This past Sunday, I spent a glorious three hours cleaning out Kara's closet and sorting her outgrown clothes into Tupperware bins for other fashionistas to enjoy. Now that we know the baby's sex and ESPECIALLY since Luke and I will be taking steps to nail shut close the door on the reproductive phase of our lives, I'm eager to let go of that which no longer represents the family we are now and make room for the next round of material fanfare. (Though I did hold on to some unique iron-on onesies made by a special Internet auntie.) For us, that chapter involves turning two toddlers into roommates by situating them in a gender-neutral space absent of floral wall art and yellow paint and preparing a nursery for our newest little guy.
When it comes to feeling ready for this baby, I haven't yet experienced that paralyzing Oh, Shit Moment Amalah described in a recent post, but at this point it's only a matter of days, as I have already shared with Luke my strong desire to conduct The Great Carseat Experiment this weekend to finally determine how we will fit three children in the second row of the Outlander. Luckily, we have two different infant buckets at our disposal - the Chicco KeyFit 30 originally purchased for Kara, which we love but anticipate being too bulky to position between two toddler seats, and a slimmer Baby Trends hand-me-down from my friend Jenn that may just do the trick. It also helps that Kara is now the appropriate height and weight for a booster seat (40 pounds and 40 inches, as of last week's well-child visit), so that should buy us a little more room.
Anyway, just imagining those carseats all smashed together lined up in a perfectly safe arrangement is working me into a mini-frenzy. Actually watching this image come to life is guaranteed to secure my one-way ticket to Crazy Pregnant Lady Town.
As I've stated before, we truly are blessed to have so many of Baby Brother's "necessities" already in our possession, the result of having two young children and generous family and friends. Bassinet, crib, changing table, swing, car seat, bouncy seats, nursing pillows, bottle warmers, infant AND toddler carriers, mobile... We haven't spent a dime on him yet, and that includes my maternity wardrobe, which so far has accommodated my current size nicely (though come summer I may be singing a different tune). We do know, though, that there are a couple of things we'll want to pick up, the biggest item being a stroller. Once I'm feeling up to it, Luke and I want to be out and about as much as possible with all three kids this summer, and while baby carriers are wonderful, it would be nice to NOT have the baby strapped to my person every waking moment of the day if I so desire. Of course, our choice of stroller will be heavily influenced by the infant car seat we end up using - another reason The Great Carseat Experiment must take place as soon as possible - and after doing some price-checking online, I'm wondering if it would make more sense financially to drop some dough on a moderately priced travel system than spend almost the same amount on a single stroller.
A jogging stroller would also be grand, but unless we win the lottery, Luke and I will be staggering our alone time on the trail accordingly. Which is not terrible in theory, since I'm sure we'll each welcome a short break from the zoo that will be our household.
One area where I do want to spend some money is on decorating the kids' rooms. Kara and Nathan's room would benefit from a fresh coat of paint, spunky wall art, and some new bedding if we can swing it right away. As for the baby's room, it's technically all ready to go for a boy, but I hate the thought of bringing him home to a space that was custom-designed for his big brother. Plus, nurseries are so much damn FUN to decorate, and I want to experience doing that one last time.
Luke and I also once talked about painting the kitchen, half bath, and the kids' bathroom, but these action items may be placed on hold until fall, when we will hopefully have more moolah at our disposal. Not to mention it might make more sense to paint those areas closer to sell time, in case our color palettes are deemed All Wrong by our real estate agent. (Feel free to agree with me here -- or not -- in the comments.)
It feels like we've been talking about these various projects for simply ages now, but pretty soon it'll be time to spring into action, because Oh, shit, a baby is coming! (hey, there it is!), and babies do not factor your laundry to-do list into their date of arrival.
Ingrates!
You seem to have thought about your budget WAY more than I think about mine, but a thought? From someone who has 3 kids under 3. Buy a double stroller. Get one that has a third (toddler) seat or sit and stand thingy. I have a Phil and Ted's jogging stroller. I spent around $400 on it. It holds two kids and I often put my third on the front wheel (not designed that way, but she is light). I would buy this one again in a heartbeat, but you might also be interested in the Valco Baby line. They have a sweet double that you can get either a third seat or a "hitch-hiker" for less than $100 extra. If it was me (and it's not, I know) I would let Baby Brother 2.0 (love that name!!) sleep in a beautiful and stylish hand-me-down room, and splurge on an awesome stroller. Best of luck (and you look AWESOME for 21 weeks btw!).
Posted by: Julie | February 25, 2011 at 01:30 PM
I have a jogging stroller that I have NEVER used, that was handed down to me. I would love love love to gift it to you...big problem is that I live in Oklahoma. If you have any creative ideas on getting it, it is yours. And the double stroller is the way to go!
Posted by: Sarah | February 25, 2011 at 02:02 PM
I'd say get a BOB stroller, single - it can hold two kids if the older one sort of sits on the footrest-y part, and Kara can walk. Or baby into carrier, Nathan and Kara in the stroller.
40" and 40lbs!?!?!? Seriously amazing!!!! Megan is 28 lbs and just over 35" .....we are hoping she'll grow an inch by the end of April so she can do more rides at Disneyland:)
Posted by: eva | February 25, 2011 at 11:26 PM
I love our Chicco also, except that as a hand-me-down it didn't come with a stroller (it is/was still being used by the giver and Chicco seats don't work with generic strollers or frames (like Graco seats do) so because of the $ you mentioned for stroller alone we ended up without one. It's been great for my arm muscles.
...where I'm going is that if you do plan to get a double stroller into which you can put the infant seat either make sure it's one you can use with the Chicco or just go with the other seat. Which is probably part of your considerations already between a new travel system or stroller.
Posted by: Blanche | February 26, 2011 at 01:34 PM