Shopping Bounties and The Home Stretch

A couple friends and I shared a girls shopping trip in Nearby Giant Town this weekend, and I made out like a bandit on maternity clothes! Why would I need maternity clothes if this is my third child, you ask? Well, because my attic appears to eat maternity clothes by the box-load. Poof, a big box of maternity clothes disappeared. We hit one particularly uppity maternity boutique that I knew featured some very expensive clothes that I would never be able to afford. My plan, however, was to see if I could score any goods on the sale rack, where items were more in my budget. And score I did! I got a lovely Japanese Weekend summer dress for $45 (regularly priced at $119) and a pair of off-white, ellyB corduroy dress pants that were not only long enough (I'm 6'2" remember), but on sale for $45 (regularly priced at $90)! These pants are truly comfortable and somehow manage to make my arse look decent despite being 6 months pregnant--totally worth the money.

After stocking my closet with my new goods, I realized there will be more things we need to get before the baby comes. Thinking about this also made me realize that we only have 3 months left. Given how fast this pregnancy has gone by, 3 months doesn't seem like a lot of time. I still have to get Eliza's closet reorganized to accommodate sharing it with her new sister, and this is not a small task in itself. I also need to get some sort of bassinet, because the Pack & Play we used when Eliza was a newborn won't fit next to the bed anymore. I've never used a sling before, but I'd like to use one with this baby, so I'll have to get at least one of those. I know it doesn't seem like a lot is still needed, but I've done this enough times to know how little things come up in the moment and at the last minute, and the little things are enough to drive you crazy.

I think I may just budget in the time to take Spring Break week off from dissertation work so I can have the entire week to concentrate on getting everything in the house baby ready. Once that's done, I'll be more relaxed, which will help with concentrating on the dissertation. I've come up with a new timeline which will ensure that each chapter gets at least some revision before May 5th. Once that happens, I'll be able to send off a complete draft to my committee members to get feedback on what else they'd like to see. Knowing what else they want out of each chapter will make it much easier for me to develop a work plan for the summer while I stay home with the baby. I've never tried to care for a newborn and revise a dissertation at the same time, so I don't know how this is going to work. I'm reminding myself that a great deal of this depends on what kind of baby I have: a sleepy baby who easily falls into some sort of schedule or rhythm, a baby who likes to change up her schedule every day, or something in between??

But, I look at the ticker on the side of my blog, and I can't believe how fast the time has gone by, or how much work I still have to do before this baby comes. Speaking of work.... :)