The last stretch!

It's official, third trimester has begun. Those last 12 or so weeks when my belly will become enormous and the baby will run out of room. Luckily, it's been a pretty good pregnancy so far. Apart from some contraction scares early on, I haven't had any cause for worry. No sickness, just the usual fatigue. Chasing around Collin and work and everything else is such a distraction that I sometimes forget there's this person growing inside of me. The jabs and somersaults are a good reminder.

Our house is coming along and come spring, when we're up to our elbows in diapers and exhaustion, we're going to list. Hopefully we'll get into a new house by the summer/fall. Nicer neighborhood and more space please! In the meantime, I remind myself that babies don't need a whole lot of room in the first few months. Most likely, baby Milo will just sleep with us but hopefully we can still find a place in our room for the crib. As for a changing area, I still haven't figured that out. It is slightly disappointing I won't get to decorate his nursery.

We've also (well primarily me with Mike's reluctant acquiesce) decided to try the cloth diaper route. Mostly because I was grossed out by the thought of our diapers sitting out for two weeks with Portland's new garbage/compost plan. But I also realized we'd save at least $1,000 and it is nice not to visualize piles of disposables sitting in the landfills. Though the amount of water and energy it apparently takes to wash and dry cloth diapers isn't exactly eco-friendly so they probably cancel each other out...

Regardless, cloth diapers are also colorful, cute and soft. And unlike in the past where pins and folds were a must, you can buy all-in-ones or pockets that are just as easy as disposables. So I have my starter stash and did my research. The poop factor doesn't seem that bad...Ask me again six months after the baby is here how it's going but I'm hoping this works out. I don't really want to throw away $400 from the initial investment so we'll do our best.

We're also trying to prepare Collin for the permanent change in his life by reading him lots of books about a new baby and telling him about all the cool stuff big brothers will be able to do. He goes back and forth between being excited and incredibly sweet (kissing the baby and telling him good night) to wanting to throw the baby away...He also does his obnoxious baby imitation where he crawls on the floor and chants "goo goo ga ga," over and over. Hopefully when Milo comes he'll realize being bigger is much more fun. We'll try to get him involved with helping out and spend as much time as we can with him but I know the most challenging part will be the fatigue factor and how our attention will suddenly be shifted from Collin-only child-center of the universe to needy, helpless baby. Thankfully Mike is taking a few months off and will hopefully have the energy from some Collin-daddy outings.

We're also really hoping this baby's lack of kung fu moves in my belly (he still moves just not like Collin did) might mean he'll be more chill. Please, pretty please. Of course all we really want is a healthy baby, but it'd be just awesome if we could follow the trend of others I know and have a mellow kid after a highly dramatic, energetic one.

Unless of course Collin is the mellow one.

In which case, wine will be my friend.