Getting Ready for Baby

With less than 4 weeks until baby is due, I figured I'd better get busy and get things ready! Because we still use the playpen for Ruth (or visitors that have babies), we figured it would be better to get either a cradle or another playpen/bassinet for this little one. I love how this cradle fits in our room...it takes up very little space but yet gives baby her own little bit of space. The fun part is going to be keeping a certain little girl from trying to pick the baby up out of bed. She keeps going over to the crib saying "baby sleep!". Needless to say, there will be lots of supervision going on!!

We've been doing lots of shopping for a good swing over the last few months. All of our babies have absolutely loved the swing and spent much of their newborn days sleeping there (rather than in their bed). The swing we finally decided on is a Graco Sweetpeace. It has lots of different sounds (music/nature/white noise), but also has a slot where you can plug in your MP3 player so you can play songs of your own choice. This will be VERY nice! The other great selling feature of this swing is that you can put the baby in the swing seat (pictured), but the carseat will ALSO fit in the swing in place of the swing seat. This means that if we get home and the baby is asleep, I can put her carseat on the swing...or if I'm getting ready to leave and have finished feeding the baby, I can put her in the carseat to be rocked to sleep while I get the other kids ready, etc. I have a feeling that this wonderful swing will be a lifesaver.

Anyway, hopefully next week I will get the baby's clothes washed and put away in our room. Then it will be time to pack the bags, do some thorough grocery shopping, and get last minute things ready. Sarah is coming with us for the baby's birth, so I want to spend some more time preparing her and talking to her about what will happen (and what might happen, etc). I have a wonderful person coming to stay with us for a month beginning mid-March to help me out in the days before and after baby arrives. Really looking forward to the extra help!