Nesting:
Last time around, Patrick and I spent the three weekends before the baby arrived working on rearranging furniture in the guest room, which became a nursery, the office, which became a slash guest room, and our bedroom, which remained what it was. I distinctly remember taking down every curtain in this house because I was appalled at the amount of dust that had accumulated there, and so we washed them. Those who know my cleaning habits will not be surprised to discover that this is the only time in my LIFE that it has occurred to me to worry about curtain dust. I also washed and put away all the clothing for the baby, prepped our cloth diaper stash, and practiced strapping a teddy bear into the car seat.
This time, we have set up the crib, moved the glider, eliminated the “guest room,” and prepped all the clothes and little bitty diapers. (I bought some Kissaluvs off craigslist in February and I am so excited to use them. I kind of want another baby so that I can just keep using these cloth diapers. Economy of scale people.) This week, I was feeling lethargic, but thought I should do some nesting to encourage the baby to come visit us. So I sterilized all of the breast pump equipment. That took three batches of boiling. We have a lot of bottles for a baby who had only breastmilk. I’m not as super psyched to use my breast pump again as I am to use the diapers. I wonder why…
Anyway, we’re almost as ready as we’re going to get. We still need to figure something out for changing the new baby, because we want to move all the changing paraphernalia out of Seamus’s room so that he will stop trying to take diapers out of their pail–dirty–or basket–clean. (Although it’s pretty funny when he takes a prefold, puts it over his head, and removes it calling “Peekyboo!”)
Teething:
I thought teething was cute. That was back when he stuck a hand in his mouth and made noise around it. That was back before molars threatened my sanity. Last night Seamus slept great from 8-11:30, was up until Patrick took him to the recliner at 4:00 (and yes, Patrick had to go to work today for his first day back, but I cannot let Seamus sleep on my belly anymore, just too big), where he slept til 6:00 and then I had him in bed with me where he kept sleeping until 7:30. We dealt with fever! and screaming! and angry yelling at the person soothing him! and pitiful whimpers! and oh, it was too much. Then this morning, all was well. He called for his NANA and muffin and “Mo? Mo? Bleeeea?” and, when those requests were met, life was good in Seamus’s world again. I felt his gums yesterday after our dr told us that he was getting a molar–the thought had not occurred to us, as we were still waiting for his bottom lateral to appear–and sure enough, I felt one cusp. This morning, when I felt again, all four cusps were up. Poor kid. What an ordeal. Please sleep tonight.
Visiting:
My friends are starting to come back into town, so it’s been fun to see folks for lunch, swims, walks, conversations about work, etc. Seamus has been a champ about hanging out with everyone. He especially likes it if the visit includes an animal sighting. For instance, he likes to walk with a dog, or as in the instance of today, he got to play peek-a-boo with a very tolerant cat. And we’ve attempted to clean our house so that people can come over for a brief dinner. Did you hear the one about how we descended like a pack of locusts on our friends’ house and ate all their food without contributing? Yeah, it happened. And they’re still speaking to us, so we’re grateful to have good friends.
New babies abound. We’re dying to meet baby Elliott, but we haven’t committed to a trip to KY in the near and or distant future, but the lure is there! Congrats Corey and Stephanie!
Academic Leigh Speaking 