Getting ready for baby… 4 months in advance.

I am not a very neat or organized person. I’ve never even really wanted to be one. My mom…. she is very neat and organized. Like obsessively so. (Though she will deny it – trust me – I’m the one who had to live with her.) My penchant for “piles-o-crap” (as she calls them) drives her crazy. If I can’t find a spot for something, or I plan to get to it at a later time, I organize it into a pile with similar stuff. Like in the hall in front of our bedrooms… there is a pile-o-crap for every room next to the door. There are also piles on either end of my couch…. and in the kitchen under the coat rack… under the coffee table (though this one is really John’s fault)… and lets not even touch on my room at this time. (And John would probably say that I should add in that my bookcases are just really tall piles-o-crap…)

I also really, really, really hate to fold clothes. I put it off until there is no more sitting room on my couch. My couch is big enough to handle me, the boys, and Belly all at one time – more often than not we’re lucky to have room for just two of us.

So see…. I’m not a messy person… I’m really not. I pick up and clean every day. But all these piles-o-crap and the mountain of laundry kind of ruin the effects of cleaning. 

Wondering what this has to do with getting ready for Mason?

Ever since I got pregnant my energy has taken a hit. I mean it does every time, but this time it’s been even harder. No, as some will point out, it’s not because I’m home all day with a 2 1/2 year old. Ryan was about the same age when I was pregnant with Belly, and as I tell everyone, if I can keep up with toddler-Ryan while pregnant, toddler-Belly should be no problem. I think, that it’s partially because we have so much to do now. There are now two older kids to get to activities – and to get through homework. I cook more. There’s like double the laundry. More commitments to the boys’ school. I acted as my mom’s chauffer for most of this pregnancy as well. Plus, John actually expects more out of me now since I am a stay-at-home mom, and no longer a full-time college student.

Oh, and a 2 1/2 year old and a large idiot dog. (That’s said with love by the way…)

And another oh, we also have these very distracting things known as cable and internet at our house too. It used to be I could only get online while I was at school… now I can get on whenever I want.

What all this comes down to is that the condition of the inside of my house isn’t exactly, um, nice at the moment. I consider it a good day if Belly and I don’t spend the day on the couch watching Netflix, HGTV, or Nick Jr.

This is where my obsessively organized mother steps in.

My mother has offered to come in on her days off work and to help me get my house into a manageable level of clean. Right now, I look around, see all I need to do, and I just give up before I even start. It’s just so much and no one in the house has been willing to help. And I know if I don’t do something now, before Mason is born, it’s only going to get worse and worse after he’s born. So, she’s going to help me deep clean, de-clutter, and organize. In return I have to come up with a house-work schedule and stick to it.

And it all starts this week.

I’m kind of scared.