nesting

I have heard that most pregnant women go through a "nesting" phase toward the end of their pregnancy and that as an old wives' tale it can mean that labor is just around the corner. (Although, now that I'm this far labor really is right around the corner. Whether that's tomorrow or a few weeks from now doesn't really matter -- it's happening soon!) Yesterday, I really started to feel the need to "nest." All week I was planning to spend the first half of my Saturday sleeping in and then straightening the house up for any drop-in visitors and, of course, just in case G decided to make his appearance (I am really caught up on the just-in-case scenario since we want to deliver at Gwinnett and also because I do NOT want to come back to a cluttered home that has not been thoroughly cleaned before the baby gets here). So, I did just that -- I slept in (or really just stayed in bed until 10am) and it was glorious. But I am telling you something just really kicked me into high gear with the cleaning thing. Since I've been pregnant, Paul has been doing all of the cleaning that requires any chemical cleaners, especially if the cleaners have fumes. And while it was nice at first to have a hiatus from cleaning duty, it drives me crazy sometimes that I can't just do it myself. So... since I am so close to the end and have stayed away from almost anything and everything for the past 8.5 months, off I went in pursuit of the thickest cleaning gloves I could find and "all natural" cleaning products (though I'm not sure that it actually means anything as far as fumes go).

When I got home I cleaned for two straight hours without even taking a break. And then I went beyond the cleaning and actually rearranged some things in my office (none of it is anything heavy, don't worry), purged old files and straightened up a few more things in Grayson's soon-to-be room. Did all of my laundry, put out a few of the Christmas decorations that I could access (I had to wait for Paul to get the rest down), threw away some old ingredients in the kitchen cabinets... I just couldn't stop. I was going to leave the bathtubs for Paul just in case the cleaner was too strong, but I couldn't stand it anymore and so I just did it myself. And when Paul got home, we moved all of his bathroom stuff back into the master bath (he's been using the guest bathroom and shower... I don't even know why) and we purged anything that has not been in use over recent week or months. I just felt like everything had to be put away that second or I could not live with it.

And then today... I just could not resist the urge to put up Christmas decorations. I went to the store and bought a few Christmas ornaments and then had Paul get down the rest of my (limited) Christmas stuff from last year.

The light-up musical gingerbread house my mom got us this year:

Since we are not doing a tree this year with everything going on, I wanted Christmas ornaments in the house in one way or another...

I love this snowman made out of stackable coffee cups :)

Mantle... we still need stockings

I filled the hurricanes we got for our wedding with the Christmas ornaments...

I just love ornaments for some reason :)

Wreath my mom gave me last year... it lights up!

I feel like it can really be Christmastime now. I would love to have a tree but with G baby on the way, we want to put our time and money into something else. Plus, I'm not sure I will have the energy to take it down haha.

Pregnancy/baby-related post coming next...