As it gets closer and closer to baby's arrival, I find myself with more and more things to do. Some of them are stupid, or just small things, while others are very important and necessary. I also find myself thinking about how weird it's going to be to be sitting on the couch in the evenings with Mark... AND a baby. It's hard to really picture! And of course, I've had my mini freak-out moments. Like, where I go WHAT WAS I THINKING getting pregnant?! We're going to have a baby?? And I contemplate all the "major" decisions I have to make. I use quotations because, well, they are actually all really minor things that just need to be considered when raising a baby, but when you get in one of those freak-out moods, every minor thing becomes major, ya know? Such as...
- Pacifiers? To use, or not to use? Supposedly they might interfere with breast feeding if given too early, but babies have a strong sucking reflex early on and pacifiers can be very helpful in soothing. And we've all seen the 4 year old walking around with a pacifier, but then again, at least with a pacifier (as opposed to thumb sucking) I can determine when it gets taken away... It's pretty tough to get thumb sucking to stop. Although thumbs are free, and convenient, and you don't have to worry about it falling out of baby's mouth in the middle of the night... And little babies sucking their thumbs are soooo cute... until they turn 4 and still suck their thumbs... See my dilemmas? Haha, I think I'm a pacifier kind of person, but who knows.
- Breast feeding. I'm determined to do it, but am not really the type to be comfortable doing it in public. Which means, am I housebound for the next however many months? What if I want to play soccer again (the season goes October-December, and sometimes requires a day of travel), how is that gonna work?? I could introduce bottles (of breast milk) early on so Mark can feed the baby, but then what if she then only wants to drink from a bottle? Decisions, decisions.
- Our car. Ok this has been a major source of stress for me lately, and maybe I'm overreacting (and I think it drives Mark crazy), but I think I have some valid points. It's getting to be winter here (as in freezing cold and raining often). Our car does not have a heater, or even a fan that works. So obviously we can't warm up the car, and because not even the fan works (it makes a horrible, loud noise when we turn it on), we can't defrost anything. So if we have a cold wintery day, and we have to drive somewhere, the windows get all fogged up and we can't even see to drive. So the only solution is to roll down the windows, letting in cold air and rain. Fine, we can suffer through that, but with a baby in tow? I think not. But I think it's going to cost hundreds of dollars to get it fixed. Granted the window fogging problem is only an issue in the winter, but in the summer when it's hot, we don't have A/C either. But then to get it fixed we have to be without a car for a while, which is not very convenient when I am 35+ weeks pregnant, have lots of errands to run, and could potentially go into labor any time. That would be SO FUN to take the train into Wellington when I'm in labor. Still working on a solution...
- Trip to the US in September. Don't get me wrong, this was my idea, and I am SOOO excited about it. But, I am also slightly stressed. I mean, ok, worst case scenario: we have a colicky baby that cries for most of the flight. That's the worst that can happen. Well, no it's not, but the worst thing in my mind. So i'm just hoping and praying that we have a easy going baby that likes the loud white noise of the airplane, and sleeps and eats like a champ. Please please please.