Papa Runner and I have been talking a lot about how much longer we can stay in our house. There isn't a lot of storage space, the yard is small (and un-fence-able due to easements), and there are only three bedrooms. We knew we'd be tight with a third child, but with twins....
If we stay, Smartie and Sweetie will be sharing a room and the twins will share a room. Our nursery is too small for two cribs (co-sleeping never worked well for us), so they're going into the "big" bedroom, and we're putting bunk beds for the girls in the nursery.
So we'd like to move in the next year. That means I have to clean the house to selling standards and maintain those standards while pregnant and/or caring for two infants. This does not appeal to me. My plan is to start packing anything not completely essential now. I also want to empty any rooms I can--Smartie's bedroom, the second bathroom, the living room, what little storage we have--and consolidate the living space as much as possible. That would give me fewer rooms to maintain and less packing to do later.
On the other hand, Papa and I have both travelled in third world countries and know that families bigger than ours can survive just fine with a lot less space than ours. If we had to, we could put off the move for another year or so. And with the housing market like it is, we may not be able to sell our house for a while anyway. And we also have to consider that this is a high-risk pregnancy. I don't want to endanger myself or the twins by taking on too much stress. I just can't decide what would be the lesser of the evils.
Either way, I start my first major cleaning project tomorrow. The bunk beds will be delivered on Thursday, so Sweetie's room needs to be cleaned from top to bottom and any touch-ups finished before then. That'll be one less to worry about.
4 comments:
aJust ask...where is the less stress? As you said, don't take any risks at this time.
I think I'd be tossing back all the same things you've already thrown out there to consider on both sides.
I will say - my sister had 5 kids in a 3 bedroom, smaller home, for many years. 3 girls were in one room and the 2 boys in the other . . .it taught me alot about thinking what I "needed." They had a ball and never seemed to mind.
From my personal experience with this pregnancy, I would say move forward with caution. You'll be needing to take it increasingly easy as the babies (and you!) grow in even a far different way than you needed with the other girls. I had to give UP cleaning (I know, what a sob story) and maybe I'm just a baby, but I do think it would have pushed me past a breaking point to try and keep a house to "show worthy" cleanliness. Right now, bending down to pick up toys (or anything on the floor) is such a joke I usually don't! : )
So if you want my two cents, I'd say do what you can to make these remaining months of pregnancy as restful as you can . .. and maybe broach the move 6 - 12 months after they are here or even longer. When they're little, they won't care how much room you have!
Just my two cents -
We moved the month that we found out we were having our boys - and I was put on bedrest right away due to bleeding. Then, after being off bedrest, I was too tired to do too much. Then, after I started feeling better, I was too ackward and big to do too much, plus I didn't want to stress myself out (doctors orders) since I had already had a bleeding scare at the beginning. Then, after we had the twins, life as we knew it stood still for anything but baby care for the next eight months (and thanks to a c-section). Currently, almost TWO years later - I am STILL moving in!! Sometimes I am so overwhelmed with the mess and three young kids I get so stressed out I don't even know where to even start.
My advice to you - if you can manage, WAIT!! Don't stress yourself out now and/or once the babies come. Just take care of yourself and your girls (and the babies once they come) - and forget taking on any other major projects for now.
When I was little us six kids slept in one room. Our house only had two bedrooms. There were two mattresses together on the floor that we all six slept on and our 'dressers' were five drawer metal gray filing cabinets. We thought it was so cool that we could decorate our 'dresser' with stickers. The filing cabinets, six of them, were lined up at the foot of the mattresses. One drawer for everyday shirts, one drawer for everyday pants, one drawer for nice shirts, one drawer for nice pants, one drawer for underwear. Now we did have a big finished basement and a very big yard but that is how we slept for many years until the girls moved downstairs and took over half the basement. Looking back we had a GREAT time growing up in that house and I don't remember the small packed bedroom ever being a problem.
Sara
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