Time to Get Serious... There's a baby coming!

We're at T-minus 12 weeks, give or take, and are sort of kind of starting to seriously think about getting started on the nursery. We did buy a crib mattress a week or two ago, and I ordered the crib today (in white, if you're curious). It should be here in 6-10 weeks. So... I guess that's progress! There's no actual "room" to put these items in, however, and that is the daunting project that faces us. Well, not so much US, more like ME. The future nursery is filled (to the ceiling, it seems) with boxes of my stuff that needed to move out of the way to make room for Todd. I determined that this room would be tackled after the Christmas stuff was put away... and, shockingly, there are still Christmas decorations adorning our home. (What's that? You're not shocked? Rude. Justified, of course, but still rude.) So, I suppose step 1 is to get Christmas put away... and I'd better get moving, since my belly isn't getting any smaller and April isn't getting any farther away.

Going to Class

It has been a mostly uneventful pregnancy so far (hooray!)... and now it really feels like we're heading into the "home stretch." April 16 has felt so far away, and now it seems so close!

I've read all the pregnancy books I care to read (and more), several books on caring for newborns, and have finally decided that the time has come for seeking out a parenting book or two... which, as it turns out, is much more difficult for me than finding the other types of books. With pregnancy and newborn care, I have a pretty firm idea about what will fit my style and can easily discard books that don't seem like a good fit (I know that I want a natural birth, I know that I want to breastfeed & use cloth diapers, and in general I want to keep things as simple and "natural" and inexpensive as possible).

With parenting books, it's not so easy. What is my parenting philosophy? I don't really know. What about Todd's parenting philosophy? Hard to say. What are the big issues that could easily let me know that a book is wrong for us? I don't really know. I don't want to read a book that will put a bunch of ideas in my head that are contrary to "my style," or will steer me down a path of weirdness... but how will I know those books when I see them? I DON'T KNOW!! It's overwhelming. So for now I shall procrastinate... (SOP for indecisive Karisa!) there are plenty of things to keep us busy, anyhow.

Speaking of keeping busy, our childbirth classes start tonight. One of the many pregnancy-related books I read early on was Husband-Coached Childbirth, and I was not too far into the book before I realized that THIS is the birth experience I am hoping for... so I read the book cover to cover, Todd is currently reading the book, and we will be taking 8 weeks of classes on The Bradley Method of natural childbirth. I'm pretty excited to get started. :) I don't think "excited" would describe Todd's thoughts, but I'm glad that he (without any begging from me) agreed to go. I kind of took that for granted at first, but after a great deal of internet research on natural childbirth I was surprised to see how many women had husbands who refused to go to a class or read a book. I already knew Todd was awesome, but this is certainly further evidence of his awesomeness!