This start of third trimester baby break was probably our last pre-baby hotel get-a-way and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We stayed a warm and toasty maze-like old hotel set in the heart of the countryside amongst quaint local villages. The water pressure in the hotel shower, unlike the water pressure in my own shower, was surprisingly amazing, and we ate, drank, ambled and explored at an easy pace. If you're ever in the area of Steeple Aston, check out White Lion pub where you can get freshly prepared food in a friendly, cosy and family oriented atmosphere. The pub's owners were very attentive and we really hit it off when we discovered they'd lived in the USA for almost 20 years! With baby’s due date quickly advancing, my head is full of “to do” lists and a break like for just Chris and me really did us good. I switched off from planning and feel refreshed for it. Much to my delight, we even fit in some National Trusting at Waddesdon Manor – you may remember that I love going trusting!
Back to real life, vacations complete, Chris and I are starting to take further baby steps towards preparing our home for our new arrival. We have a number of things we want to get accomplished and we’re trying strike a balance between taking on DIY (which truthfully means Chris taking on DIY since he’s more accomplished in this arena than I am) and having builders come in to help us with some final adjustments. We moved into our house in 2005 and it’s been a continual work in progress.
We’ve got a rough “plan of action” of what we want to achieve and we’re taking baby steps toward checking things off our list. Yes, my lists again! Chris tolerates the lists but he’s not as much of a fan – he’s happier to go with the flow but sometimes I get concerned if we do that we’ll flow into January and be rushing around like chickens with our heads cut off at the last minute. So he’s bearing with the lists and me, and I’m taking a baby steps, not unrealistically long list approach to getting prepared in an effort to not stress us out or inundate us.
Today we had new windows fitted in our Victorian terraced home, a major mission accomplished. We can now wave goodbye to pools of condensation on our sills and rest assured that baby will reside in a warm and draft excluded environment.
Chris is also in the process of building shelves in our hall closet so we have more and better storage space. When that job is complete, we plan to start to transfer some things out of what will be baby’s room and to our new closet shelving.
Then we’ll be in a better position to start fashioning baby’s room/our guest room. I look through these baby catalogues and gape at the fully kitted out baby nurseries featured. They look cute, but expensive, particularly bearing in mind that their décor may fit an infant to toddler but not a growing child. We’re not opting for a full fledged nursery but instead a sturdy pine set of drawers (that we've yet to get - I’ve been scoping out charity shops/thrift stores for a more antique style pine set of drawers – many a little gem may be found in charity shops if you’re willing to hunt) that matches the desk we already have in the room and crib we received. I’m sure we’ll get some cute baby linens and paraphernalia but we’re not going for “ABC wallpaper” or a pinked themed room or a baby cd player since our ipod and/or computer can play music just as well. We've found a baby monitor with a night light and thermometer to kill three birds with one stone. We have limited space to start out with so we need to be selective with what items we opt for. Again the endless choice available can wreak havoc with my mind but I'm learning to consider options and then say enough is enough.
What am I getting at? As we prepare for our little one, we seek advice on what to get and how to “child proof” our house but are trying to stay true to what works for us – our tastes, budget and home – rather than get roped into what’s on the market and what everyone else may or may not have done. It's easy to stray from this approach but for me, it brings me home, sane, at the end of the day. Now we just need to keep moving and using one baby step at a time...
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