You guys,
Sam and I are under contract for a new house!
It happened quickly. We went, we saw, we conquered. And by conquered, I mean we put in an offer below ask, the seller countered with a higher price, and we said we’ll take it.
Since then, I have been unable to stop furnishing our new home in my mind.
Let’s start with the dining room.
Dining rooms are stupid. A separate, stuffy, unlived-in room where families only gather for special occasions.
Or maybe you use your dining room all the time. Sam and I prefer to eat in the kitchen, where the food is made. So we are converting our dining room into a home library.
Painted green walls. An entire wall of books. Four comfy, mismatched chairs. Reading lamps for each chair, and soft, dim lighting.
Are there any standard rooms in the house that you find pointless? And if you could convert it into anything you want, what would you convert it to?
Writing Process
When it comes to your writing process, no one can tell you what works best for you.
What I can do is provide tools to help you develop your own personal writing system.
30 Weeks Pregnant
Sam and I recently had a Zoom call with our doula, Heather.
Refresher: A doula is a professional who provides physical, emotional, and informational support continuously to the mother before, during, and just after birth.
She asked us so many questions that left us more overwhelmed than we were when the call began. There were questions I didn’t even know needed answering:
What do we want to do about vaccines? Uh, get them? I didn’t realize there was an option. She recommends a book.
Are you going to breastfeed? That’s easy: yes. One point for me.
Do you feel comfortable with it? Well, no, I don’t know anything about it. She recommends a book.
Is Sam prepared to be a supportive partner? ...He thinks so? She recommends a book.
It seems like for everything we don’t know, we need to read a book. So I’ve got two months to read 46 books and then make major decisions about my baby. Give me a break.
But I suppose this preparedness is necessary if I want to feel any sense of empowerment around the birth of my son. I could go the easy route and do whatever the doctors and nurses suggest, or I can educate myself and make decisions with Sam about what is actually best for us and the baby.
So I guess I’ll read a couple books.
Baby Things
I’m sure you’ve all been dying to know - Sam and I decided on a stroller. After much research online, asking advice of friends, and spending an obscene amount of time weighing the pros and cons of the many options, we chose the UppaBaby Cruz.
It really doesn’t matter what we chose or how we chose it (but if you are in the market for a stroller, please feel free to ask me any questions about this one).
What matters is that this stroller is just one tiny decision of what feels like a thousand decisions we have to make in regard to bringing a child into this world.
Not only do you have to think about things like quality, budget, and purpose, with a newborn you have the added weight of considering safety and health. No one wants to endanger their child. And us new parents are total suckers for doing what’s best for our baby. Oh, this crib mattress has amazing breathability, is free of toxins, and is $200 more than the others? We better get it.
If Sam and I were to purchase all the safest options for our baby, we’d be broke. Did we get the expensive crib mattress? We sure did. But we tried to save on the nursery furniture - like the dresser we just received - which is made of particle board. I felt pretty good about it, until I stumbled across this Tweet:
Are you kidding me? C’mon, I don’t need to see that. And of course one of the comments says, “When it comes to furniture, just make sure it’s solid wood, not particle board.”
Awesome.
This sent me and Sam on a spiral. Open the windows, turn on the fans - we gotta air this place out. I call the nurse. Do we need to return this furniture?? Her opinion is no.
That’s the thing about all this baby stuff. There are a lot of opinions out there, a lot of personal preference. We are trying to wade through the sea of information and make the best decisions we can because no one is giving us a hard yes or no on any of it.
We’ll keep the dresser. But from now on, we’re a solid wood furniture family!
Book Recs
A teacher posted an amazing thread of children’s books that discuss race and racism.
I can’t wait to add some of these to our home library.
---
Until next week,
Charlie