Getting ready for the baby ....

It's amazing how much goes into preparing for the baby to make his entrance into this world.

• Setting up the crib (Julianna's old crib) 
• Swapping rooms so the kids can have the bigger room (1 bed & 1 crib wouldn't fit in J's old room) 
• Painting the kid's room 
• Arranging everything so it kind of sort of fits ok (small rooms in our small house!!) 
• Buying all the new stuff the boy needs - I forgot just how much $$ this stuff costs! Bottles, clothes, sleepers, new monitor, diapers, sit & stand stroller, infant car seat, Beco carrier, misc. things like swaddle-me's and blankets, etc.... etc... and so on. 
• Digging through all of Julianna's old stuff to try and find something/anything that is not pink that the boy can use. Not much there. That's why we pretty much had to start from scratch again. Oh well. 
• Moving stuff to and from the attic. Rearranging the attic & basement - storing things that aren't needed in order to save space. 
• Sold some stuff on Craiglist we won't be using again. 
• While I'm out on Maternity leave, we'll be using my dining room/office into a "sort-of" nursery for 16 weeks... we're going to set up the cradle in there so he won't disrupt Julianna at night time while she sleeps. (Family dining room by day, baby nursery by night! haha!) 
• The paperwork. Ohhhh the paperwork. I am buried in paperwork every day it seems for my job, disability, medical stuff, choices to make before he's born, choices to make after, birth certificate, pre-registration of everything ... etc. It has to be done in this day & age, I understand it, but it can certainly stress a tired, achy, pregnant 42 year old girl out! haha! 
• {Edit 5/10} - I forgot to add this one in - I spent 2 days making food. I made a bunch of "Make-ahead-meals" and divided them up, and froze them in disposable foil containers. This way we can just take out what we want for dinner once the baby is born and not have to worry about making dinner most nights. We have enough for at least 2-3 weeks of straight dinners! Yay me for planning ahead! I almost went into labor making all the food and was quite cranky by the end of the day (bless my husband!), but I got 'er done! 

Have I mentioned I am starting to have massive anxieties about giving birth? I had this the first time too. I don't care how you give birth, there is nothing that is 100% guaranteed in this world... and that scares me a bit. Funny because it's the birth, recovery, etc that scares me. The thought of taking home a 2nd baby and taking care of him, doesn't scare me or bother me at all. I can totally handle that and have zero fears about it.
I do however trust modern medicine 100% and know all the decisions we make/made around this child coming into the world are the right choices for us.
I have a week left now, and I would be lying if I said I was going to miss being pregnant. There is nothing, repeat, nothing about this pregnancy that I will miss. Bring on the boy! By this time next week, our son will be here and let the good times roll!

And to end this off... here are some pictures I took recently at a local park. I don't know the names of these pretty trees, but they bloom every year right around this time, and I try to make it there to get some photos of them. They are not dogwoods or fruit trees... couldn't find them online (and didn't look that hard either!)