Don’t flay the sheep.

Countdown

As my OB/GYN put it, “And now it’s time to get serious.” (“Serious about what?” I said. “Having this baby.” “Oh.”)

So, here’s the checklist of what I think I have to do before this kid can show up:

1. Clean the house. And keep it clean.

2. Organize the following closets and/or drawers: hallway, linen, pantry, silverware, junk drawer, underwear, dishes (to make room for bottles even though they won’t get used for a month or two), tea and coffee cupboard; Zora’s bathroom drawers; Zora’s closet.

3. Take a picture of the belly. To show how huge it is, but preferably casting it in a flattering light as well.

4. Spend as much time as possible convincing Zora that she is still as precious as she’s probably felt functioning as an only child for the last couple years.

5. Finish a batch of shower thank you notes.

6. Get someone to take home our gently used full size mattress…we don’t have space to store it, but it’s in too good of shape to leave at the curb.

7. Make up for the journalling up to baby’s arrival that I SWORE I would do starting a few months ago.

8. Finish tying together work details.

9. Clean my office.

10. Have out of office messages ready for e-mail and voice-mail.

11. Disable work e-mail on phone so that I don’t check it while on leave.

12. Figure out if the cloth diapers are truly washed and ready to go or if, as I’m starting to read on internet postings, they need to be prewashed even more times to avoid water beading up on them.

13. Finish knitting: 3 wool diaper covers; a Christmas (2010) present for my cousin; seaming on a baby sweater.

14. Finish sewing the new crib skirt.

15. Finish nagging Erik to move the futon and set up the crib in the office (even though the baby is all set with a cradle and mini nursery set-up in our bedroom for the next few months anyway).

16. Clean off the front of the fridge.

17. Get Zora to finish her preschool valentines early so that I don’t have to worry about that if I’m too pregnant to care, in labor, or just home with the baby when that holiday comes around.

18. Pack my hospital suitcase (Seriously, I have yet to do this. The suitcase is under my bed with a pair of slippers in it. I know this is pathetic.)

19. Write up Zora’s daily schedule for a sample week so that whoever takes care of her can know what needs to be done.

20. Make up for the birthing exercises that I haven’t done quite enough of (although, I realize it’s a bit of a lost cause…Oh, well…I did some of them!!)

21. Clean the fridge.

The point of that list being, of course, that clearly all of this is not going to get done. Which is perhaps good training for adding an additional child to the mix.

In fact, here’s the list of what I really need to do for this baby to show up:

1. Go into labor.

2. Head for the hospital.

Everything else is just going to have to fall into place.

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