Long or Short

I have officially reached a point in this pregnancy where everyone who sees me asks how long it is until my due date.  Seven weeks - give or take.  Responses are split between "Coming soon!" and "That's a while still."  Depending partly on whether the person speaking has given birth.

It seems like both a long and a short time to me.  The list of tasks I feel should be completed and items I want to acquire has begun to weigh on me heavily lately.  Thankfully my parents came up on Thursday and we all put in a couple of days of hard work and got several items checked off my "do" list.  And I hit a few garage sales and got some of the major items on my "get" list.

I left most of the photo taking to Liam.  One of the major tasks we had planned was getting the carpet cleaned.  We got some great professional help on the actual cleaning, but prepping the areas that needed to be cleaned was no small task.  Liam was very excited about seeing the living room "naked." 

I made sure to get a pictures of Liam's Lego "sculptures" before they got moved in case they didn't survive the trip.  All during the spring semester he wanted to take these creations for Show and tell at preschool.  After several such sessions I convinced him we could take pictures for him to take, but we didn't actually manage it.  So here is a picture.  Maybe he will take it when he starts summer preschool in about three weeks.

 The actual, almost completely naked living room.

I managed to miss the actual cleaning because I got my schedule mixed up and double booked myself.  Thankfully Liam was very excited about getting to stay with Grammy and Grandpa instead of being dragged along to the doctor's office.

A friend passed this rocker/glider on to me.  It's been through several babies already, and the cushions were not in the best shape.  Mom and I found some fabric we really liked and Mom did an amazing job recovering the cushions.  We both forgot to take a before picture.

This shot shows the fabric a little better.  Ties in great with other furniture in the room, so Mom made arm chair covers as well.

The time not spent upholstering or moving furniture was spent rearranging and organizing.  Not my strong point at all.  But we made some good progress with relatively little grouching from me.  Things are still in a bit of a jumble.  I spent today dusting our bedroom and cleaning the floor.  Liam spent it whining about how terrible his life is when Mommy is too busy to play with him.  In the late afternoon we did make it to the library for  little "relaxing."  (Which is what Liam had been lobbying for all day.)

Now before you make comments about "nesting" just let me say this:  I get it.  a pregnant woman cleaning and organizing her house is a cliche.  But I didn't really do much of this type of thing before Liam was born and I found the chaos of recovering from childbirth while caring for a person who is very confused about the purpose of sleep very overwhelming.  I'm just trying to avoid a little of the chaos this time.

Also, I will be painfully honest and say that some of this cleaning has not really been done since.....Well lets just say that the house was pretty clean when we moved in eight or so years ago.  So the idea of navigating through sleepless nights and coping with blow-out diapers while dodging man-eating dust balls was starting to stress me out.  So yes, it is a cliche, but in this case it's also really needed!