the amazing shower, everyone! I love you!
James and I arrived with presents in hand for my Dad for his birthday and my Mom for her birthday which we'd neglected to give her months ago. :-/
My Mom and Grandma said that we should go down to the community room to find my Dad who was apparently down there for some reason, and to see a new painting she had done that was hanging there.
I walked in to a roomful of my nearest and dearest friends and family members shouting "surprise", and was shocked and pretty immediately overwhelmed--see it here--I wasn't even sure where to start and what to do!! But I recovered, hugged everyone, and got down to present opening.
I got SO many amazing and beautiful things! I will right now thank my family for getting me SO much useful stuff off of my registry--I have heard from (online) friends in other regions of the U.S. that no one EVER buys off of the registry where they are from, and they always get just clothes and cute things from their shower but not any of the big useful things. I'm SO glad we don't live in any of those areas!
I still got a TON of adorable clothes, blankets, toys and homemade things that were not on my registry (which I also adore), but it is definitely amazing that I got so many of the practical things (car seats for both our cars, cradle/swing, high chair, boppy, thermometer, moby wrap, activity bouncer, cloth diapers, etc). These things make us so much more prepared to welcome little James into our life!
Now there are relatively few things that James and I need to get to be totally ready for Lil James and it makes it a lot easier. (Especially since we also got some gift cards and coupons!).
People have asked me repeatedly if I was really surprised. Well, I was definitely shocked and surprised. However, of course I had some thought that this could be my shower because I only have 6 weeks left until my due date now--so any situation in which I was asked to be somewhere at some time I would have had the thought that this *could be* it. So of course I sort of thought it could be it, especially when I actually got to Grandma's house--something just seemed funny and being asked to walk down to the community center of course I thought it could be it.
But Mom and my sisters (and James) did a really good job of throwing me off and making me unsure or think that I guess it wasn't going to be the shower--like telling me that Mare wasn't going to be there because she made plans with a friend, or asking me to make a cake, or talking about how Gram M. was really excited to have us over for a vegan dinner, etc.
So while I was suspicious, I think I was the least suspicious I could have been at that point. I was also suspicious at the last 4 family gatherings, so I was definitely still surprised.
It was amazing to see everyone--especially those people who had to come from far away/busy life situations--Heather, Jessie, Yaling, Clare and Beth . . . I LOVE that people were able to meet some of my loved ones that they might not have met before. :-)
Aftermath:
So we brought all the stuff home, luckily Marilyn lives in the same town as us and was able to bring stuff in her car.
When we got home, Mare (and James, since he hadn't seen it all in the first place) insisted on going through everything again--which was good because it gave us a chance to organize a bit.
James set up the cradle/swing right away, and then the high chair. We took the car seats out and played with them, went through all the clothes again, took off tags and labels from toys and some of the things. I put the waterproof cover and slipcover on the boppy pillow . . .
And then we were still surrounded by mountains of baby stuff--some set up and in place and others still piled. James said it looked like our house with baby things superimposed into it.
I think for both of us, things have seemed a lot more "real" since we came home with all these things and started integrating them into our lives. I washed the receiving blankets and put them away, I washed the adorable hooded towels and baby washcloths and put them with our towels, I sorted the larger sized clothes from the smaller sized, and washed the first load of white T shirts, little socks, cloth diapers, bibs, and burp pads . . .
I am still surrounded by mountains of baby stuff but every day I do a little bit and things get a bit more under control . . .
And yet last night was the first night since the shower that I didn't have baby-anxiety insomnia . . . plenty of friends of mine have had this throughout the whole pregnancy, but I am a champion sleeper and have lost little to no sleep throughout the entire pregnancy experience. Until now. It is suddenly real in a whole new way--it's like there is no going back from here (not that that hasn't been true for awhile, but my mind just got it)--I'm not nervous about the birth or having a baby, but I guess our life is about to change drastically--it's a lot to take in.
But the excitement now is also palpable. I can't wait to meet my squishy baby.
Thanks for the amazing shower, everyone! I love you!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Heartburn VS Laziness
I discovered a while back that the biggest contributor to my heartburn was drinking green tea throughout the day. I find that if I don't have any (and even while eating other, typically problematic foods), that I will have little to no heartburn. Which, delightfully, has most recently taken the form of acid/puke burps. Ewww.
However, now I'm also discovering that without my green tea (and as the baby gets bigger, heavier, and more and more greedy with our mutual oxygen supply), I am fighting the urge to do NOTHING ALL DAY. I am tired and feel like most activities are pointless. Siiiigh.
I DO have ADD and have always been quite successful with my low dose of adderall. However, I haven't been taking it since I got pregnant. Tea was a nice stand-in; a little caffeine to get me moving and focused. But without either of these things I find myself lazy and listless. Sigh.
The last few days, I've just been dealing with the heartburn. Our house can't go neglected for more than one day without serious consequences.
However, now I'm also discovering that without my green tea (and as the baby gets bigger, heavier, and more and more greedy with our mutual oxygen supply), I am fighting the urge to do NOTHING ALL DAY. I am tired and feel like most activities are pointless. Siiiigh.
I DO have ADD and have always been quite successful with my low dose of adderall. However, I haven't been taking it since I got pregnant. Tea was a nice stand-in; a little caffeine to get me moving and focused. But without either of these things I find myself lazy and listless. Sigh.
The last few days, I've just been dealing with the heartburn. Our house can't go neglected for more than one day without serious consequences.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
James is Nesting
So my parents came to help us clean this weekend, which was so so awesome of them. My parents are REALLY REALLY hardworking. They can both do heavy physical labor for like 8 hours straight--my Dad without even a break. James and I on our own are more like: Work for an hour or two, take a break for a half hour or an hour. So having my parents here helping us do anything is super motivating.
On Friday we met them (and James' parents) at It's Only Natural for a nice vegan dinner. It's a really awesome restaurant, and I thought it was a good way to start off the weekend by treating them to a nice meal. Plus they hadn't seen James' parents in like over a year so it was nice to all get together.
Saturday we were up early and got to work immediately (like, working by 8 am). My Dad and James cleaned out the garage. This ended up being an entire day job for the two of them. We tend to accumulate lots of crap--our friends leave things at our house because we are the only ones WITH a house, and think they'll come back for it but they never do. Plus we are landlords, so our renters inevitably leave things in their house. James and my Dad put a lot of things out on the curb (for "Free") and it ALL got picked up. I think we lucked out because it was move-in weekend up at UConn last weekend so everyone is filling up their new apartments and stuff.
Meanwhile, my Mom and I cleaned off and out this sideboard in our kitchen (one of those places that tends to accumulate lots of junk), went through a bunch of old mail, cleaned the laundry room, kitchen, and upstairs bathroom.
Then we had tacos for dinner. Bean with fried tempeh mixed in. We tried to play canasta after that, but everyone was too tired and we just ended up going to bed early.
Sunday my parents had to leave at noon, but James and Dad got a full morning in cleaning up the basement, and my and Mom finished organizing and putting away all the books in the new library, and getting together everything we'll need when we are camping next week, so my parents could pack it with their stuff and I won't need to bring it on the ferry. Then I made them leftover mishmash for lunch, and we said our goodbyes.
The amazing thing is that I think this work weekend pushed James into nesting mode. He has been so funny since then.
Personally, as soon as my parents left, I retired to my bed with Harry Potter, and eventually fell asleep, exhausted after cleaning all weekend. James, on the other hand, continued to clean, finished repairing and setting up our new dining room table, and then did work he brought home from work.
On Monday night after work he did more cleaning and organizing. Last night I was really tired and convinced him to go to bed early with me to practice the relaxation exercises for the Bradley Class. So he dutifully massaged and relaxed me, guided me through abdominal breathing, and then, as I was about to fall asleep, he got out of bed saying he was going to get some more stuff done. Seriously?
So then I was just reading in bed and he was downstairs like vacuuming and cleaning and I don't even know what. When he eventually came to bed (like two hours later), I asked him what he was vacuuming, and he said he was vacuuming the UNDERNEATH of the stairs. WTH?
At this point I was forced to conclude that he was nesting. At least one of us is!
On Friday we met them (and James' parents) at It's Only Natural for a nice vegan dinner. It's a really awesome restaurant, and I thought it was a good way to start off the weekend by treating them to a nice meal. Plus they hadn't seen James' parents in like over a year so it was nice to all get together.
Saturday we were up early and got to work immediately (like, working by 8 am). My Dad and James cleaned out the garage. This ended up being an entire day job for the two of them. We tend to accumulate lots of crap--our friends leave things at our house because we are the only ones WITH a house, and think they'll come back for it but they never do. Plus we are landlords, so our renters inevitably leave things in their house. James and my Dad put a lot of things out on the curb (for "Free") and it ALL got picked up. I think we lucked out because it was move-in weekend up at UConn last weekend so everyone is filling up their new apartments and stuff.
Meanwhile, my Mom and I cleaned off and out this sideboard in our kitchen (one of those places that tends to accumulate lots of junk), went through a bunch of old mail, cleaned the laundry room, kitchen, and upstairs bathroom.
Then we had tacos for dinner. Bean with fried tempeh mixed in. We tried to play canasta after that, but everyone was too tired and we just ended up going to bed early.
Sunday my parents had to leave at noon, but James and Dad got a full morning in cleaning up the basement, and my and Mom finished organizing and putting away all the books in the new library, and getting together everything we'll need when we are camping next week, so my parents could pack it with their stuff and I won't need to bring it on the ferry. Then I made them leftover mishmash for lunch, and we said our goodbyes.
The amazing thing is that I think this work weekend pushed James into nesting mode. He has been so funny since then.
Personally, as soon as my parents left, I retired to my bed with Harry Potter, and eventually fell asleep, exhausted after cleaning all weekend. James, on the other hand, continued to clean, finished repairing and setting up our new dining room table, and then did work he brought home from work.
On Monday night after work he did more cleaning and organizing. Last night I was really tired and convinced him to go to bed early with me to practice the relaxation exercises for the Bradley Class. So he dutifully massaged and relaxed me, guided me through abdominal breathing, and then, as I was about to fall asleep, he got out of bed saying he was going to get some more stuff done. Seriously?
So then I was just reading in bed and he was downstairs like vacuuming and cleaning and I don't even know what. When he eventually came to bed (like two hours later), I asked him what he was vacuuming, and he said he was vacuuming the UNDERNEATH of the stairs. WTH?
At this point I was forced to conclude that he was nesting. At least one of us is!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
The Third Trimester
So I officially hit the third trimester about a week ago.
Since then,
- I have been cleaning obsessively--which is exactly what my house needed. Right now our new library (with guest bed) and books, is almost set up. The bed and dresser are all set up and all the shelves are in place and the books are at least half on the shelves. That room looks awesome and it will be easy to finish.
Our guest room now holds my sewing desk and sewing machine (and associated mess). I need to go through the desk better and organize everything, but it is a good spot for it. Also in there is a dresser holding our sheets and quilts, and a shelf with all the games in the house. The bed in there needs to be fixed/replaced since it is deflating, but the room itself looks good.
The downstairs has been rearranged so that James' desk is in the living room. We are going to try to set up the bills and mail down here, or we can sit at it when we are on the computer.
The wooden room (to be dining room) downstairs is sort of in the middle of being cleaned up, like that is where I left off. I have an idea of how to arrange things down there--mostly just clearing out to fit our new dining room table and chairs (which James' amazing Aunt got for $57 at auction for us, woohoo). But I also want to arrange the desk in there to hold jars and some big cooking things.
So I have made a ton of progress on the house, which is awesome.
- Also since a week ago when I hit the third trimester, I have had some level of heartburn after most meals (especially while laying down). This can be worsened simply by pressing on my stomach. :-/ But actually it's not really that bad--just very slight. I'm hoping it doesn't get worse but I think I might be fighting physics in there.
- And last but not least, I noticed yesterday (in the midst of my week of insane cleaning and moving things around), that my feet were swollen. I was pretty surprised. But I had been doing a lot (probably barefoot the entire time), and my feet might also have been sore (and swollen) from that anyway.
But it's definitely been a classic third trimester week, hasn't it? In some ways I can't believe that we only have 12 weeks left--less than 3 months to go . . . in other ways I feel like 3 months is still a long time to have this baby grow and get so much bigger . . .
He is supposedly about 2-2.5 lbs right now. He'll probably be at least 6-8 pounds, so he is going to triple or quadruple in size over the next three months, how the heck will he fit in there? -- Yet my stomach just seems to keep getting bigger, and I guess that's how.
Since then,
- I have been cleaning obsessively--which is exactly what my house needed. Right now our new library (with guest bed) and books, is almost set up. The bed and dresser are all set up and all the shelves are in place and the books are at least half on the shelves. That room looks awesome and it will be easy to finish.
Our guest room now holds my sewing desk and sewing machine (and associated mess). I need to go through the desk better and organize everything, but it is a good spot for it. Also in there is a dresser holding our sheets and quilts, and a shelf with all the games in the house. The bed in there needs to be fixed/replaced since it is deflating, but the room itself looks good.
The downstairs has been rearranged so that James' desk is in the living room. We are going to try to set up the bills and mail down here, or we can sit at it when we are on the computer.
The wooden room (to be dining room) downstairs is sort of in the middle of being cleaned up, like that is where I left off. I have an idea of how to arrange things down there--mostly just clearing out to fit our new dining room table and chairs (which James' amazing Aunt got for $57 at auction for us, woohoo). But I also want to arrange the desk in there to hold jars and some big cooking things.
So I have made a ton of progress on the house, which is awesome.
- Also since a week ago when I hit the third trimester, I have had some level of heartburn after most meals (especially while laying down). This can be worsened simply by pressing on my stomach. :-/ But actually it's not really that bad--just very slight. I'm hoping it doesn't get worse but I think I might be fighting physics in there.
- And last but not least, I noticed yesterday (in the midst of my week of insane cleaning and moving things around), that my feet were swollen. I was pretty surprised. But I had been doing a lot (probably barefoot the entire time), and my feet might also have been sore (and swollen) from that anyway.
But it's definitely been a classic third trimester week, hasn't it? In some ways I can't believe that we only have 12 weeks left--less than 3 months to go . . . in other ways I feel like 3 months is still a long time to have this baby grow and get so much bigger . . .
He is supposedly about 2-2.5 lbs right now. He'll probably be at least 6-8 pounds, so he is going to triple or quadruple in size over the next three months, how the heck will he fit in there? -- Yet my stomach just seems to keep getting bigger, and I guess that's how.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Off to Whitney's!
Me and James are spending the week at his sister Whitney's house, watching her five kids while she is off on a vaca to Alaska. I'm excited but of course it is quarter to five, I should have GOTTEN there 2 hours ago (it is a 2 hour drive), and I still have to pack clothes for me and James and go food shopping.
I blame it all on Dexter.
But my kitchen is clean, the food we are taking with us is packed, my fridge is completely cleaned out, the cats are all set for the week, and the plants are watered, so I'm not a TOTAL loser. Well, I still sort of am.
Okay Adrienne. Go pack and then leave. STOP ACTING LIKE A FREAKING PSYCHO.
I blame it all on Dexter.
But my kitchen is clean, the food we are taking with us is packed, my fridge is completely cleaned out, the cats are all set for the week, and the plants are watered, so I'm not a TOTAL loser. Well, I still sort of am.
Okay Adrienne. Go pack and then leave. STOP ACTING LIKE A FREAKING PSYCHO.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Checklist Update
So I had written before about my checklist that was working for me really well. Well I am happy to report, 2 weeks since that writing, that it is STILL working really well.
Now, we WERE on vacation for one of those weeks, but amazingly, some of the lessons involved actually stuck with me. Most notably, I was much better about cleaning up after dinner, and generally helping to keep the kitchen tidy--normally while on vacation with my Mom and Grandma, they would just do that stuff.
And now that I'm home I am once again excited to do the checklist every day. I have even added a few things to it. Most notably: The last couple days I have been evolving a list of chores that need to be done weekly (instead of daily) such as vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, etc, and last night I broke all of these chores down and assigned one or two to each day of the week, and then I added "weekly chores" to the checklist. I can check off each weekly chore on a separate part of the list, and if I do them all, I can check them off on the main list.
I am pretty excited for next week, which will be the first official run of the weekly chores part of the list.
Another good thing is that James and I have continued to take a walk each night after dinner. This has been SO good for both of us and really changes the tone of our evening. Yay!!
Maybe this isn't interesting to anyone but me, but I have always struggled to be motivated to accomplish basic tasks on a daily basis, so it is pretty exciting to find something that is working well. :-)
Okay, off to do some stuff now!
Now, we WERE on vacation for one of those weeks, but amazingly, some of the lessons involved actually stuck with me. Most notably, I was much better about cleaning up after dinner, and generally helping to keep the kitchen tidy--normally while on vacation with my Mom and Grandma, they would just do that stuff.
And now that I'm home I am once again excited to do the checklist every day. I have even added a few things to it. Most notably: The last couple days I have been evolving a list of chores that need to be done weekly (instead of daily) such as vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, etc, and last night I broke all of these chores down and assigned one or two to each day of the week, and then I added "weekly chores" to the checklist. I can check off each weekly chore on a separate part of the list, and if I do them all, I can check them off on the main list.
I am pretty excited for next week, which will be the first official run of the weekly chores part of the list.
Another good thing is that James and I have continued to take a walk each night after dinner. This has been SO good for both of us and really changes the tone of our evening. Yay!!
Maybe this isn't interesting to anyone but me, but I have always struggled to be motivated to accomplish basic tasks on a daily basis, so it is pretty exciting to find something that is working well. :-)
Okay, off to do some stuff now!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
To-Do List
So it's pretty difficult for me to stay focused and motivated to get stuff done during the day--hence why I normally take adderall.
But I've had a lot of success using to-do lists to stay focused and for the last week or so I've been working off of this check-list and doing really well! Here's the list:
-Get up
-Get Dressed
-Brush Teeth
-Drink Tea
-Eat Breakfast
-Put in load of laundry
-Bring down load from upstairs
-Sort load
-Load dishwasher
-Unload dishwasher
-Switch over laundry
-Clean Kitchen
-Clean Living room
-Eat lunch
-Fold laundry
-Put away laundry
-"Do project" (I'll explain later)
-Make dinner
-Eat dinner
-Take walk with James
-Clean up after dinner with James
-Do project with James
So that's it! The project thing is like a list of other things I need to do--some of them are things that should be repeated regularly (vacuum different rooms, clean bathrooms, etc), and some are one-time things (paint heater in rental house, etc). Honestly "projects" can be anything--I have a separate list of all the projects and I try to get at least two done every day, but ideally I can get a lot more than two done, depending on what they are.
But this has been working really well for me!! In the last week I have pretty much kept my kitchen and living room pretty clean, and it gets cleaner all the time (since one project was cleaning off the top of the fridge, and another one was vacuuming it), I have consistently done a load of laundry every day, I've cleaned up after dinner (which normally we never do, we were always really bad about falling into a coma after dinner time), taken a walk every day for the past week . . . I've cleaned my downstairs bathroom, cleaned my laundry room (not completely, but it is way better) . . . and I think it has helped James to stay more motivated because after our walk we come home and clean up from dinner and then do more housework, instead of just going straight from eating dinner to watching TV to bed.
So I'm feeling really good about this and hoping I can keep it up, because as I had mentioned before, our upstairs is still super disorganized and crazy, and I really want to have it organized before the baby comes. But it definitely helps when our main living space is cleaner and more organized--it definitely leaves more room for the more difficult "projects", ;-)
But I've had a lot of success using to-do lists to stay focused and for the last week or so I've been working off of this check-list and doing really well! Here's the list:
-Get up
-Get Dressed
-Brush Teeth
-Drink Tea
-Eat Breakfast
-Put in load of laundry
-Bring down load from upstairs
-Sort load
-Load dishwasher
-Unload dishwasher
-Switch over laundry
-Clean Kitchen
-Clean Living room
-Eat lunch
-Fold laundry
-Put away laundry
-"Do project" (I'll explain later)
-Make dinner
-Eat dinner
-Take walk with James
-Clean up after dinner with James
-Do project with James
So that's it! The project thing is like a list of other things I need to do--some of them are things that should be repeated regularly (vacuum different rooms, clean bathrooms, etc), and some are one-time things (paint heater in rental house, etc). Honestly "projects" can be anything--I have a separate list of all the projects and I try to get at least two done every day, but ideally I can get a lot more than two done, depending on what they are.
But this has been working really well for me!! In the last week I have pretty much kept my kitchen and living room pretty clean, and it gets cleaner all the time (since one project was cleaning off the top of the fridge, and another one was vacuuming it), I have consistently done a load of laundry every day, I've cleaned up after dinner (which normally we never do, we were always really bad about falling into a coma after dinner time), taken a walk every day for the past week . . . I've cleaned my downstairs bathroom, cleaned my laundry room (not completely, but it is way better) . . . and I think it has helped James to stay more motivated because after our walk we come home and clean up from dinner and then do more housework, instead of just going straight from eating dinner to watching TV to bed.
So I'm feeling really good about this and hoping I can keep it up, because as I had mentioned before, our upstairs is still super disorganized and crazy, and I really want to have it organized before the baby comes. But it definitely helps when our main living space is cleaner and more organized--it definitely leaves more room for the more difficult "projects", ;-)
Monday, June 7, 2010
Weekend Accomplishments
Wellll, our weekend wasn't QUITE as productive as I had hoped, but I guess I forgot to figure in how much time we were spending feeding the cat, and how exhausting it would be!
We had him on a 12/3/6/9 feeding schedule, and we agreed that we could skip 3 am. But that meant someone had to stay up until midnight to feed him (I think Fri night we both stayed up and Sat I passed out at 8:30. :-/). And then someone had to get up at 6 am to feed him. James got up Sat morning, then went back to sleep, and I did 9 am, and we switched Sunday. But both days we both crawled back in bed until at least 10 because the whole thing was exhausting.
So, we got a late start every morning, in the first place.
We also just had SO SO SO much piled up laundry, dishes, and problematic issues (our basement flooding, etc), that it took a lot of effort to get through so that it appeared to make any kind of dent. But in the end I guess we got a lot done.
James cleaned out and fixed the gutters (hopefully addressing the flooding problem), and wet-vac'd the water in the basement, did a TON of laundry, and cleaned out this mouse nest that we discovered in our dried beans drawer (how a mouse could survive in this house is beyond me--maybe because he didn't really have to leave the drawer for any reason?) I cleaned the entire kitchen (including the top of the fridge that had been accumulating crap and dust for months) and most of the living room, matched the socks, and made pea soup. And it was damn good, I might need to do a separate post about it.
We also managed to go on walks both Saturday and Sunday and Saturday we (well I) also went swimming!
James made cookies last night, which is a semi-accomplishment, except that it is somehow impossible for him to clean up after himself, so the kitchen I struggled to clean is now a mess again. :-/ But hopefully with only a little effort, I can return it to its clean state.
So I guess we were fairly productive, considering the cat, and I definitely feel like I am in a better place to move forward from here--not as overwhelmed at all (even though we did not TOUCH the upstairs and it is still completely insane, but I'm trying to work through that, LOL).
We had him on a 12/3/6/9 feeding schedule, and we agreed that we could skip 3 am. But that meant someone had to stay up until midnight to feed him (I think Fri night we both stayed up and Sat I passed out at 8:30. :-/). And then someone had to get up at 6 am to feed him. James got up Sat morning, then went back to sleep, and I did 9 am, and we switched Sunday. But both days we both crawled back in bed until at least 10 because the whole thing was exhausting.
So, we got a late start every morning, in the first place.
We also just had SO SO SO much piled up laundry, dishes, and problematic issues (our basement flooding, etc), that it took a lot of effort to get through so that it appeared to make any kind of dent. But in the end I guess we got a lot done.
James cleaned out and fixed the gutters (hopefully addressing the flooding problem), and wet-vac'd the water in the basement, did a TON of laundry, and cleaned out this mouse nest that we discovered in our dried beans drawer (how a mouse could survive in this house is beyond me--maybe because he didn't really have to leave the drawer for any reason?) I cleaned the entire kitchen (including the top of the fridge that had been accumulating crap and dust for months) and most of the living room, matched the socks, and made pea soup. And it was damn good, I might need to do a separate post about it.
We also managed to go on walks both Saturday and Sunday and Saturday we (well I) also went swimming!
James made cookies last night, which is a semi-accomplishment, except that it is somehow impossible for him to clean up after himself, so the kitchen I struggled to clean is now a mess again. :-/ But hopefully with only a little effort, I can return it to its clean state.
So I guess we were fairly productive, considering the cat, and I definitely feel like I am in a better place to move forward from here--not as overwhelmed at all (even though we did not TOUCH the upstairs and it is still completely insane, but I'm trying to work through that, LOL).
Friday, June 4, 2010
Overwhelmed
So I feel like my life is totally insane right now.
Some of the big things are getting worked out--I'm pregnant, I have a plan for what to do with school and career, I have a husband I love.
But it seems like all the details are water running through my fingers and I look around in a panic.
I wrote before about cleaning/organizing our bedroom and upstairs. I'm glad we got started on this immensely insane project (don't even get me started on why this is so difficult), but now, being in the middle is just making me feel crazy, that nothing is set--my books which may be connected to my soul are strewn in piles and I already know that we don't have enough bookshelves.
Okay, now I want to get into why this is so difficult--I have trouble throwing things away. There, I said it. I don't have as much of a problem "letting go of things"--when my sister moved into an apartment for the first time, I made her a care package with dishes, silverware, etc. I like giving things away--I like recycling broken things, I like donating to Salvation Army. But when I am staring at, say, a ribbon or an old CD, I feel like a WWII survivor is suddenly being channeled into me and saying: THINK OF ALL THE USES OF THIS ITEM!! DO NOT THROW IT AWAY.
I know that some men's trash is another men's treasure, but to me, everything seems like a treasure--if something is broken, fine, throw it away (unless it is electronic and should be recycled), but if it is simply superfluous, unwanted, unneeded, I just FEEL the fact that TONS of people around the world WOULD want or need the thing and the idea of filling up a landfill with it just turns my stomach. I've also been known to cry upon discovering, say, an over-ripe pineapple. I feel the waste echo through me like a sin.
James is no saint in terms of this either, and he as well as myself has things like: boxes of old notebooks, boxes of old CD's and video games and broken stereos, etc.
So when we speak of cleaning and organizing our upstairs rooms, these boxes of crap that are still leftover from my annexing of James' office (he could not keep it clean or even usable so now it is the guest room) need to be gone through and to do a proper job takes hours of concentration on ONE box of stuff. So I am significantly overwhelmed by this task, though I(we) already made a lot of progress, to be honest.
Other overwhelming things include:
Our cat emergency, which is badly deserving of its own post.
Our laundry. Nuf said.
Food: My stomach has been off for a few days. I'm thinking the oil or vegan butter I used to cook stuff at my Mom's house might be rancid. I can't think of what else it might be. But all I've eaten today so far is 1.5 apples. :-/ Hopefully I will start feeling hungrier soon.
My internet life/world:
- I am the CL (community leader) of two message board groups on i-village--so I'm responsible for responding to people and being "there", especially at the beginning of the month where I have to set up new buddy threads for people . . . details details, but considering I don't have a job, it is something I try to take seriously. One of the boards I CL for has about 20-40 regular members, the other one has over 100--so it is a pretty serious task to stay on top of them.
- I am pretty into reading blogs. This is something that obviously doesn't really matter to anyone else, but when I am behind on reading my favorite blogs (and writing in my own blog), I definitely get a sense of disorganization and as if I am behind/slacking off or something.
- Facebook. I try to keep up with my news feed. But I was so busy this week, I am not going to go back and read every SINGLE thing for an entire week.
I actually made some progress with this over the last two days and this morning. Yesterday I did most of the work I needed to do on the message boards (though there is always more to do, I did the essential "new month" things). I also caught up on Facebook. This morning, more catching up on Facebook, including going through all my notifications. I also went through most of my blogs this morning--I am almost totally caught up--plus I wrote one blog and this is my second.
So I'm actually feeling slightly less crazy because my internet world is getting a little more organized. Hopefully this afternoon I will be able to work more on the upstairs rooms.
Some of the big things are getting worked out--I'm pregnant, I have a plan for what to do with school and career, I have a husband I love.
But it seems like all the details are water running through my fingers and I look around in a panic.
I wrote before about cleaning/organizing our bedroom and upstairs. I'm glad we got started on this immensely insane project (don't even get me started on why this is so difficult), but now, being in the middle is just making me feel crazy, that nothing is set--my books which may be connected to my soul are strewn in piles and I already know that we don't have enough bookshelves.
Okay, now I want to get into why this is so difficult--I have trouble throwing things away. There, I said it. I don't have as much of a problem "letting go of things"--when my sister moved into an apartment for the first time, I made her a care package with dishes, silverware, etc. I like giving things away--I like recycling broken things, I like donating to Salvation Army. But when I am staring at, say, a ribbon or an old CD, I feel like a WWII survivor is suddenly being channeled into me and saying: THINK OF ALL THE USES OF THIS ITEM!! DO NOT THROW IT AWAY.
I know that some men's trash is another men's treasure, but to me, everything seems like a treasure--if something is broken, fine, throw it away (unless it is electronic and should be recycled), but if it is simply superfluous, unwanted, unneeded, I just FEEL the fact that TONS of people around the world WOULD want or need the thing and the idea of filling up a landfill with it just turns my stomach. I've also been known to cry upon discovering, say, an over-ripe pineapple. I feel the waste echo through me like a sin.
James is no saint in terms of this either, and he as well as myself has things like: boxes of old notebooks, boxes of old CD's and video games and broken stereos, etc.
So when we speak of cleaning and organizing our upstairs rooms, these boxes of crap that are still leftover from my annexing of James' office (he could not keep it clean or even usable so now it is the guest room) need to be gone through and to do a proper job takes hours of concentration on ONE box of stuff. So I am significantly overwhelmed by this task, though I(we) already made a lot of progress, to be honest.
Other overwhelming things include:
Our cat emergency, which is badly deserving of its own post.
Our laundry. Nuf said.
Food: My stomach has been off for a few days. I'm thinking the oil or vegan butter I used to cook stuff at my Mom's house might be rancid. I can't think of what else it might be. But all I've eaten today so far is 1.5 apples. :-/ Hopefully I will start feeling hungrier soon.
My internet life/world:
- I am the CL (community leader) of two message board groups on i-village--so I'm responsible for responding to people and being "there", especially at the beginning of the month where I have to set up new buddy threads for people . . . details details, but considering I don't have a job, it is something I try to take seriously. One of the boards I CL for has about 20-40 regular members, the other one has over 100--so it is a pretty serious task to stay on top of them.
- I am pretty into reading blogs. This is something that obviously doesn't really matter to anyone else, but when I am behind on reading my favorite blogs (and writing in my own blog), I definitely get a sense of disorganization and as if I am behind/slacking off or something.
- Facebook. I try to keep up with my news feed. But I was so busy this week, I am not going to go back and read every SINGLE thing for an entire week.
I actually made some progress with this over the last two days and this morning. Yesterday I did most of the work I needed to do on the message boards (though there is always more to do, I did the essential "new month" things). I also caught up on Facebook. This morning, more catching up on Facebook, including going through all my notifications. I also went through most of my blogs this morning--I am almost totally caught up--plus I wrote one blog and this is my second.
So I'm actually feeling slightly less crazy because my internet world is getting a little more organized. Hopefully this afternoon I will be able to work more on the upstairs rooms.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Productivity
So over the weekend, and since Kate has been here, I've been trying to stay productive and work on (really) cleaning the house.
So we've cleaned the kitchen (a couple times), but we also planted the garden on Saturday, and James and I SERIOUSLY cleaned our room on Sunday. This included moving EVERYTHING out of it, and changing the bed to a different spot--getting rid of one dresser so we can fit the new dresser for the baby in our room, etc. Part of this was also picking up and sorting ALL the laundry (basically in the whole house) and getting a good start on washing some of it.
Today, I continued the cleaning by going through all the clothes in our room and sorting into: Winter stuff (and stuff that is too small for me) in storage, and stuff that fits is in season on the shelf--I took out a few things for Salvation Army/Fabric Pile.
And THEN I took out all the baby's stuff (I have been hoarding little items for years) and put it in the dresser. Now that I have it all in there, I realize I hadn't gotten as many things as I thought, LOL! which is good because I know a lot of people will get presents for it in terms of clothes.
One thing I still do want to get is a nice supply of newborn T-shirts and receiving blankets--I figure that will be the main clothing stuff we need for the first month or two (along with cloth diapers).
I also discovered a hoarde of "maternity" clothes I had been setting aside for a couple years--things that were too big for me, either that were my own old things or things other family had given me. So now I have plenty of pants and shirts (At least for another month or so)--a couple of skirts, some dresses--I'm going to try to get by without buying anything else but in the fall I might need to get some "real" maternity pants/skirts for when my belly is really big.
Anyway, now all there is left to do on the clothes is pull out the box of summer stuff, go through it in the same way, sorting things that fit and are in season from things that don't or are wintery--then I can put ALL the winter/ too small stuff away and be done.
Our room isn't completely arranged still--we have to rehang all our art and bring all our little things back into the room, but it is getting there, and it was nice to start completely fresh, and start setting things up for the baby. :-)
Goals for the next couple days:
-Finish stuff above
-Wash more laundry and also go through it
-Start arranging library/guest room (sort books)
So we've cleaned the kitchen (a couple times), but we also planted the garden on Saturday, and James and I SERIOUSLY cleaned our room on Sunday. This included moving EVERYTHING out of it, and changing the bed to a different spot--getting rid of one dresser so we can fit the new dresser for the baby in our room, etc. Part of this was also picking up and sorting ALL the laundry (basically in the whole house) and getting a good start on washing some of it.
Today, I continued the cleaning by going through all the clothes in our room and sorting into: Winter stuff (and stuff that is too small for me) in storage, and stuff that fits is in season on the shelf--I took out a few things for Salvation Army/Fabric Pile.
And THEN I took out all the baby's stuff (I have been hoarding little items for years) and put it in the dresser. Now that I have it all in there, I realize I hadn't gotten as many things as I thought, LOL! which is good because I know a lot of people will get presents for it in terms of clothes.
One thing I still do want to get is a nice supply of newborn T-shirts and receiving blankets--I figure that will be the main clothing stuff we need for the first month or two (along with cloth diapers).
I also discovered a hoarde of "maternity" clothes I had been setting aside for a couple years--things that were too big for me, either that were my own old things or things other family had given me. So now I have plenty of pants and shirts (At least for another month or so)--a couple of skirts, some dresses--I'm going to try to get by without buying anything else but in the fall I might need to get some "real" maternity pants/skirts for when my belly is really big.
Anyway, now all there is left to do on the clothes is pull out the box of summer stuff, go through it in the same way, sorting things that fit and are in season from things that don't or are wintery--then I can put ALL the winter/ too small stuff away and be done.
Our room isn't completely arranged still--we have to rehang all our art and bring all our little things back into the room, but it is getting there, and it was nice to start completely fresh, and start setting things up for the baby. :-)
Goals for the next couple days:
-Finish stuff above
-Wash more laundry and also go through it
-Start arranging library/guest room (sort books)
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Stupor
So I'm home today after a VERY busy few days.
Sunday: James and I drove to the city for Laur's open studios--it was awesome! We met up with Gram and Gram, Mom and Dad, Laur and Kate, and Scott and Bonnie, and Tim. :-)
After the open studios, James, Laur, Kate, Tim and I went for an AWESOME dinner at the V-Spot. Then Tim and James drove back to CT and me and Kate went to help Laur move all of her paintings into my car. Then we would spend the night at Laur's house.
Monday: We woke up at 8am, got ready for Laur's graduation, took the Subway to Manhattan, saved seats for the rest of the family (Mom, Dad, Gram and Gram).
It was an awesome graduation (and when do you ever say that)? Stephen Soderbergh and Patti Smith (among other famous people) received honorary degrees and gave awesome speeches. Patti Smith even gave a mini-concert (2 songs).
After the graduation, we went out for another awesome lunch/dinner at Zen Palate. Finally, Laur and I broke off from the group, took the LONG subway back to Brooklyn, packed up the very ends of her stuff, and finally took off for my parents house in New Fairfield.
We got there, visited with the family a bit, and I passed out on the couch, only to awaken around 2 am and make myself a bed on the floor.
Tuesday: I woke up at my parents house, made oatmeal, hung out with my sister, and left at 12:30.
I got home and attempted to round up the cats for a vet appointment, but could only find two of the three. Went to the vet appointment and finally home again, where I sat on the couch in a stupor until James got home.
Wednesday (today): I continue to sit here in my stupor. In an hour or so, I will leave to volunteer at the coop for a couple hours. I know I should do laundry, load my dishwasher, etc, but after such a busy few days I am totally uninspired.
Sunday: James and I drove to the city for Laur's open studios--it was awesome! We met up with Gram and Gram, Mom and Dad, Laur and Kate, and Scott and Bonnie, and Tim. :-)
After the open studios, James, Laur, Kate, Tim and I went for an AWESOME dinner at the V-Spot. Then Tim and James drove back to CT and me and Kate went to help Laur move all of her paintings into my car. Then we would spend the night at Laur's house.
Monday: We woke up at 8am, got ready for Laur's graduation, took the Subway to Manhattan, saved seats for the rest of the family (Mom, Dad, Gram and Gram).
It was an awesome graduation (and when do you ever say that)? Stephen Soderbergh and Patti Smith (among other famous people) received honorary degrees and gave awesome speeches. Patti Smith even gave a mini-concert (2 songs).
After the graduation, we went out for another awesome lunch/dinner at Zen Palate. Finally, Laur and I broke off from the group, took the LONG subway back to Brooklyn, packed up the very ends of her stuff, and finally took off for my parents house in New Fairfield.
We got there, visited with the family a bit, and I passed out on the couch, only to awaken around 2 am and make myself a bed on the floor.
Tuesday: I woke up at my parents house, made oatmeal, hung out with my sister, and left at 12:30.
I got home and attempted to round up the cats for a vet appointment, but could only find two of the three. Went to the vet appointment and finally home again, where I sat on the couch in a stupor until James got home.
Wednesday (today): I continue to sit here in my stupor. In an hour or so, I will leave to volunteer at the coop for a couple hours. I know I should do laundry, load my dishwasher, etc, but after such a busy few days I am totally uninspired.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
First Midwife Appointment Today!
So today is the first official appointment with our midwife! Since she is home-based, she is coming to our house for the appointment. I really like her so this should be fun, but it also means I need to CLEAN MY HOUSE.
It WAS JUST pristinely clean like seriously? Two days ago, but for some reason James and I can mess it up in a very incredible way in just 48 hours. Sigh. So I'm off to clean. And I only have 2.5 hours left because it's 11:30 and our appointment is at 2. But am I motivated? No. Not at all.
Sigh, YOU CAN DO IT ADRIENNE.
It WAS JUST pristinely clean like seriously? Two days ago, but for some reason James and I can mess it up in a very incredible way in just 48 hours. Sigh. So I'm off to clean. And I only have 2.5 hours left because it's 11:30 and our appointment is at 2. But am I motivated? No. Not at all.
Sigh, YOU CAN DO IT ADRIENNE.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Water (and Cleaning Update)
Alright, so tomorrow I think I might do a little experiment and see exactly how much water I am drinking every day. Because honestly, I feel like it could easily be two gallons. I almost wonder if that is abnormally TOO much, and I have gestational diabetes or something--but it's supposed to be too early for that and I am already eating really healthy and everything.
::Sigh:: I just feel like I am CONSTANTLY thirsty. Last night after James and I ate dinner I drank at least 4 pints of water. That was just in a few hours.
Of course this makes the constant peeing really fun. Sometimes I just feel like I should be a fountain--some water trickling into my mouth constantly while I sit on the toilet and let pee trickle out the other end.
In terms of cleaning: It was super hard to motivate myself, as you might tell by the fact that this is my fourth blog today. BUT I did FINALLY eventually straighten up my kitchen and load the dishwasher (and run it). It isn't perfect, but we'll be ahead for final cleaning tomorrow.
(James' comment on my water worries is that I am constantly being paranoid and worrying about something. Worried about cramping, worried about diabetes/eating sugar, worried about gluten, worried about everything. I think it's pretty normal for a pregnant lady to be constantly worried about the health of the fetus. It doesn't help that I have a tendency to anxiety anyway, but I'm not THAT crazy!)
::Sigh:: I just feel like I am CONSTANTLY thirsty. Last night after James and I ate dinner I drank at least 4 pints of water. That was just in a few hours.
Of course this makes the constant peeing really fun. Sometimes I just feel like I should be a fountain--some water trickling into my mouth constantly while I sit on the toilet and let pee trickle out the other end.
In terms of cleaning: It was super hard to motivate myself, as you might tell by the fact that this is my fourth blog today. BUT I did FINALLY eventually straighten up my kitchen and load the dishwasher (and run it). It isn't perfect, but we'll be ahead for final cleaning tomorrow.
(James' comment on my water worries is that I am constantly being paranoid and worrying about something. Worried about cramping, worried about diabetes/eating sugar, worried about gluten, worried about everything. I think it's pretty normal for a pregnant lady to be constantly worried about the health of the fetus. It doesn't help that I have a tendency to anxiety anyway, but I'm not THAT crazy!)
Cleaning
Alright, this is not a topic I will probably blog about very often. Despite having a TON of time on my hands, my house is usually a mess. I DO have ADD and I'm obviously off my meds while growing the wee one, so it's difficult to accomplish much cleaning-wise during the day.
Honestly, I'm at my best when the house is already relatively clean. Then I feel motivated and I'm more likely to do "upkeep" and keep it clean. But keep in mind that James has ADD too and it only takes ONE episode of: making pasta sauce, shopping at BJ's, or generally James attempting to clean another room, to completely destroy our kitchen. Once the kitchen is in this other-worldly state, then it becomes super difficult for me to clean. I walk in there with the best intentions, look from one mini-task to another until my eyes are spinning in my head, and then get the hell out of that room and retreat to the safe, organized world of the internet.
However, there are times in my life when motivation wins out over fear, and that is when we are expecting guests. So I invited James' cousin Doug up to our house--the crazy archeology student spends more than half his life in Timbuktu (no, seriously), so when I saw that he was back in the country I itched to visit with him--he is really fun and we have a great time together whenever we see him. So he will be at our house on Saturday, and now the cleaning has moved into the realm of "must be accomplished today and tomorrow". Akk!
I should be grateful because this is when I can actually get things done, when I have a good deadline and reason to do so.
So the goal today: clean the kitchen and living room. (One saving grace of this whole messy house situation is that BOTH my bathrooms are clean. Hardly EVER happens, but yeah.)
I will have to update on my progress later.
Honestly, I'm at my best when the house is already relatively clean. Then I feel motivated and I'm more likely to do "upkeep" and keep it clean. But keep in mind that James has ADD too and it only takes ONE episode of: making pasta sauce, shopping at BJ's, or generally James attempting to clean another room, to completely destroy our kitchen. Once the kitchen is in this other-worldly state, then it becomes super difficult for me to clean. I walk in there with the best intentions, look from one mini-task to another until my eyes are spinning in my head, and then get the hell out of that room and retreat to the safe, organized world of the internet.
However, there are times in my life when motivation wins out over fear, and that is when we are expecting guests. So I invited James' cousin Doug up to our house--the crazy archeology student spends more than half his life in Timbuktu (no, seriously), so when I saw that he was back in the country I itched to visit with him--he is really fun and we have a great time together whenever we see him. So he will be at our house on Saturday, and now the cleaning has moved into the realm of "must be accomplished today and tomorrow". Akk!
I should be grateful because this is when I can actually get things done, when I have a good deadline and reason to do so.
So the goal today: clean the kitchen and living room. (One saving grace of this whole messy house situation is that BOTH my bathrooms are clean. Hardly EVER happens, but yeah.)
I will have to update on my progress later.
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