First off, I want to say thank you for all of your comments yesterday! I truly love receiving feedback on a blog post. I think the best things can be achieved when everyone shares their experiences and people work together. With that being said, I thought I would share this journey, through home organization, with you! Maybe you can learn something from me, but most important, maybe you can teach me something! Goodness knows I love to learn and I think my friends and family are the best teachers! 

Before I get into today's post though, I have to make one thing clear: We have embraced our home. One thousand square feet is nothing to sneeze at, but the average american home home in 2010 was a little over 2,100 square feet (source). So, it posses some challenges that not everyone may have. That being said, EVERYONE experiences the challenge of fitting their things into their home. Our homes are basically a big (and beautiful) storage facility for our stuff--overly simplified, but so true. 

With this next baby on the way, I have felt challenged to really get rid of a bunch of our stuff (all the extra unimportant things) and make sure that what we have is important, needed, and intentional. I know there is so much stuff in our house, right now, that can be cleared out. And that is just what I intend on doing.

The first place I'm going to start is our master bedroom. This is an easy place to work on because Daniel doesn't go up their very often and it's also the furthest away from his room (meaning nap-times won't be disturbed). My initial goal was to come up with some guidelines for our room. These were going to be based on the functions that this room needs to embrace.

To me this is key to organizing a house: all your spaces must have assigned roles and responsibilities. For instance, you don't want bath towels stored in every room in the entire house. No, there should be one place that they all are located and that place should be as close to the bathroom as you can get it. For our master bedroom the list of roles I wanted to consider are as follows:

1. The bedroom needs to function as our bedroom, a newborn nursery, and a place for the dog's pens. 

2. In the long run, we will have a family closet in this room. (Daniel's room doesn't have a closet, so it makes sense to store the small amount of hanging clothes he has, in our closet). 

3. The overall space needs to be calming and possibly involve a place for nursing a newborn, curling up with a book, or just an extra space for mom/dad to escape to if need be. 

These are very basic, but will help me keep on track when I'm deciding what needs to go and what needs to stay. It's all about effective and efficient organization. Hopefully, I can show you what I mean in my next post. I'm off to start the process!

A New Challenge: Having a Smaller House and Where we are Going to put Baby #2

First off, let me begin by saying that I have fallen in love with our little house. I like that I don't have a huge space to clean, I love the coziness of it, and I am so excited about the plans we have for it in the future.

That being said, being that it's approximately one thousand square feet has posed quite a challenge for me. When we first moved in, it felt like tons of space. Even though we had moved from a bigger apartment, I knew that a bunch of our stuff wasn't truly needed.  Before we even moved I began the process of weeding through our things and consolidating a bit. Once we moved and I could see how things were going to fit, I was able to get rid of even more. Over the past two years, as we have slowly settled in and organized the house efficiently, it has seemed like there is just enough space for our little family.

Yet, as this pregnancy has progressed, and my urge to nest becomes increasingly stronger, I have become a bit overwhelmed by the space constraints of our house. Let me clarify a bit: I have become completely overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that we have! Holy moly...who needs this much stuff?!?! So, I'm in the mood to clear out EVERYTHING. I have started the process of ripping apart our house and getting rid of as much as I can. Oh boy is our house a disaster area.

Another reason for this massive undertaking is the need to create more space for our new little one. I'm so glad I have until the end of January to accomplish this task.  This has actually been the most common question I have been asked since we have let everyone know that we are expecting baby two. Most people know that we only have two bedrooms in our house and want to know where this baby is going to fit into the mix.

Well, the plan is to do the same thing we did with Daniel: he started off in our room in a pack-n-play until he was almost sleeping through the night--for Daniel this was about six months. Then, once he/she is sleeping through the night I think we will be moving the new baby in with Daniel. But, in order to make our house not feel too cramped, to make room for the growing space needs of our thirteen month old, and to create room for a new baby, things need to be organized in an efficient and effective way.

Thus a complete overhaul.

Thankfully it isn't quite this bad...but it may get there! 

So I will attempt to post progress pictures if I'm able to and show you the process as it happens. Right now just picture our dining room table covered with stuff and our guest bed covered with things also. This is going to be an entirely new experience with Daniel running around, but he seems to like it so far. Who wouldn't love all sorts of new things to explore?! :) Wish me luck!

Baby #2: How Things Are Going

Occasionally, I'm asked how this pregnancy is different compared to my pregnancy with Daniel. So, I thought I would write this post for my future self. I'm sure some day I will want to look back (probably when I get pregnant with our third) and remind myself how I felt this time around. The short? Certain things are worse and certain things are better. 

Exhaustion

For one, I'm definitely no where near as tired as I was with Daniel. I remember feeling completely and utterly exhausted with Daniel. My body was SO NOT used to being pregnant and for the first trimester and part of the second, I had to take a nap on a regular basis, or I just couldn't seem to function. This time around I do take naps occasionally...but I don't NEED them like I did with Daniel. 

Morning Sickness

With Daniel I remember feeling nauseous and being able to eat to make it go away. I felt that for most of my first trimester, but unfortunately it wasn't limited to just the morning. It would happen all day. Luckily it was easily fixed. This time around, I had the hunger nausea again, but with an active little boy to take care of, I wasn't able to just sit and eat whenever I wanted. As a result I definitely felt sicker this time around. Thankfully, I am into my second trimester, and the nauseousness has passed. 

General Health

Instead of putting all of this info into separate categories, I figured it could all be lumped together. With Daniel I just felt good. Besides the exhaustion and morning sickness, I loved being pregnant and my body seemed to handle it really well. This time around, I feel good as well, but have noticed a few more aches and pains. I have been having what I think is round ligament pain. It only happens occasionally, but usually makes me stop what I'm doing for a second. 

I also have been having a bit of soreness due to my c-section with Daniel. I truly felt fine after having my c-section and haven't really had any pain at the incision site until now. The further along in my pregnancy, the bigger I grow, the more frequently I feel little pricks of pain. Nothing to be alarmed about, but I think my scar is just figuring out how to stretch out. Coconut oil seems to be working wonders at keeping my skin pliable. 

Finally, I had a lot of migraines this time around. My midwife explained this as being caused by my body trying to make enough blood for me and the baby. She said that because my head is the highest part of my body, it might not be getting as much blood as it needs. Thankfully they have gone away as I have moved into my second trimester. 

Nesting

Oh this is a big difference for me. During my first pregnancy, the urge to nest never became really strong until a few days before Daniel was born. Sure I organized things and did my usual cleaning routine, but it was more out of habit and wanting to be prepared rather than having a feeling. This time around I have had an urge to nest since the beginning. Maybe it's because I know what is coming, having been through the newborn phase once now. Or maybe it's because I feel like our house is WAY more disheveled now than it was before, but either way, my urge is quite strong. 

BUT!!!

Apathy 

Then there is the apathy side of things. Oh darn the feeling of apathy. I never was really able to identify or put words to how I was feeling until Kate from The Small Things Blog wrote this post. While I was reading it, I just kept thinking 'Yes! That's me too!' This is something I didn't really notice with Daniel. But this time around, holy cow. I really have absolutely no motivation. Nesting sounds great and I have tons of mental lists about the things that I want to get accomplished, but man nothing is getting done. I just have no interest in tackling anything. I'm really hoping this passes soon. I do NOT like having my house like this, but at the same time don't feel any need to clean it. Any suggestions for pushing through this and tackling even the daily tasks that need to get done would be greatly appreciated!! 

Overall, I think I feel pretty good with this pregnancy. With Daniel I was beyond ecstatic to finally be pregnant and nothing could get me down. This time, I am beyond ecstatic too, but I think the apathetic feeling has sort of taken over. I know I should be planning, organizing, and getting ready, but something keeps holding me back. 

So, each day I just try to push myself. I motivate myself by making simple lists of things to accomplish each day. I try to make each task easily achievable so as not to feel overwhelmed. If I have a burst of 'hey! let's do this' I try to milk it for all it's worth. Whenever a bad day hits and I just can't seem to make myself do much, I try to rest in God's promises and remember that each day is a new day. Also, who really needs to have a perfectly clean house anyways? :)