Baby To-Do List - 4 Weeks Left

3 weeks, 2 days, 9 hours and 14 minutes to be exact... I'm just kidding, but it would be kinda nice to know exactly when I am going to go into labor, so I could procrastinate until the day before... or the day of, like I do with everything else. That is partly why I started this weekly update. I know myself and if I didn't have some accountability nothing would be getting done. Soooo, on that note, onto the list...


Need to (in no particular order):

• Decide on co-sleeper or bassinet
• Find and buy a bassinet
• Pick a name... First and middle
• Go through, organize and wash new born clothes 
• Go through, organize and wash 0-3 month clothes 
• Buy Diapers  
• Buy double stroller  
• Buy a wipe warmer  
• Pack hospital bag
• Install infant car seat (probably won't be done until right after the baby is born)
• Buy small toys/gifts for Elijah to receive when the baby gets presents
• Wrap the small toys for Elijah (put them in gift bags is more like it)
• Buy the big present for Elijah
• Install TV in Elijah's room  
• Find baby tub
• Buy gift for Elijah from the baby
• Wrap present from baby
• Buy bassinet sheets

Progress this week:

• They delivered the bassinet, so it is physically in our house... potentially with all the parts, but I guess we'll find that out when Joe puts it together (Update - We put it together last night and it looks great!)
• I packed the essentials for my hospital bag... That way, if Captain Caveman (what I've been calling the baby) decides to come early, I will have the important things ready to go... like paperwork, cameras and make-up. I should be packing everything else sometime this week... or when I start having contractions... whichever happens to come first.
• My sis said that she read somewhere that it helps smooth things over if "the baby" buys the older siblings a present. So we decided to do that... We just need to wrap it.
• We almost bought Elijah's big gift last night (a basketball hoop for children), but are having second thoughts about what to get him. I really want to buy him a Nook (ridiculous, I know, and totally out of our price range for presents), but I think we will save that for Christmas (as a family present) and go back to the drawing board for what to buy him.

We've gotten to the point in the list that nothing urgent needs to be done that can't be done after the baby is born (except for my hosptial bag, which I swear will get done this week :-)). That makes me feel a lot better. Until next week...

Baby To-Do List - 5 Weeks Left

Four weeks and two days to be exact... Time flies when you're having fun... If you can call all of this "fun" ;-). But anyway, between having to update every week and Joe's nagging help we got a lot accomplished this week.

Need to (in no particular order):

• Decide on co-sleeper or bassinet
• Find and buy a bassinet
• Pick a name... First and middle
• Go through, organize and wash new born clothes 
• Go through, organize and wash 0-3 month clothes 
• Buy Diapers  
• Buy double stroller  
• Buy a wipe warmer  
• Pack hospital bag
• Install infant car seat (probably won't be done until right after the baby is born)
• Buy small toys/gifts for Elijah to receive when the baby gets presents
• Wrap the small toys for Elijah (put them in gift bags is more like it)
• Buy the big present for Elijah
• Install TV in Elijah's room  
• Find baby tub

Progress this week:

• I -finally- ordered the bassinet. It is the one that Joe didn't like, but then after a few days he decided he was ok with it.
• With Joe's help, we sorted through all the Newborn and 0-3 month baby clothes and then my mom washed them.
• Even though this whole time I've acted like we have a name or two picked out, we actually don't. It's still a work in progress... However I think this week we have come the closest to picking out a name than ever before.
• I bought some things to go into my hospital bag, so sometime in the next week I should be able to pack it all up and have it ready to go... for the most part.
• We went to BJs on Friday and picked up some baby related items like baby wash/shampoo and a big two-pack of desitin. We decided to hold off on getting the diapers, cause I don't want them sitting around the house for a month. So we decided we were going to get them at the beginning of July.

I actually have a question to end this. If you have had a baby before, what is one thing (or multiple things, if that is the case) that is not on the usual list that you are glad that you packed? I haven't even packed yet and already I feel like I've forgotten things...

We are in the home stretch now... Until next week...

Baby To-Do List - 6 Weeks Left

A month and a half until the big day... if Baby Raymond decides he wants to stay put that long. I have a really bad feeling that he's going to come early, but hopefully I'm wrong. Some things got done this weekend... you wouldn't be able to tell by the lack of crossing off on the list, but prepping things and putting things together was what was going on this week.

Need to (in no particular order):

• Decide on co-sleeper or bassinet
• Find and buy a bassinet
• Pick a name... First and middle
• Go through, organize and wash new born clothes 
• Go through, organize and wash 0-3 month clothes 
• Buy Diapers  
• Buy double stroller  
• Buy a wipe warmer  
• Pack hospital bag
• Install infant car seat (probably won't be done until right after the baby is born)
• Buy small toys/gifts for Elijah to receive when the baby gets presents
• Wrap the small toys for Elijah (put them in gift bags is more like it)
• Buy the big present for Elijah
• Install TV in Elijah's room  

Progress this week:

• We found more Newborn and 0-3 clothing, but it still needs to be sorted through
• Got out the infant car seat to make sure it looked ok to use
• While we were in the closet getting the car seat, we also pulled out the swing and bouncy seat to make sure they were in working order too. Turns out everything is still in great shape
• Put together the double stroller to make sure all the pieces were there
• Made a list of what I need to buy to put in, and what I want to put in, my hospital bag
• I made a decision on what bassinet I like (finally), then I told Joe and he said he didn't like it, so that is still on hold for the time being

So the BJs coupon thing didn't pan out, cause apparently you need this thing called money to buy things at BJs. We were short on funds this week, so I think we are planning on going tonight or tomorrow. Who knows... in my life nothing is for certain until it happens.

Until next week...

Book Requests...

As I've mentioned before we've been reading to/with Elijah since he was probably 3 months old. We started off just reading before bedtime... one short book. Then that one short book turned into several short books. After a while the books were moved into his play area, so he could look through them as he pleased. Yes, some of the books were torn apart or are very well worn, but, to me, a worn book is a well loved book.
At first I was buying him a new book every time I got paid, but that kind of fell to the way-side. One reason was about a year or so ago Elijah decided he didn't want to read or look at books anymore... he would rather play with Legos or his little figurines. When I would offer he would say no, so I just let him do what he wanted. We weren't too concerned, cause every person goes through phases in things that they like and don't like.

We let him be and probably around Christmastime he decided books were on his agenda again... with an added interest in books where you find things. So it was off to Barnes and Noble we went. We ended up getting a few different books, but this book series is one of his favorites:

There are 3 other books in this series
People, Places and Things
Moo, Quack, Roar and More
Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall


We only had 3 out of the 4, so Elijah's very first book request was

It made me proud for him to actually request a book, out of the blue, so I had to get it for him... that night.

The second book request was from a different source. On barnesandnoble.com they have these videos of famous people/authors reading children's books. Elijah -loves- the videos and looks forward to each new one. They upload a new video every month and you can even watch the ones from previous months. I love to sit there watching them with him. One of his favorites is

He would (and still will) ask to watch it over and over and over again. So one day we were at Walmart and guess what book we found. Yup, it was "my book" as he likes to say. We couldn't leave the store without it... Now he likes me to read it over and over and over again.

I wrote this entry about a week ago, but never finished it up to publish until now. The reason I mention that is because last night I offered to read Elijah a book and asked "What book do you want to read?". He wanted to read "Where The Wild Things Are", so I said "Where is it?". He looked around and couldn't find it initially, so after a few minutes he ran over to the computer chair and said, "Monnie, sit down, sit down, sit down!". He wanted to watch it on the computer since he couldn't find his book. (As an aside, we found the book about a minute later and he let me read it instead)

Baby To-Do List - 7 Weeks Left

Another dud in the progress department... Well, for baby stuff. You would have thought, by my OB telling me my belly grew a LOT since the last time I was there and that the baby is head down, that a miracle would have happened and I would have been doing everything on the list, that day. Hah, actually, I couldn't, because after my doctors appointment I came home to Elijah and Joe... Elijah had a 102 fever and Joe had a sprained foot, so we headed to yet another doctor, called Patient first.

Elijah has a double ear infection. Joe has a severely sprained foot/ankle. That meant that for the rest of the night I had to take care of both of them. The next day, the feeling of wanting to get things done had passed and that is the reason (even though I didn't need one) nothing was accomplished this week.

Need to (in no particular order):

• Decide on co-sleeper or bassinet
• Find and buy a bassinet
• Pick a name... First and middle
• Go through, organize and wash new born clothes 
• Go through, organize and wash 0-3 month clothes 
• Buy Diapers  
• Buy double stroller  
• Buy a wipe warmer  
• Pack hospital bag
• Install infant car seat
• Buy small toys/gifts for Elijah to receive when the baby gets presents
• Wrap the small toys for Elijah
• Buy the big present for Elijah

  

Progress this week:

• Ok, I lied, we picked up a few more little presents for Elijah and unless we see other ones that are yelling out "buy me!", I think we are done.

This next week has potential though. Joe is on my back to pick out, and order, a bassinet. So that will most likely be happening. We also got this awesome coupon book from BJs wholesale that has like 10 coupons we can use, on things we usually buy, so the diaper buying may soon make it way off of the list too.

Baby To-Do List - 8 Weeks Left

This week I really needed to get my tail in gear. Thankfully it was a long weekend, I felt wonderful Sunday afternoon and ok Monday afternoon, so that is when most of this stuff was accomplished.

Need to (in no particular order):

• Decide on co-sleeper or bassinet  
• Find and buy a bassinet
• Pick a name... First and middle  
• Go through, organize and wash new born clothes
• Go through, organize and wash 0-3 month clothes
• Buy Diapers  
• Buy double stroller
• Buy a wipe warmer
• Pack hospital bag
• Install infant car seat
• Buy small toys/gifts for Elijah to receive when the baby gets presents
• Wrap the small toys for Elijah
• Buy the big present for Elijah  

Progress this week:

• We bought a double stroller. I had been eyeing this one specific double stroller pretty much since I found out I was pregnant. This weekend Babies R Us/Toys R Us was having a wonderful sale, which included 15% off of cribs, strollers, high chairs, etc. So we bought it, cause even after looking on Amazon, I couldn't find it cheaper. Now if I could only commit to a bassinet like that...
• We cleaned and straightened our bedroom, which indirectly was on the list of things to do. It took me 6 hours of sorting and packing, then having braxton hicks contractions and back spasms that evening... but it looks marvelous!