Monday, April 20, 2009

Planning

I think I'll be doing only a loose menu plan this week too. Things are very busy around here. My husband has been taking days off and working on finishing up his dissertation. The lack of computer time has probably been a good thing for me, and he's nearly done. We are SO excited by the idea of him being done with this. My only advice about PhDs - only ever pursue one if it will get you to work you really really want. In my husband's case, he did need it to do what he does - and even then it has been tempting to not finish since he already has the good job from it. I am looking forward to moving on to other challenges.

I'm working on a list of baby preparations I'd like to do. I want to be done a month before my due date, due to the concerns about a possible early induction (though I'll be trying to avoid that too). I have just under 13 weeks until my due date.
  • I'm planning to start cooking larger batches of food and freezing some in about a month.
  • After my shower, I'm going to hopefully fill in whatever else I want at garage sales - realistically I am already doing pretty well in terms of needs.
  • I want to get back onto decluttering, and do a thorough cleaning.
  • I'm already starting to stock up on thing - paper products, toiletries, diapers. I want to avoid having to shop as much as possible for a while after the baby gets here.
  • In general, I'm taking care of anything I can now - appointments, working on our yearly goals. Some things, like purchasing a new computer (ours is five years old) will happen post-PhD. I should have my garden going pretty well by the end of May - my husband has been happy to help a little with that on his rest days.

Any suggestions? What am I missing?

Posted by Joy of Frugal Living at 1:30 PM

1 comments:

Chief Family Officer said...

I would add a few things to your list:

- start interviewing pediatricians; your ob should be able to give you a list

- set aside some money for when you feel you "need" to spend after the baby arrives for pure survival; you may not need this money, but it's nice to know it's there - a personal example is from when Alex was just days old and we came home from the hospital, breastfeeding was going horribly and even the thought of mixing formula in the middle of the night and getting it to the right temperature was overwhelming, so we ordered cases of premixed cans from Enfamil for $250. We ended up using only a small portion of it, but it sure seemed necessary for survival at the time!

- please talk with your ob about postpartum depression - I'm not saying you'll get it, but apparently it's more common in women who've struggled to have their babies in the first place and I had it after Alex was born (although I must say, you seem to be in a much better place than I was, so I'm sure you'll be fine)

Good luck! I'm SO happy for you :)

April 28, 2009 8:42 AM

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