With seven weeks to go, we’re finally cranking up the baby preparations. Of course, when you already have two girls, there isn’t that much original preparation to do. We moved the crib back up to newborn level today. We moved all of C.’s clothes out of that room and into her current room as well. Sometime this week, we’ll start pulling out all the infant clothes and restocking the dresser. We officially have a nursery again.
That means we’ll have some Pampers in the house again soon, as well. Call me crazy, but I love the way Pampers, at least the newborn sizes, smell.* Our Costco Huggies we use beginning at size #2 have no smell.
Yesterday, we shifted all the car seats around, including putting M. into a booster seat. She was very excited about that. She thinks she’s pretty hot shit these days: four years old, hitting preschool three days a week in the fall, sitting in a booster seat. Look out world!
We put some thought into how to organize things in the van. For now, it seems to make the most sense to put both M. and C. all the way in the back of the van, remove one of the center seats for easier access, and then save the open middle seat for baby girl. Although C. is still sitting in the same car seat as before, she’s also excited to be sitting in a whole new part of the van.
Along with the physical preparation comes the mental preparation. I’ve just realized over the past few days that things are going to change for us big time again. I think I discounted how disruptive the first few weeks with even the healthiest of babies can be because I’ve been through it twice. Suddenly I’m like, “Oh yeah, S. and I are going to be fried for awhile and M. and C. won’t understand or sympathize with our situation.” If Home Girl #3 will just sleep, we’ll figure out the rest.
One thing that should help us is the fact there are two big sisters this time. I’ve kind of suppressed the memories, but M. wasn’t super happy to have a baby sister during C.’s first three months. Jealousy reared its ugly, two-year-old head quite a few times during those days. Now, we’re hopeful that having a big sister around will pad C.’s adjustment, and together they’ll keep each other occupied and ease the disruption. Hopeful being the key word.
Even with the issues we’ve had with C.’s issues at nighttime, we’ve settled into some pretty comfortable patterns this summer. We’re far from the ideal, but patterns help you get through the day with a little sanity. That’s the scariest part of adding another kid: those patterns are all going to get destroyed for awhile.
/* Before they’ve been soiled, of course.