My to do list before the baby gets here is slowly shortening. I feel like much less of a slacker now.

We now have the two big necessary expenses that we needed (IMO) before the baby was born. As mentioned before, the a new twin mattress to put next to our king mattress was delivered while I was in Charleston the other week. I’m working on getting Little Prince to sleep on that mattress instead of pressed next to me. It’s going pretty well. He’s even done a few nights all night in his room. The other big purchase was another dresser. We went to Ikea over the weekend and Darius was brilliant. Instead of getting a new dresser for the baby (and trying to match it to the one that LP already uses), we got a new, shorter dresser with more drawers for LP. This way he has access to more of his own clothing and he gets to feel very grown up. He helped put it together, which made him even happier.

The other weekend we pulled out the swing, bouncer, and playmat from LP’s closet and set up the swing and bouncer. LP immediately put his baby doll in the swing and practiced turning it on and tested all the settings.

I’ve now also found and washed the newborn and 0-3 month clothing (well, most of it), the Moby and the Ergo (and inserts and teething pads), and a whole bunch of receiving blankets and pack and play covers and towels. I just need to fold and put them away. I also went through the two large bins of diapers that I friend gave me months ago.

There are some things in there, like the wool covers and the Flip system stuff that I’ll probably pass on to another mother really soon. However, there were a whole bunch of small diaper covers, lots of snappies, and tons of DiaperRite diapers. From my research online, DiaperRite is often compared to GMDs! Totally have enough cloth to last a long time now. Also, my dad got us enough credit with the Diaper Squad to last almost 3 months! The first delivery should show up on Thursday (they like to send it to you early so you’re prepared). Now I just need to figure out which of our pockets need repair and how to strip and prep everything we have.

I also got all of the Sprinkle pictures gathered and edited. You can find them under the Pictures tab. Expect more about that very soon.

This morning I even found my old nipple shields. They were kind of yellow. Will boil them like crazy, but I’m kind of thinking after 4 years I might just want to get new ones. Not that I think Bae will need a nipple shield to latch, but I’d rather be prepared.

Midwife appointment went well yesterday. Everything still looks good and seems to be on track. Birthing Center is now fully paid off, so that’s also good.

Left to do:

• Fold and put away baby clothing, blankets, etc.
• Strip and put away prefolds (can wait if Diaper Service for first few months).
• Check, strip, prep, and put away pocket diapers.
• Buy a small pack of newborn disposables.
• Buy new nipple shields?
• See what else from our registry we still want to get before baby gets here (Halloween costume?).
• Wash/prep any other baby carriers (wraps, mei tai).
• Pack a bag for the Birthing Center
• Have last session with doula (and get belly henna!)
• Pull out car seat and bases from downstairs closet (prep and clean if needed) and install bases in cars.
• Pull out and set up Pack&Play downstairs. We may not use it much, but it makes a good changing station.
• Pull out and prep the diaper bag.

Not really that much. I feel much more ready for the baby now than I did before this weekend. I’m still hoping for that nesting burst of energy, but I didn’t get it with LP, so I’m not counting on getting it with Bae either.I know I look huge now as I keep getting the “any day now” comments from people and they’re surprised when I tell them I have about a month left. So here I am with my new haircut, at 36 weeks and 2 days on my 36th birthday.