House Call

Taking a cue from the wonderful blog, Young House Love, I thought I'd give you all a little taste of the reality of having a baby in your house. Especially when said baby doesn't have a dedicated room of his own, effectively turning the entire place into his de facto nursery. We'll start in the living room, as that is where Sammy and I spend most of our time.

Not too bad, right? The swing is a life saver for me when I need to pump or take a shower (and is easily transportable from room to room). The mess on the coffee table includes freshly-washed cloth diapers, Sammy's feeding/changing log, his next meal, and a burp rag. Sammy was actually sleeping the cradle when I took this picture, but his naps there are becoming shorter and more sporadic, so I have a feeling the cradle won't be in use for much longer (much to the cat's chagrin who naps in it more than Sammy does now). The reason why the living room looks ok is because I usually shove everything that's not being used over into the reading nook.

This is where the bouncy chair, car seat and activity mat reside when they're not in use. I wouldn't mind leaving the mat down on the floor in the living room most of the time, but Sandy takes it as an open invitation to use it as her personal lounge area when I do so.

This is pretty much how the kitchen looks all of the time now. Between pumpings and formula feedings, there are always dirty bottles on the counter waiting to be washed. The grass drying rack my mom bought me on a whim has come in very, very handy and I highly recommend it to anyone dealing with billions of baby bottles.

The bed hardly ever gets made these days, but hey, at least I'm sleeping. The whole co-sleeper thing is working out pretty well; I basically wake up whenever Sammy wakes up, which means I can often get him up and on the changing table before he has a chance to become really upset. And the less mad he is, the easier it is to get him back to sleep. Which means more time in bed for me. Everyone wins!

Speaking of late nights, this night light is perfect for diaper checks and feedings. It also has a cool color change feature that Sammy seems to enjoy as he's falling to sleep.

The office chair is now residing in the bedroom thanks to my mom's quick thinking. I had been complaining about how my back was bothering me at night, likely due to me standing and holding Sammy while he ate. My mom said, "Well, why don't you put a chair in the bedroom so you don't have to stand the whole time you're feeding him?" It was like a light bulb had gone off; a chair---in the bedroom. Why hadn't I thought of that? She wheeled the office chair down to my bedroom later that night and it's been there ever since.

And that brings us to the office, the final stop on our tour. The office serves as my nightly diaper drying station. The crib is still in there and I've managed to get Sammy to nap there for short bursts while I'm working on the computer, so hopefully one day he'll be used to it when it comes time to transition out of the co-sleeper in a couple of months.

I'm sure as Sammy gets older, the amount of baby stuff in the house will increase (don't even get me started on what's already in storage for when he gets bigger in the garage), so stay tuned to see how the house continues to evolve and change with him.