Closet Update

The closet is not nearly as bad I thought it was going to be.  YAY!   We got the clothes bars and the holders out of the closet and the only weird thing is that the walls under where the wood was is not painted or textured.  There are a few nail holes to fill in and we need to sand down the edges of where the paint and the wood met but other then that we are good to go.

Sighhhhhhhh.  We just might be able to get this done after all.

And today I found a good sale on baby clothes at Fred Meyer's.  Half off clearance and I was able to get a few cute things and a gift for a friend's new baby for about $30.  I got a layette set that can be a gown or legged, and came with a hat, bib and booties. Two sleep gowns and two sleep sacks.  It still baffles me that baby clothes cost so much but getting things on sale makes it a bit better. 

Once the baby is born we can get clothes off craig's list, from thrift stores and resale shops and that will make me feel a lot better.

The Baby Room

I think that for most people getting “The Baby’s Room” ready is a fun event. They pick out furniture while imagining that soon there will be a baby in that room, the one element that starts or completes a family. There are cute baby things to pick out, fun colorful things to hang on the wall and tiny clothes and accessories to put in the furniture.


For me it is just feels like more work. I have no desire to pick out cute sheets and hang stuff on the walls. I don’t want to go shopping and spend a ton of money on a room and clothes that the baby will outgrow very soon. I see the price tags of stuff and freak out. (Forty-six dollars for one baby shirt?!! I usually don’t spend that much on my shirts and I can wear them for YEARS!!!)

I don’t want to figure out where the furniture that is currently in that room is going to go. Of course, I know that this is my fault. If I had bothered to get my butt in gear and clean out the front bedroom anytime in the last 2 years this wouldn’t be so much of an issue. But I didn’t and so now here I am, about 3.5 months until baby’s arrival, getting bigger every day and now trying to get the baby room ready. I don’t want to add one more thing to do to our to-do list

I could just throw out the two pieces of furniture that are in that room and start setting up baby stuff and then it would be done. But since Brian and I don’t want to throw out the futon and filing cabinet I need to organize and de-clutter the front bedroom so we have somewhere to move the before mentioned furniture.

We are in the process of putting in a closet organizer (in the front bedroom) and that should help immensely but that, like all the projects with our house, has turned into something bigger than just taking stuff out of the closet, putting in the organizer and putting stuff back in the closet. The moneys who were trying to “flip” our house did the fastest, cheapest (read crappy) job they could to try and fix things in the house to get it ready to sell. So, now we need to take out the closet rods and the homemade crappy rod holders and paint the closet. And since we haven’t taken out the rods or holders yet, I am quite sure that there will be something wrong with the walls under the rod holders that will explain why the rod holders that are in there are in there.

Even with all this in mind, I am hoping to have the organizer in by Friday so that over the weekend I can start putting stuff in the closet. And I realize that the process of painting and all that won’t add that much time to this project but I am sick of starting something that should be quick and finding out, again, that there are five more steps to do because the dorks who had the house before us couldn’t be bothered to learn how to do anything correctly. They just figured out a way to cover stuff up. I am starting to hate our house.

Also adding to the dragging out of this situation is that fact that I am not good at getting rid of stuff. I love it when the house is clean and all the clutter is throw out. I love the way rooms look when they have less stuff in them. I like my rooms to look cozy and lived in and streamlined and clutter free. But I seem to collect stuff and then I don’t want to get rid of it because it seems I always have some great plan to do something with whatever is it. And I rarely do. I am starting to think this is a problem.

I can recognize that, for the most part, if most of the stuff that was in the closet disappeared I would have no idea what was missing and probably never miss it. Yet here I am still holding on to whatever it is. And now, as I am sitting here writing this, I think to myself, why don’t I just go and throw it out? And I want to, now. But as soon as I see the boxes I can’t do it and I feel the need to open the boxes and go through them, because what if there is really something in there that I need? Or is valuable to me in some way? UUGGGGGHHH.

I wonder how much it costs to hire one of those people who can come to your house and help you de-clutter. Oh, never mind, it wouldn’t matter…I am too cheap to hire someone to come tell me what I already know and can do by myself if I would just suck it up and do it. (I mean really, if I am too cheap to buy cute baby clothes…)

Anyone what to come over for pizza and help me de-clutter this weekend?

Mov'n and Shak'n

This morning I felt the baby kick, from the outside, for the first time. Brian was able to feel it too. !!! Cool.

20 week ultrasound

We had our 20 week ultrasound (about a week ago, I know, and I am just getting around to posting now) and it was amazing. You can see everything. I think that both of us could not believe what they can show you now with those machines.

We could see all four chambers of the heart and we could see the valves moving. The valves!! We saw leg bones, arm bones, finger s, toes, the bladder, diaphragm and they could even check for cleft pallet. They measured a bunch of stuff and everything looked good. Baby has all the right things in all the right places. It was moving all over the place and we got to hear the swish, swish of the heartbeat.

It was really great.

Worry Wart Wednesday

I can’t figure out why/how I can go from picking out a name and then in the span of like a week, doubt my choice.

One day Brian and I are talking about names and find ones we both like, so great, done. Then, out of nowhere, starts the well, what if… What if the name is dumb? What if I don’t like it in 3 years? What if the baby doesn’t look like the name? Should we pick a different middle name? Should we pick a different first name? Is it too long? Why is this turning into such a big deal!!?? We have names we like (one boy and one girl, a couple of girl names actually) so why now am I second guessing myself? It’s a name; it doesn’t have to be perfect. For that matter, if I totally hate it later, there are name change forms. But it still feels like a big deal.

This feeling is not limited to names. I am finding that it extends to, well, everything. Which bottles are the best, how do I pick a breast pump, which diapers do I use, how do I pick the right car seat? How many baby t-shirts will I need, how fast will they grow out of stuff, do I really need 700 blankets?

And why am I in such a bad mood today? I don’t want to be at work, I don’t want to be at home.

House Cleaning

I spend all day yesterday cleaning the house. By the time I was done, and ate dinner, it was 9 pm. (And I was exhausted.)

It was the type of cleaning that you do when you have a dream that your dog has fleas and realize that your house is infected. Then you wake up and start frantically cleaning even though you don’t have a dog because you are certain that the universe is trying to tell you something.

So, now, my house a clean, the windows are sparkling and the trim on the doorways is nice and white but the funny part it, it is still cluttered. I still have clothes piled on the dresser. Sigh…I guess it will get it all together eventually.