Bump update

We have rounded a bend and are now in the final stretch - 31 weeks down, 9 to go. At my last midwife visit, she said the boy's head was 1/5 into my pelvis already. He's making his way for the exit!

We had a small meltdown at 30 weeks when we realised how much we still have to do to prepare for the boy's arrival. So we made a list (we're list people). Now we have a long list to look at and freak out about. Gareth suggested we make a smaller list from the list. The smaller list would include things we need to buy, separate from the list of things we need to do. This might make both lists seem more manageable. We could probably spend the next 9 weeks discussing and organising the list(s).

Let's focus on what we have done. The boy's room is painted a nice shade of green now. The hideous light fixture the previous owners left in the room has been replaced with one we like much better. The boy has a cot (crib) and it's fully assembled. He also has a toy box, which maybe was not essential at this stage, but the place selling the cots had nice toy boxes, and we got a deal by buying them together... We have lots of clothes for the boy to wear, thanks to hand-me-downs and the packages of adorable tiny things arriving weekly from my mom in America.

We've bought a buggy (stroller), but we don't have it yet. This is New Zealand, and sometimes you have to wait for stuff. Small economy and all. We wanted the green and black version of the Urban Jungle by Mountain Buggy, but it wasn't in stock, so we ordered one and we now wait for it. It should be arriving any day now. We also ordered the 'carry cot' connection, which will double as a bassinet in the early days.

I break into a cold sweat whenever I think about car seats, so we haven't got one of those yet. But need to do it. Need to do it soon.

We're still planning to do a home birth, so there's lots of extra preparation we need to do for that. Our midwife gave us a list (another list!) of supplies we should have on hand for the birth, which is a little daunting. Towels, wash clothes, hot water bottles, buckets, a container for the placenta... oh yes. We're also going to rent a birthing pool and really should start looking into that very soon. And Gareth has been gathering supplies to make a 'birthing mat' for me to labour/sweat/bleed on. That's true love.

Soon we start our antenatal classes with Parents Centre. These are free. They're 2-hour classes once a week for 8 weeks. The last one is the day before our due date, so if the boy comes early, we might miss out on the last class or two. We're really hoping they front-load the important information...