Monday, January 31, 2011

Baby preparations: any advice?

I would love some advice from some ladies who are planners and are understanding about this sort of thing! Please, I love your comments and always read them, so send some ideas my way if you have any suggestions.

In preparing for our new little baby, due March 13 - yikes! - I am considering a whole bunch of unusual situations:

My husband works nights, so during the day when he is sleeping I need to keep things reasonably quiet. Also, I try to stay downstairs with our daughter or outside - both of which help tremendously.

The baby's bassinet will be in the master bedroom, upstairs, where the baby will sleep near me and I'll be up several times a night no doubt nursing and changing diapers (and wet pajamas now and then, too!).

The downstairs guest bathroom is where I currently give our daughter baths, and the adjoining office serves as a de facto pseudo changing area because of this. We'll be getting a pack and play with a bassinet attachment so that in theory the new baby can do daytime napping in the office. This way I won't be trekking up and down stairs to the nursery or the master bedroom a lot.

But right now I'm in full-on nesting mode and I have various baby-related articles of clothing and blankets and burp cloths and such that I am ready to put in place, and I am puzzled about where to store things.

Since baths will be taking place in the downstairs bathroom, I'm wondering if I ought to just store the new baby's clothes in the office closet instead of the upstairs nursery closet, since that's where I'll be needing them most.

And I'm wondering if I should just move the existing changing table from the upstairs nursery to the office, since we spend so much of our waking hours downstairs. But my husband hates this idea, and although I feel that he really doesn't understand, I really want to honor his preferences because that's the right thing to do. I'll be setting up a small changing area for the baby in our bedroom on our dresser for night-time use as well.

Sigh. Am I over thinking and overcomplicating this? I'm feeling embarrassed, because when I try to talk this over with my husband he starts to listen, but then sort of glazes over a few sentences into it. Thus, I need some female input, and maybe a little empathy too. I don't like feeling a wee bit crazy.

An alternative plan that I have involves clearing space in the walk-in office closet for the whole changing table, which would hide the table completely between use, and then maybe Jeff wouldn't be so opposed to the idea of having the changing table in the office.

Does anyone else's husband work nights? I'm happy that he's employed and that's what we dwell on, so I don't mean to sound complain-y. The week before our first baby was born he was laid off, and was unemployed for an uncomfortable while before we were blessed with this new and wonderful job of his, so we know what unemployment is like. But right now, it is hard to only see him when one or both of us is completely tired out. And I know babies. Babies are loud, even the sweet ones. Its the way things work. So I am a little intimidated by this new task of mine: learning to mother a 22 month old while mothering a newborn while keeping us all quiet enough so my husband can sleep? whoa, I'll just keep focusing on those stories of God's miracles from the Bible, I guess.

So, I am hoping for some input on any of my aforementioned wonderings. How have any of you dealt with any of this before?

When preparing for my first baby, I just put things in the nursery. This feels a lot more complicated.

1 comment:

  1. Our pack' n play by Eddie Bauer had a flip down changing table that went with it. It works well for a small baby. Perhaps you can get one of those to take care of your dilemma.

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