Turbo Nesting

Call in the bulldozers and bring me some gasoline! I want this place CLEAN. I want the clutter OUT and GONE. I want to feel like this is a comfortable place to have a baby.

Unfortunately, I still haven't figured out how to make a lot of cleaning fun for Sweet Pea. She often loves to use her little feather duster to help me dust, and sometimes she will carry the vacuum cleaner cord around behind me as I move about the house, or she will want me to hold her so she can "help" me push it. But mostly she stands up on the furniture in fear of the beast that sucks. And encourages me to use it to try to suck up the poor kitties. Oh, how they suffer at her hands... or would if she were bigger and knew how to use machines - and wasn't afraid of them. She will often play in the sink next to me while I wash the dishes, but not always... and it is difficult to sort through objects and old mail while trying to play with her. So I don't feel like all that much is being accomplished. By me, anyway.

So yesterday morning after we got up and I dawdled on the computer a bit and we ate a bite of breakfast, I ashamedly sat Sweet Pea in front of the TV and then went to take a shower. After that I started a load of laundry and then vacuumed the house. That was WAY too much time in front of the TV for her and I was completely exhausted by the end of my work - but it sure did help my mental state after being away all weekend and coming back to dirty dishes and dirty laundry (going away always creates more dirty laundry because we take our Aerobed and sheets). I still have to gain control of the place, but having that stuff started/done really helped, and over the course of the day I was able to catch up with all of the clothing laundry (sheets still dirty, but those I can easily get done today - yay!). Last night before bed I caught up with the dishes and shined the sink. I am gaining more control. Yay!

Interestingly, I have noticed lately when looking through old pictures of when Sweet Pea was born that our house was WAY more cluttered then. It looks so much better now that I can't imagine how it can possibly still feel cluttered to me. Probably because it is. I don't know how I lived here like that when even with the current amount of clutter, and progress being made in small increments more often and pretty regularly, I am ready to crawl out of my skin.

Anyway, the thought has arisen that maybe I wasn't able to give birth at home the first time because I didn't feel comfortable enough here. Even though as soon as I say that I don't believe it, because that thought/feeling NEVER occurred to me while I was in labor (plus she had a leg wrapped in the umbilical cord and I feel that that was the biggest hindrance to labor progressing), it sticks in my head as a reason to get this place as clean and decluttered as possible in the next four weeks, just to make sure that the clutter won't interfere this time (since this time I am very aware of and bothered by it).

Yesterday Sweet Pea asked me to read the "Where Do Babies Come From" book to her. I thought she meant the one that explains where baby plants, ducks, kitties, and humans come from - the one that talks about eggs and sperm and all that. But she wanted to read and talk about the Dr. Sears book "Baby On The Way," which made me even happier, because that one is more about the process of me being pregnant and her becoming an older sister. It talks about what will happen when I go into labor, and gives pages to discuss (we paraphrase some pages to fit our situation) what she will be doing while I'm in labor, who is taking care of her, etc.

I finally asked her if she wants to see the baby actually be born, after explaining where the baby comes out, etc. very clearly and she said, "yes!" I hope that will be possible. If the baby is born at night and Sweet Pea is sleeping I am certainly not going to have anybody wake her up. But if she is home and awake, I would love for her to see the birth first-hand.