The Inner Mom

It is 10:45 pm right now - baby asleep. Usual bed time is 8 o'clock but today we both took a nap at 530 for an hour, so i knew it would be a late night. All in all, for us, an uneventful day. Swam in the pool - the one in our back yard, still not ready to show my face at the public pool and went to the library where we ran around and tore any book off the shelf she could reach while screaming. No bruises, bumps or scratches today. Since we have started the 10 week countdown to baby 2, I have started the "nesting stage" in my pregnancy. This is really hard to describe if you have not gone through this yet. Its an uncontrollable urge to set up the baby’s room, clean the house, paint - whatever you need to do to feel that you are ready for the baby. I also rearranged all the furniture in our house with our first daughter - only to put it all back the way it was! And you cant even sleep well at night because all you think about is the dusty window sill, or cleaning out the fridge again (even though we all know the fridge has nothing to do with getting ready for the baby) - but this is why its uncontrollable. This time for me i am solely occupied with the girls room - that is trying to fit 2 babies in one room. My first daughter, Ellie, has a beautiful room. All painted, everything put up on the walls so nicely and organized. This week i have gone in there like a tornado and took everything off the walls, spackled any holes and painted, moved the dresser and rocker, and started to pull out her NB clothing and wash it. After pulling up all the baby toys, clothes, swing...etc., i am weighed down with how much 'stuff' we have, and a bit stunned that i do not remember even having 1/2 this! Trying to get these girls in one room is going to be quite the struggle. But with only one guest bedroom in our house, we do not have a choice. Yesterday i put up shelving, took it down, spackled holes, painted....repeated the process. The day ended in a teary eyed phone call to my mom telling her that i think i need to put one of the cribs in the closet to make it all fit! After talking some sense in me, she calmly said, "Erin, how will explain to your guests that one of your children is sleeping in the closet?" Thanks for the help mom!