Getting ready

How is it that a week has passed already since my last blog post? I have taken no photos in the past few weeks. It seems like nothing interesting has happened.

We did start a list of things that need to be done before the baby is born. We spent some time on Friday night talking about names. I am realizing that we are months behind where we were when we were preparing for Maren — with names, and with every kind of preparation.  

When Maren was born we had the freezer stocked with meals. We have no freezer meals yet. I think we will make some big soups for the freezer before this baby is born, but it will be nothing like the level of preparation that we had for Maren. 

One thing we did accomplish over the past week was getting a plane ticket for my mom to come out. She will be here for a month which is going to be amazing for help with the new baby and also for helping Maren to adjust. Like I said last week, part of our lack of preparation is knowing that one way or another we will be able to manage just fine. But I think finalizing dates for my mom’s visit has actually made me feel less concerned about preparing, because with that much help we definitely can handle this.

I am doing my best to wrap up things at work before the baby comes, but I’m finding that it has been a bit challenging. There was a deadline last week for a grant I am applying for, and getting that done was a big weight off. But I still have four graduate students and one honours student in the middle of research projects. Their programs don’t stop progressing just because I am going on maternity leave. I am getting the impression that several of my students expect me to be at full capacity until the baby is born, and that they are banking on the baby not being early. I can’t necessarily make them change their expectations, but I have to be careful not to get caught up in them. I will do what is reasonable, and I have to be okay with certain people being disappointed with that!