How Much Can One Couple Accomplish in Nine Weeks

For the past several weeks, it's been weighing on me how much we have to do and how little time we have in which to do it, both on a daily basis and on a more global oh-my-word-this-child-is-due-in-nine-weeks basis. (Speaking of which, the reality of having a second child hasn't sunk in at all. At all. I can recognize that I'm pregnant, but that there will be a baby at the end? Lost on me.)

I sat down this weekend to put together a to-do list. By the time I was done, it was three pages long. Three damn pages. I think seeing its length, plus having it broken into discrete tasks (with the validating feeling one gets from checking items off a list) has spurred us both into action.

The list includes, but is not limited to:

• Finish painting trim of Harry's big boy room (BBR)*
• Clean walls and floors of BBR
• Remove all tools, etc., from BBR**
• Paint furniture (dresser, bed, trunk, bookcase, desk, chair) for BBR***
• Buy a second crib
• Buy a second crib mattress
• Assemble crib
• Buy bedding/decor for BBR and decorate room
• Clean out closet of BBR
• Put foam tiles back on floor of playroom (we took them up when the basement flooded two weeks ago)
• Acquire double stroller
• Get all of Harry's clothes and cloth diapers out of the nursery and into his BBR
• Get all 0-3 clothes from attic and make sure they're clean, then put away anything neutral enough to use regardless of what we have
• Get all newborn cloth diapers from attic and make sure they're clean, then put them away
• Get bouncy seat and swing out and find a place for them
• Wash playmat and set it up in playroom
• Reinstall carseat base for infant seat
• At least pretend to have some sort of conversation about names for this child
• Pack hospital bag
• Come up with a firmer plan for Harry for when we go to the hospital (plan is currently "call MIL")
• Get a second carseat for MIL's car (which will move to our second car when we're all home from the hospital)
• Clean out freezer
• Make freezer meals
  

And then there are the things that need to get done and would ideally get done before we become a family of four, but which are not 100% critical:

• Finish patio (yes, this was on the pre-Harry list too)
• Get estimates and hire electrician (also on pre-Harry list)
• Put up fence
• Purge crap from entire house
• Organize house once less cluttered
• Hire a new cleaner
• Organize our finances
• Develop some kind of estate plan
• Find and meet with a financial planner
  

Possible? Maybe. But not likely (way to be optimistic, huh?). There just aren't enough hours in the day/week/month to work full time, take care of Harry (and Buddy, who really needs his nails trimmed and needs a vet tech appointment for one shot or another), sleep, and do everything on the list, while also not getting burned out. I am burned out just thinking about it.

* Harry will be moving into a big boy room (but staying in a crib) before the new baby arrives so that the new baby can move into the nursery. The nursery is just too small for Harry to stay in once long-term, so we're going to try to make the transition now.

** The BBR was the guest room and needed its ceiling replaced, which P and his mother's husband did at Christmas time. Yet the tools remained, and the painting (while mostly done) wasn't finished).

*** Harry is inheriting all of my childhood furniture. It's in decent shape, but is ugly -- thankfully in ways that can be fixed by paint, we hope.