We're Ready! (Sorta)

It's hard to believe that I am already 36 weeks pregnant (!) and that we will have a newborn in the house in just a few weeks. After much discussion and deliberation, we finally decided to leave Ellie in her room and set up the nursery in the room next to Ellie's (the former playroom). I was the one hedging about this because 1. the nursery would be right next to Ellie's room and Ellie is a notoriously light sleeper and 2. because that "room" is teenie tiny and doesn't even have a closet. But people talked me into it - and they are right - it is just not practical to have the baby up on the third floor. No one wants to trek up the stairs multiple times in the middle of the night, and really how much space does a baby even need? When Juan gets to be about Ellie's age, we'll probably move both of the kids up to the rooms on the third floor and they'll have an entire floor to themselves to romp around on (ok, I say it like it's tons of space, but really it's just two small bedrooms and a tiny bathroom and a minuscule hallway but whatever. That probably seems like a lot of space when you're two and four). And Ellie is going to have to learn how to deal with the baby crying in the night, regardless of where Juan's room is and she will eventually get used to it.

Anyway, we left Ellie's room the way it was (with the exception of her new big girl bed) decorated in jungle theme and we went with a barnyard theme for the nursery. I bought a bunch of adorable barnyard stuff off of Craig's List (such a second-time around parent thing to do) and Shoshana's friend Tammi loaned us a matching mobile and some wall border (thank you!) so the theme came together nicely. Oma and Opa then put the finishing touches on the room with an adorable paint job and it the whole thing looks really cute. In the past two weeks, we've also dug out and washed all the newborn unisex clothes we could find, pulled out the infant car seat and made a baby diaper run at BJ's, so I am feeling like all of the basic elements are in place. We've also come up with several plans for what to do with Ellie should I go into labor at various times of the day.
Oma hanging out in Juan's room
I went to my regular baby check up last week and the midwife started grilling me about having my hospital bag packed and my birth plan written (neither of which I'd even thought about) so I guess we're not totally prepared, but I plan to do that this weekend. But what we really need to work on now is our mental preparation. I am sure that sounds silly, seeing as how we've had 36 weeks now to mentally prepare for this, but we are still both feeling pretty nervous about balancing a newborn and a toddler, and every day that Ellie gets older and becomes more of a big girl, the more foreign the whole infant thing seems. Yes, it was only about two years ago that Ellie was in the infant stage, but so much changes so fast that it's hard to remember any of the little details from the first year, never mind the first few weeks. Looking at the tiny newborn diaper, I have no recollection of Ellie ever being so small (and she was a small baby!).

Ellie seems to be prepared for her little brother or sister too. She talks about the baby regularly and talks to Juan and gives Mommy's tummy a good night kiss almost every night. I am still not completely sure that she understands what's actually happening, but she did say the other day that she would share Tasha (one of her favorite dolls) with the baby, so I take that as a good sign of things to come.