Operation Holy Crap We're Gonna Be Parents

So for nearly a year or so, Mando and I have known that we were planning to start a family. And every once in awhile we would stop, and tell each other, you know, we really need to be more disciplined about keeping the house clean if we're going to have a baby. Since getting pregnant, those conversations have become more frequent, but neither of us (and I'm probably more guilty than he is) have actually put forth the effort to get organized.

Thinking about it, we still live like we are in college. We aren't the greatest about cleaning up after ourselves, and cleaning falls to the bottom of the list unless we are a.) out of whatever it is we need or b.) have people over. In the case of a.), we clean until something more fun catches our attention, which results in a never fully clean house or in the case of b.) we clean like madmen all day(s) long, finishing just before company arrives, and both of us are thoroughly exhausted.

This.will.not.work.when.we.have.a.baby. Hence, Operation Holy Crap We're Gonna Be Parents a.k.a. the R's Master Household Plan. During a break in cleaning this morning, I sat down with a clipboard, paper and pen. I went from room to room (even the garage!), and wrote out a schedule of the things that need to happen daily, weekly, and biweekly as well as a "To-Do" list of projects or tasks that need to be finished in that room before the baby comes. It's three pages long.

Yikes. It's going to be a long process, I will admit. But I'm hoping if we can make a resolution to dedicate ourselves to doing the daily chores in each room, we'll have more energy to tackle the weekly and then biweekly chores. And frankly, each "level" of cleaning that is done regularly will make the next "level" that much easier.

The "To-Do" list is what's most daunting to me right now. But in my defense, I added a lot of miscellaneous stuff that I would LIKE to get done but don't HAVE to be done before Squeaky comes (for example, if I don't have the house entirely babyproofed on the day Squeaky comes home, it's not the end of the world) But I put them on the list anyway because I know things will get crazy after we add a baby to the house and it would be nice to not have to worry about those things.

Mando has been out of the house all morning, so he doesn't know about Operation Holy Crap We're Going to be Parents yet. But we've talked about setting up a chore schedule of some sort. And hopefully the fact that at least some of those daily/weekly chores are already started this morning will help motivate him. I know seeing the house clean certainly motivates me.

Wish us luck! I'll let you know in a couple months how the Operation is going.

And I'll leave you with my latest belly pic as well - from Friday. 14 weeks, 3 days. Hard to believe, isn't it?