This past weekend was a busy one for Katy and I.
I’d taken Friday off so that we could be in Leicester early in the morning. Mel had rented a van so that we could go to Ikea and buy some nursery-related stuff and a new bed to keep in Leicester. The futon we were using in Leics is now too low to the ground and Katy can’t get in and out of it easily these days, so we decided to get a proper bed. The plan was to go to do a Leics – Ikea run to get the stuff, dump the bed out in Leicester, load the futon and some other things that needed selling, bring them down to Cambridge to dump them at our house, then drive back to Leicester and go build the bed. It was a looooooooong day :) I’d already sold the futon and Katy’s old television to people at work, so that’ll help cover some of the costs. We also got an insurance refund for the vet fees from last month, which will also help.
It’ll still be an expensive month though, cause we spent £400 at Ikea, and another £450 at Mothercare. This past weekend was when we really kitted out the nursery. We bought the crib that we’ll be using for the first few months in the bedroom, as well as a mattress, some sheets and two sleeping bags. We also bought a bottle kit with sterilizer, bottles, brushes, teats and a bottle warmer. That’s going to live in the kitchen. We bought some bath and bathroom stuff and some towels. We got a travel cot for when we come to see Katy’s folks. The only thing that we wanted to get but didn’t was the car seat. We’d originally wanted to get one that would be big enough to last for the first 4 years and, though the website said that it should have fit in the Corolla, it didn’t. The seatbelts were just a bit too short to secure it properly. This is a known thing with the car model because there are so many variants of it and they’re all just slightly different from one another. Blergh. We ended up just buying a 0-9month car seat that will double as a carrier. We can get the bigger one later. It should fit correctly when it’s forward-facing.
All in all though, I’m happy with our purchases. We’ve made judicious use of our coupons and we’re actually under budget for what we wanted to get. It really hits home though that we have absolutely no idea what we’re doing. We spent about 30 minutes in the bedding section looking things over and wondering what we should get, and how much of it. How many blankets does a baby need? I don’t know!!!!! (5 exclamation marks, a sure sign of a sick mind!)
Seriously, it’s starting to get a bit overwhelming. Katy stops work in just over 6 weeks and the Peanut is due in less than 3 months and we are so, so clueless as to what will happen and how we’ll do it. We keep saying to ourselves that as long as we’re together, everything is going to be ok. Usually, when one starts to freak out, the other steps in with the mantra. Hopefully, we never need to find out what happens when/if we both freak out together :)
I’m rather annoyed with Katy’s parents at the minute. It would seem that they think our house is a tip at the moment. Katy’s dad said that to her mom after dropping the stuff off on Friday. I resent him saying that. We aren’t in the position they are. He’s retired and spends an inordinate amount of time and energy keeping the house to a stupidly high level of cleanliness that I not only wouldn’t want to maintain but actually find oppressing at times. These are people who rinse out every pot, pan, plate and cutlery item before it goes in the dishwasher. We’ve actually seen them wipe down the inside of the dishwasher – BEFORE they put it on. So yes. I’ll grant that our house is cluttered, it needs a good vacuuming to get rid of the cat hair on the carpets and there are dishes in the sink. So what? There’s nothing suspicious growing in dark corners slowly evolving towards sentience. There’s dust, but there’s no dinge or dirt. It’s nothing that a good day’s cleaning won’t sort out. But you know what? Between the pregnancy and all the associated stress, all the stuff we need to do and our desire to spend time together, keeping house is relegated to the bottom of the todo list and I don’t want people nagging us and passing judgement about it.
On a brighter note, I got my picture taken for my new passport on Saturday and I’m happy to report that I actually look good on it! For once, if all goes well, I will have a photo ID where I don’t look like I’m a serial killer recently escaped from a mental institute!