Is anyone NOT ready for the baby?

[whimsy]

I feel like a slacker. I don't really have ANYTHING ready for the new baby. Not even a name!

I had some grand plans about decluttering my whole house and basically redoing the whole thing before the baby got here. That's not unreasonable for a WAH, homeschooling, MDC addicted mom to accomplish in a few weeks is it?

[mamamoo]

Ha!!! This is the reason I haven't been posting in the due date club much!! I am embarrassed!! I am soooo not ready for the babe. I mean I have clothes for her, but that is about it. I wanted my room to be painted, and the house to be decluttered...she barely has any dipes, and I don't even have my birthing kit ready. I am hoping it's possible for a wah, homeschooling, MDC addicted mom to accomplish these things in a few weeks. LOLOL
Just kind of glad to see I'm not alone!
Debi

[cinnamonamon]

I know how ya'll feel! My doula and I had a talk about this yesterday. She and I are going to sit down today & make a list of everything I need to do to feel as if I'm ready for baby bean. Then she's going to help me work through the list, so I'll be in a better place mentally. She said it really ruined a bit of the fun of her first pregnancy because she spent the last couple months saying "not yet, not yet" instead of happily anticipating the birth. So I'm going through my head and deciding which & what to do.

[~MommyAmanda]

Well I amready to have this baby out of my body but am not really prepared to have anew little person here in our home. I was given a bunch of clothes this week but still need somewhere to put them, diapers, blankets, etc.

[sadean]

Count me as "not ready". I think it is a third baby thing. I prepared SO much with my first two and didn't really need half of what I did. I mean really, what I am I going to really NEED after the baby comes? I'll be sitting on the couch/in bed in my PJs/naked nursing, changing a diaper or sleeping :LOL I could use some frozen meals for the freezer, but other than that, we don't need much...

There were lots of things I intended to do (declutter the house, learn to knit, etc.), but none of it was really that dire a need. I am just trying to let it go and relax and enjoy the last few weeks of my (likely) last pregnancy.

[KoalaMommy]

Oh count me in, and I'm due the 1st!!!!!!!! Finally the floor in the baby's room is being finished this week so we can unpack the crib and get the furniture set up, but we have no crib sheets (which we still need for the pack and play we're going to put next to our bed in our room where the baby will really sleep at night). I also haven't made the cushions for the rocking chair, nor has the chair itself been sanded and painted. Oh and clothes? You have clothes? I think we have 1 sleeper, 1 non-sleeper outfit, a Christmas dress and some short-sleeve novelty onesies. I haven't gotten anything else because everyone keeps saying they're going to give me their little girls' clothes (bunches of baby boys have been born here lately, mine is the first girl in a year), but the only ones I've gotten so far are 6-12 months size!!!!! DH is cluless, he's like "well how many things does she really need at that age" He didn't realize that babies get outfits messy and wet nearly as regularly as they do diapers. He should know this, according to his mother he threw up all the time!

Fortunately they're having a shower for me at work in a week and a half, they asked what I needed and I made a list of basics, putting small sized sleepers at the top.

[Kerlowyn]

sadean, it must be the third baby thing with me too :LOL
I have done nothing yet for this baby, I'm due on Dec 2nd!

DH has to fix a bureau we have in the basement that will be the changing table and storage for the baby's things. I have a huge box of clothes and diapers sitting in the warehouse where DH works As soon as the bureau is fixed, and in the room that DS2 and baby will share (a room off of my room) DH will bring the box home and I'll begin to wash and put things away. Then DH has to round up the co-sleeper and I have to make sure I can find the bedding for it!

This will be the first weekend I have had off in 12 weeks. I own a business at a Renaissance Faire that closed for the season last weekend. I have weekends free now! Whoohoo! I am also a WHAM, but I'll be doing that job till I have the baby.

[laurata]

Third baby here too, and not ready. Emotionally, I want to just get this over and done with, and meet my little one. But I am NOT prepared. I think I am going to hire someone to come and help me with the housework next week, before my daughters birthday party next Saturday. And then after that, I'm just going to give the noodle permission to come as soon as he or she feels good and cooked. Don't mind the cluttered kitchen counter or disorganized bedroom. I'm keeping the sheets and bathtub clean, and that'll have to be good enough!

[Kundalini-Mama]

I actually have a list :LOL I am working on it, in fact, I'm getting off the computer so I can go sew some diapers

*Paint the living room
*Get a bed for the little bedroom and find someone to take the couch
*Get supplies for pool
*Get supplies for birth, homeopathics, chux pads, buckets, etc, etc, etc
*Get blinds for little bedroom
*Install shelves in our bedroom
*Wash all diapers and baby clothes

*Finish sewing the diapers
*Make my slings (I want 3 or 4)
*Sew a baby gown
*Knit a hat for baby as soon as he/she is born
*Finish knitting my DS's Christmas stocking and one for the baby

Okay, there might be more. I'm getting a little nervous that I won't have this stuff done in time. :LOL

Off I go,
Amy

[cinnamonamon]

Oh my Amy! That's quite the list...now you're making me afraid to actually write mine out! :LOL Plus you gave me a few more to add...

[Kristeen]

Hey Amy, do you actually have a pattern for a knit Xmas stocking? Wanna share?

[Kundalini-Mama]

Oh crap. I'm still online. :LOL

The stocking I'm making is from a book called "Knit Christmas Stockings" or something. I'm looking for the link to Amazon. Last year I made 18 mini stockings for all of our immediate family members and this year the stockings I'm making are based on the same style, so its not too complicated.

And the list REALLY helps me. I like to be able to cross stuff off, its wicked rewarding.

Oh, here is the link to amazon. It is a fantastic book. Your library might even have a copy too.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846


Amy (who is really going to close this window as soon as this msg goes through)

[Jenelle]

Add me to the "can't wait to meet my baby but have so much to do!" list. There are about a million things I want to accomplish before he gets here, but only a few of them are really necessary. Mainly getting his room painting finished, so we can put things back in there and get them out of my dining room, so I can actually find his clothes and wash them, etc. etc.

I also have a bathroom that bugs me big time, and 3-4 rooms I'd like to have the "touch-up" painting finished in before he gets here.

This is all a little hard to do, when the paint fumes are so nasty and I really don't want to be around them myself, so I have to either do a tiny tiny bit at a time - or wait for dh to be home to do the painting - which is what I've been doing - and he's never home! :

[michray]

Nope, not ready here either. I have most of the basic things I need, but still lots to do around the house. Now... things around here will have to slow down even more. I have a lil shopping to do still but its for a carseat and breastpump.. other than that its just organizing, washing, and putting away.. but LOTS of that stuff

[shalena]

I thought I was ready, until I realized I could be having a baby sometime in the next two weeks

I barely have any clothes, only 3 blankets, no dresser, no breast pump, so much to wash, organize, and do.
My shower was canceled since I was in the hospital, which is really dissapointing. My mother in law told me not to buy any clothes because we'd get them all from our family, and now that they have put off the shower (until after the baby is born) we have next to nothing and no money.
I should have went with my gut and bought things when I could.

[Eruditia]

I feel totally unready. This is the first too, so I don't have the 3rd baby excuse. Thursday I had a midwife appointment and I tolder her how unprepared I was. I almost felt like crying with relief when she told me in no uncertain terms:

The only things this baby needs is two healthy and loving parents there to welcome it when it arrives!

[nikirj]

Jenelle, last time I needed some serious painting done, I paid my brothers to do it. They were GREAT! Worked for peanuts and were totally happy about it, especially since I fed them. See if you can hire a teenager or two.

This being my third, I have most of the stuff already. I just need to wash it - it's actually occupying the bottom two shelves of my dresser already, I just figured I actually do the washing closer to my due date (I'll do them the first time sometime midmonth next month maybe?) since I'll want to have washed the clothes and dipes within the last couple of weeks when the baby is born and that means doing them a couple of times, probably. I wanted to stick the baby seat in the car and see what the best seat arrangement is. Right now I'm thinking that the baby will go on one side, DD (4.5yo) in the middle, and DS (almost-3) on the other side. This will place the responsible, obedient one between "bam-bam" and the baby. I'd feel better car-safety-wise about the newborn in the middle, but I guess we'll have to see how DS gets along with the baby (right now he seems enamored with the whole concept, but that must be easy when the baby doesn't get a whole lot of attention and doesn't make any noise...)

I'm feeling nervous about re-covering the couch. Sound like a non-necessity? Well, it isn't, that couch is so disgusting right now that DH won't let the kids sit on it. We had company two days ago that numbered too many for our little chair and loveseat (which I have re-covered already) and I put heavy blankets over the couch, tucked some in to the cushions, the works, and it is semi-bearable so we're leaving it for now. I had to order more material, and had to special-order it, and even though I ordered it, like, FOREVER ago (at least a month and a half) it isn't supposed to get to me until two weeks from now. That puts me, what, in the second week of November? Yikes! Good thing I'm not due until the END of December!

I'm a huge procrastinator though. I still haven't finished the kids' Halloween costumes. Halloween is tomorrow. Go, me.

Shalena, maybe you can ask your MIL to reschedule the shower? Let her know your predicament, maybe she can reschedule it for sooner.

[cinnamonamon]

niki -- I think your arrangement with the carseats sound fine. They actually say that it's best to have the bucket on the outside as it's the most protected carseat. My only concern would be if your 4.5 year old isn't in a carseat & the other two seats "squashed" her!

In *my* own news... I started writing out my list & was able to remove a couple things & be fine from it. I'm fine with the fact that my kitchen & bathroom aren't going to be painted, and my bedroom isn't going to look as if it was pictured in last month's Pier One cataloge...

My diapers are coming along nicely, although my ds1 is going to need more covers & a couple diapers pretty quickly here...

[Nabbe]

I am like partially ready hehe... I got the clothes, the small things you know, like washing-cloths and those nice "burping-towels" and so forth. The bed is ready to be set up any time. I do have two kids from before, so i had most of it at home. I even found ALL the parts to my old breastpump, and bottles etc for that one. Not that i intend to bottlefeed, but you never know when i might need one so daddy can take her while i am out or whatever.

Now i just need a changing-table and the stroller, and we are ready.

[Oregonicmama]

I am so embarassingly unprepared it's rediculous!

I have one Walmart bag full of clothes for the baby, a little fleece suit for outside, and that is it! No diap covers (thank god for the Diaper service, at least i don't have to worry about diaps!), no car seat, no co sleeper (baby can't fit in my bed), no sling, not even a hat. I'm so bad. I lived in my RV when I had DD and I was WAY more prepared. Heck, I had clothes for her for a year by the time she was born! I just don't have the money for anything right now. I'll be due in 3 weeks by the time DP fills his Christmas order and we'll have $ for baby stuff! I feel so irresponsible.
And to top it off my Midwife jst gave me the list for my birth kit- I just laughed! Hahahahahahahahaha... But she says she has most of it that she could just lone me anyway.

But I can't wait to see that sweet little bug all snuggled up to me in the morning and to know if its a boy or a girl. And to name it... ok I'll stop now...