A day in the life

I thought this would be fun, to take you through a day in the life of Kati and Henry.

:)

The pictures are out of order as far as whats first in the day, but oh well. :)

This is ground zero for the main chunk of the day. I am usually sitting against that brown pillow, holding Henry, or he is in the swing under the brown blanket(which is currently is in the picture). Its bright in there so he stays asleep for naps longer in the blanket is over the swing. There are burp clothes everywhere, bottles, his bag, seat, etc. Its a baby mess.

This is ground zero for feedings. We only have 3 bottles cause we are still deciding if we like them, so I have to wash the bottles 2 or 3 times a day. There are little syringes for his medication, his formula and some binkies.

My favorite part! Ground zero for cleanings. I love baths, and I love giving my son baths. He gets so clean and yummy smelling, and I loooooove swaddling his wet little body in a towel and snuggling him. My bath area has turned into his bath area. Sigh, he's worth it.

Ugh, the worst part, ground zero at night. The bassinet is in the crib, and on the floor is my bed. Sometimes I just lay down on the floor for a few mins cause I know he is going to wake up again and I will need to coax him back to sleep.

This is our morning ground zero. For some reason I prefer getting him ready and changing his diaper for the morning in here. Theres burp clothes, wipes and other crap on the bed each morning.

Well there you have it. That is where Henry and I spend our days. We leave maybe once a day, and I really don't like leaving the house, its somewhat stressful to me. I just hate when he cries while I am driving, it kills me that I can't soothe him.

list progress and pregnancy

remember from this post, my 23 day organizing productivity plan?

Well let me tell you how its going.

I am on day 9, and have completed 4 of the tasks....

I have completed the major laundry pile we had, which, was huge.

organizing the cords.

organizing the TV stand, which is now so empty it needs some decor.

and I have cleaned the baseboards I really wanted to clean, like the bathroom. ew.

I have not purged all my clothes, for 2 reasons. 1. my husband doesn't want me to. He and I differ greatly in this area, my philosophy, if you havent worn it in a year, throw it away. His is, if you have the space for it, keep it. I am still going to do the purge, I just have to be careful I don't throw away something I will want to rebuy in a week and have to hear him say I told you so. 2. A lot of what I need to purge is garments, and as you probably know thats a task in and of itself. Anyone wanna come have a garment bonfire with me?!

I have not cleaned the kitty litter room, because I need to get a face mask to wear to do that. I know its easy peasy to get one, I just haven't.

I have not organized the fabric, because I need to go to a comic book store and get a supply I need to complete this project. Its going to be the bomb dot come when its done so be patient.

I have not finished the crib set, because I am too nervous I am going to mess it up. :( I loooove the blanket, so much, and it took 8 hours of hard work, and I would be devastated if I ruined it while trying to put the back and batting together. So, I don't know how to get past that lol.

I have not made the carseat cover, because I need to get the back fabric first. Again, I know its easy peasy to do, but again I just haven't.

Tomorrow my task is to reorganize the kitchen. I need to talk to my hubby about it tonight, get a game plan, and do it tomorrow. It must be done for the baby to come. First, there needs to be a baby cupboard and drawer, for bottles, bibs, etc. second, I need to rethink where we have things, the sharp knives are within childs reach, but maybe I just need to get a baby proof lock on it. third, I have cereal in 3 different places, and a whole cupboard that is not even being used. So its not very efficient.

The next day is clean all the ceiling fans, which I am soooo excited for.

Although the execution of this plan hasn't been perfect, its done what it was intended for. It makes me feel productive, and keeps me busy each day.

Its not time for a baby post, but I am doing one anyway due to new developments, and I wasn't really in the mood to in the last one. :)

This is the baby's last position, and ironically its his exact position. He is sideways so when he stretches we can feel his bum on my right side lol.

I think the baby's head is engaging. There is different levels of engaged, but I really think his head is down there good. When I roll over at night I swear I can feel my pelvic bones knocking his head.

I have noticed, while doing the tasks from my list, that the longer I am up and on my feet, the more things feel like something is happening. Tightening happens a LOT more, recently I have started getting lower cramps, and at the end of the day, the pelvic pressure is insane.

I am swollen and puffy, and I finally feel more pregnant than fat. I still feel like I am larger in certain areas than I should be, but when I see pictures of myself now I see a pregnant swollen person, which is a huge step lol.

And like full circle the nausea and tiredness from trimester one is back. I don't mind it though because it keeps me from eating awful. ;) The tiredness I think is more due to lack of good quality sleep at night. My hips ache at night, and my pelvic floor muscles scream in agony anytime I roll over, so I wake up about every hour or so to turn over in the least amount of pain. I seem to get better sleep after the night is over, and I go sleep downstairs on the couch while watching the morning news. eh. I will take it.

Interactions with Henry have made this last bit of pregnancy much better. Its so fun to see him move, feel him move and make him move lol. If we press our finger into where his feet are, he will kick it. Its so cute to be apart of both interactions, when Jason plays with him I see how excited Jason is, but then I FEEL Henry's reaction to him and its the sweetest thing to experience. My sister thinks its totally gross that we can tell where his bum is, or feet, and gets all sickened out when I point it out to her.

9 months is a long time. It really is sooo long. Its almost a year. I mean I am pregnant for 40 weeks out of 52 in a year. I know its coming soon, but it just feels so weird and I can't picture it. I can't picture a baby in the carseat, or in the nursery, I can't picture the midnight feedings, or loading him into the car. It makes me nervous that I can't picture any of it, like maybe I am not supposed to because something will go wrong? :( I am paranoid, and this is probably the scariest part. There are so many things that could go wrong during labor, and then when he is born there are so many things I could have done wrong during pregnancy that we will find out about. UGH! Its scary stuff. I constantly ask Jason for blessings and I tell him specifically what I need him to say lol " I need you to say I bless Henry that he won't have bulging eyes that leak yellow fluid."( I had a weird dream like that). He never obeys me, but the blessings are still comforting. ;)

Well, only time will tell! hopefully I only have a couple more of pregnancy posts to do. ;)

My name is Monica Gellar.

I don't know where this came from, this gene of mine, because my family members exhibit no signs of this trait.

I am a clean FA-REAK.

Now don't get me wrong, my house is not always clean, I don't mean a clean freak that always has to have things clean, cause thats certainly not what I mean. What I mean, when I clean, its like me against the germs. I mean business. I have a bucket of chemicals, spray, wipes etc that must be used.

I worry this is not normal, and that something may be wrong with my wiring, so tell me if this all seems normal to you.

1. sponges- Sponges gross me out to no end. Its a breeding ground for bacteria that you make worse every single time you use it. I do have sponges, and I use them to wipe off counters of crumbs, but that is the extent of its use. Promptly after use it gets scolding hot water ran through it for a few minutes.

2. wiping off counters- my BIGGEST cleaning pet peeve is when people wipe off the counters, usually with a sponge, and then consider their counters clean. I can not watch. I saw it happen once, and I immediately got out the one chemical they had and cleaned it(they were about to make a meal of which I was supposed to eat). The purpose, to me anyway, of wiping off the counter is to get all the loose crumbs and pieces that would fly off the counter when you do clean it. Even if the sponge is soaking in soap water, you are still just spreading things around, not cleaning. so I wipe off loose stuff, wipe down with a rag, then sanitize with 409.

3. move stuff- just because something doesnt move, doesnt mean stuff doesnt get under or around it. We have a spice rice, knife block, and utensil holder on our counter and when I wipe down, I move them. and I move them when I santize. It grossed me out to not move it.

4. appliances- The appliances must be cleaned. I find the oven door gets the most dirty, but I still clean the fridge doors, and the dishwasher door. My stove is a cooktop(devil) so I clean that constantly, too.

5. Clutter- Clutter is not clean. There should be a place for everything and everything in its place. Currently we have a small corner counter in our kitchen that is housing clutter that I have to decide where its place is, but rest assured, it will be gone soon.

6. The garbage- K, so this delves a little into my pet peeves about my sweet hubby, but its a cleaning pet peeve none the less. I HATE when the garbage is not clean. We have one of those garbages cans with a swivel lid, and my husbands family was raised to scrap food off onto it, then let it fall in the garbage. This drives me batty and every time I see their garbage I cringe. Its a little thing, so I don't make a big deal of it, I just clean the lid off every week.

7. Dust- Growing up as a child you are given certain chores that are staples, doing the dishes, sweeping, etc. I was never taught to dust, though. It wasn't until I had my own home that I realized dusting is a must, and a weekly must. I don't know why people don't dust, it takes 2 mins to walk around with a duster, then just vacuum. Pathetically, I then dust my vacuum.

8. Baseboards- I can't stand when the baseboards are not clean. They get dirty, dusty etc, and they must be cleaned, monthly.

9. Vacuuming- I can not just pick up a room, put everything away and pretty, and then just not vacuum. To me, if a room is not vacuumed(or swept for that matter) its not clean. Its almost there! Just vacuum!! I vacuum my couches about once a month, also.

10. Bathrooms- Cleaning the bathroom is also not something I was taught, my mom must have done it always. I can't stand when people clean the inside of the toilet with a toilet brush, and then are done. I must clean the entire toilet, inside and out. Its DISGUSTING how gross it gets with boys. So gross. maybe I never had to worry about it growing up cause we had all girls, but boys drip all over the place, and oh my gosh it just grosses me out. The base of it gets super dirty also.

Sooo, whats the verdict? Am I normal?

MY baby.

Thoughts on having your own house.

:)

I love it, first of all.

For some reason, to me at least, owning my own house makes me keep in nicer and cleaner then anything I have ever owned.

I hate when it is dirty, and not just hate it and deal with it, hate it and won't stop til its clean.

and you know how I clean.

which brings me to my next subject.

This beauty.

This, is my life saver.

You all know I spill things, make messes, whatever.

You also know I am a clean freak.

so those don't mix well.

But this gem has saved my life, or at least the life of my carpet and couch. :)

Its obviously an upholstery cleaner, but the best part is seriously the scrub brush on the top.

Its a one step process to cleaning up a mess, most of the time.

I love it, and you should get it.

I love having space. sooo much space.

I love that I have options of where I want to be in the house and its not all contained within a 700 sq feet parameter.

I use my dining room table so much more now.

the thing I love the most about my kitchen though is my radio. :)

We have never had a radio or CD player in our place before, never thought to.

But it makes cleaning and other things so much more pleasant and even fun when I have music in the background. I watch a lot less TV now.

Really, its over said, but I love being able to do whatever I want to the house. Its really the best part.

I love not having to hear all the noisy neighbors.

No walking to my car.

no walking to the garbage.

sigh. I love it.

I won't lie to you, this will not be the last post about the house.

But really, the house is my baby.

so it will be blogged about, like you blog about your baby. :-)

my saving grace.

can we just talk about how I LOVE 409 cleaner?

Jason: cleaning means picking up dishes, putting things away and throwing away garbage.

Me: that is just the first part of cleaning, the REAL cleaning comes after everything is put away, and the 409 comes outs. AH. I clean the counters, floors, baseboards, corners, crevices, toilet, tub, sinks etc. I dust the tvs, pictures and dressers. Vacuum, sweep, mop. Once a month I steam clean the carpets so they are clean and fluffy. do laundry once a week or as a load becomes ready. every other week I wash all the rugs in our place, and once a month I clean my car including new air freshner, garbage, and dusting. thats right, I dust my car.

Is that weird?

Some times it gets overwhelming, but seriously, when I have a place that is SO clean and cozy it just makes it all so so worth it.

because of that, I LOOOVE my 409.

I couldn't do it without you 409.

Don't ever leave me.

cleaning

I haven't finished my purse, actually I havent even started.

BUT a friend asked me how I keep my apartment so clean.

So I thought I'd share my secret. sshhhh...

First of all, I clean as I go, most of the time. If I am cooking, I clean and put things away as I go so there isn't a mess. when I finish eating, I put my plate away in the sink and rinse it off. When I do laundry, I put it away, when I get undressed I put the clothes in the hamper etc.

But we all know sometimes this doesn't happen and now you find yourself in a messy, dirty, unwelcoming, overwhelming dwelling.

So now what?

here is how I have always thought about it. If you walk into your place, look at it, and think to yourself, I have to clean this whole place its so messy, then you might start to cry. Its so overwhelming!!! so I do it in 4 steps. 4 steps!!

Step 1. I gather all the dishes and put them in the sink. I go to every single room and ONLY LOOK AT THE DISHES. don't look at anything else in the room, just get all the dishes.

good job

Step 2. I gather all the clothes, dirty or clean. obviously dirty clothes go in the hamper, I put all the clean ones on the bed in a pile.

Step 3. I gather all the trash. papers, wrappers, mail , soda cans etc. obviously throw it all away.

now for Jason and I, clothes dishes and trash are the majority of our messiness. for you it might be different, toys, tools, dvds etc. substitute your own. so by this point my apartment is almost done.

Step 4, the finish. this is where I wrap it all up. I load the dish washer, hang up all the clean clothes, load the washing machine, put away anything that is left, take out the trash, and then get out the chemicals ( omg which is totally my favorite part) and CLEAN everything. I don't consider a place clean, till its been sanitized with chemicals. Jason's idea of cleaning does not include chemicals and to me that is just picking things up and putting them away, not cleaning. also in step 4 is vacuuming and sweeping if they are needed.

pretty much step 4 is my favorite because it is what makes your house clean and makes you feel tons better about it, and by that point all the hard, not fun stuff is done.

so basically the idea behind my strategy is to focus on one thing at a time, and seriously only focus on that. I am telling you, it works.

now here is a cleaning project I am continually doing.

you know those spots in your house that are so crammed full of stuff you have no idea what is in there but you know that you don't need half of it you just saved it cause you didnt think you should throw it away? yeah we all have them and I am tired of them.

so I have a list of all those spots.

Sock drawer-done

Hallway closet-done

Pantry

Fridge-done

Laundry Shelf

TV dresser

Junk drawer (duh)

above the sink

under the sink-done

so this is my list of areas in my apartment I want to go through, and purge all that I dont want, and then organize it. I am almost halfway done, when I have nothing to do or am feeling in a cleanie mood, I pick something from the list and get it done. It really helps to feel organized and clean when you open doors to clean closets that aren't busting at the hinges with junk.

good luck!

I hope to get my purse done today. ;-)