is your house clean?

[texaspeach]

I'm sitting here looking around at the current state of my home. It's a wreck. I'm in nursing school and working full time - that's my excuse. I'm not pregnant yet, but I know we'll have a homebirth. I'm a terrible house keeper. DP took after his mom and is not great at house keeping either. I'm worried a mw would be horrified by my lack of skills as a housekeeper.

Is your house spotless? I'm embarassed to open our door for our neighbor. If someone came to our house unannounced, I don't know what I would do. There is yarn all over, unopened mail, books, etc. We have a ton of clutter. and cat hair, thanks to my little buddies. Is your house spotless when your mw comes to visit you? Please, put my mind at ease

[twogreencars]

Originally Posted by texaspeach

I've had a glass of wine, so I'm worrying about things that shouldn't concern me yet. I'm sitting here looking around at the current state of my home. It's a wreck. I'm in nursing school and working full time - that's my excuse. I'm not pregnant yet, but I know we'll have a homebirth. I'm a terrible house keeper. DP took after his mom and is not great at house keeping either. I'm worried a mw would be horrified by my lack of skills as a housekeeper.

Is your house spotless? I'm embarassed to open our door for our neighbor. If someone came to our house unannounced, I don't know what I would do. There is yarn all over, unopened mail, books, etc. We have a ton of clutter. and cat hair, thanks to my little buddies. Is your house spotless when your mw comes to visit you? Please, put my mind at ease

HA! And you think your house/housekeeping is bad! Try 2 f/t working parents, 2 kids, 3 dogs and 2 chickens! And - TONS OF CLUTTER!!!!!

We had to clean it for the MW's 1st visit. On her 2nd (when we thought it was much better) she remarked that "my you do keep a lot of things - every corner is crammed"...

We do the best we can - I've thought that maybe what is keeping this baby inside me (due beginning of Nov) is that there's still more to clean/declutter. I must say, though, that in the last several weeks I've really made a dent in the state of our house...

Check out the Mindful Home Management boards - they're pretty helpful!

Good luck! I think MW's have seen it all!

[Red Sonja]

Nope! When DD was born there weren't dishes growing in the sink, the kitchen floor wasn't too gross and the downstairs bathroom wasn't too embarrassing. That's about all I can claim, though.

I was hoping that I would get the nesting urge and clean but I didn't. In fact, I had anti-nesting. I went into labor about 1 am and that entire day I had just lounged on the couch, surfing the web and reading books. (Well, I walked for a few hours that morning with friends, but that's it.) My body was saving all its energy for my (super quick) labor so no cleaning got done.

[alegna]

No stellar house-keeping here..... midwives never mentioned it (though next time I WILL have the guest bed cleared off... sigh)

-Angela

[VeezieTG]

hey, all. i noticed this in the new posts, and even tho i'm not TTC (til may, anyway) i thought i'd read.

my house was a pure crazy mess!! i joined flylady and now its at least 98% better. and its so easy!! may i make a suggestion? try it out. FLYlady

that shameless plug aside, when i had my ds in january i also did some anti-nesting. we didn't homebirth him (grr) but the house was a mess when we brought him home. we all survived. and then i joined flylady. and we're still surviving!

good luck everyone.

[Pandora114]

BWAHAHAHAH

HAHAHAHAH

BWAHAHAHAHAMAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

Umm no

[umami_mommy]

[Boobs]

My house is a disaster now, but when I was pregnant, I always made the house extra nice for my midwife appts. I wanted it to be really relaxing and well, the opposite of a dr's office! Lavendar in the air, soft music, natural lighting. It was spotless before the birth and literally when he was born, my house became a mess and has been filthy since. He's 21 months now and cleaning is like shoveling snow during a blizzard.

[jennyfah]

Clean? By whose standard? By mine, sure. By my mother's. . . no.

BTW, I was ROTFL at the "shoveling snow in a blizzard comment." SO TRUE! Cleaning a house with a toddler awake is pretty much totally pointless.

Jen
mom to a 27mo ds who's a great "helper" around the house

[boscopup]

With 2 heavily shedding dogs (German Shepherds) and 2 cats living in the house (one also heavily shedding - a Maine Coon), my house is NEVER clean. But I do try to make it not look gross when people are coming over.

Thankfully, my midwife never saw my master bathroom... It's gross. But even if I'd delivered at home (I went to a "birth house" 15 minutes away, but could have done it at home if I'd gone too fast), I wouldn't have been in the master bathroom. The toilet seat is falling apart and needs to be replaced, and it's not comfortable to sit on (cheap soft seat). So I labored in the guest bathroom, which is usually kept reasonably clean (ie, not gross). The toilet was my "happy place" during labor.

And yes, Flylady is good, and another good one is Motivated Moms. I like combining the two sort of... using some of the cleaning techniques of Flylady (like "you can do anything in 15 minutes), along with the checklist of Motivated Moms. Of course, right now I have a 2 week old, so I haven't been cleaning much at all except keeping dishes and laundry somewhat uptodate. My mom has done vacuuming twice since I gave birth (really should be done everyday with the shedders that live here, but once a week is my absolute minimum before it starts looking really gross).

[saratchka]

I try, but my house is never as clean as my mom's.

When I had the MW over for her first visit, she did mention that around 8 months she takes a quick tour of the house to alert her patients to any potential areas of concern. She didn't sound at all judgemental and was very clear that she didn't expect spotlessness, the check was just to confirm that the space would be a safe and comfortable place to birth. She even mentioned a client who had construction going on in her home at the time of her birth. They'd had to walk her out to a camp shower in the yard to clean up, and that had been fine. It all sounded very reasonable to me.

Oh, and if you're actually looking to streamline your housekeeping, Flylady may be worth a look. I never liked all the email, and I could have done without the religious stuff, but the basic plan for getting and keeping the house clean is sound.

[Naughty Dingo]

My house isn't horrible but it isn't clean either. Flylady has helped me so much. We got rid of about 75% of our clutter a few years ago so it is possible to tidy the place up if pressed. But clean floors no. Dust? No way.

We were laughing the other night because I made the statement that "The spiders will be attending the birth" We have so many spiders and spiderwebs all over our ceilings. And it isn't gonna happen that I am going to sweep them away

My mother is pretty bad about coming and cleaning my house. It makes me uncomfortable because I know she is judging how bad it is (in her mind). Happily, she won't be here for the birth.

I think what is important is to maintain it in a state where you are comfortable. If things are bugging you, then you should address them. I try not to worry about other people. I figure the midwife has seen worse.


And besides, dirty houses are a great thing for babies' and kids' immune systems. Kid growing up with pets (and the associated dander, hair and fecal contamination) have fewer allergies and sicknesses, thought to be associated directly with the aforementioned shedded substances. So there we go!

ND

[twogreencars]

ok - I just did the double whammy - joined FlyLady and am downloading the Motivated Mom's calendar.

Question - I just joined the Yahoo FlyLady group - is that it? Is there something I have to buy? What do I do first?

Re: the Motivated Moms - presumably just follow the daily chores and tasks??? or, is there something more, too?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

[beckydv]

My home visit is in two weeks. I've been warning my midwife I am just not a good housekeeper, and she keeps insisting that all we need is running water and a working telephone. Check!!!

Our house has two working parents, one parent in school as well, two kids who inherited my slobbiness, four cats, and a dog. A clean-ish room can change to utter disaster in a matter of an hour.

[heathenmom]

Originally Posted by twogreencars

Question - I just joined the Yahoo FlyLady group - is that it? Is there something I have to buy? What do I do first?

You don't have to buy anything ... everything you need to follow her program is provided for free on her website: www.flylady.net On the left-nav, 3rd from the top, is a link to Beginner Babysteps. Start there, and good luck! I LOVE Flylady .... I've still got a LONG way to go, but one of her sayings keeps me going: Housework done incorrectly still blesses your family. It keeps me from feeling like I have to do EVERYTHING ... PERFECTLY.

[AngelBee]

Originally Posted by twogreencars

ok - I just did the double whammy - joined FlyLady and am downloading the Motivated Mom's calendar.

Question - I just joined the Yahoo FlyLady group - is that it? Is there something I have to buy? What do I do first?

Re: the Motivated Moms - presumably just follow the daily chores and tasks??? or, is there something more, too?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

I would suggest subscribing to FlyLady BUT do the daily digest instead of individual emails. There can be alot of them otherwise.

For MM.....just do the daily tasks (done everyday) and then the calendar ones under each date.

[georgia]

is your house clean?

Uh, in a word: no

People before things...and I'd rather focus on the people in my house and let the things wait their turn. There's only so much we can do in one day

[Isaac'sMa]

Originally Posted by beckydv

My home visit is in two weeks. I've been warning my midwife I am just not a good housekeeper, and she keeps insisting that all we need is running water and a working telephone. Check!!!

Is Evelyn your midwife?! I'm in B'more and saw you are too! She was my MW and that's what she told me

Our house was clean when ds was born, but we did have some unfinished drywall and a few other projects going on. I wouldn't worry too much as long as you feel comfortable in the space where you'll birth!

[momto l&a]

Dh and I when I am about 35-37 weeks clean house from top to bottom. I mean everything gets scrubbed.

We have done this for all 3 births.

Its so nice because after the baby is born we dont have anything to worry about except for just the basic upkeep.

[janellesmommy]

My midwife has a handout that says one of the requirements for a homebirth is to have a clean house. I'm going to have to talk to her about that. I think that is ridiculous. So if my house is messy, even dirty, it's better to give birth in the hospital and risk getting an antibiotic resistant infection from their super germs?

Of course I hope to have a clean house, but if I don't, that's no reason to go to the hospital!