The final stretch....

I'm feeling large and not so much in charge these days. Do I dare to dream that this one will give me a little break and not hang in there until 42 weeks? Not that I feel at all ready, mostly because there's so much to be done around the house. I've actually decided to hire someone to come in and clean a couple of times before the birth. I just don't have the energy and Jon has been busy keeping the kids busy on the weekends. He's off skiing with Sollie today.
Let me just add too that hiring someone to clean my house was a really difficult decision, it's not something I've ever done before. Cleaning has never really been a problem for me but I suppose that was before I was 9 months pregnant and had two children... My thought is that if I don't have to spend my energy cleaning floors and bathrooms, etc... I'll be able to use my energy to get more organized and ready for the baby, right?

The baby continues to be very active and the last we checked he/she did have his/her head down, which is a good thing. All else is fine and totally normal. My next visit with my midwife is a home visit, which is kind of exciting. That means I'm getting close!

The other crazy thing is I decided to get a kitten for the kiddos. Which is something I've been going back and forth about since Ishmael died. I actually took Solomon to look at some kittens shortly after Ishmael died but looking at them made me too sad and I realized I wasn't ready. Which was pretty disappointing for Sollie. He's excited to have a cat who is not scared of him. He keeps checking in with me about the kitten to make sure it won't be scared of him. Zilpah just can't stand the kids, she wants nothing to do with them and hides from them.
At first thought it seems like a crazy bad idea to get a new kitten and add a third baby to the family at the same time. But I really think Sollie is old enough to take on a little responsibility like feeding the kitten. I actually want to make sure they both take turns feeding the kitten, to insure the kitten bonds well with them.

I figure the kitten can stay in their room for the first week or so to adjust with Zilpah and they can go in there and play with the kitten and bond with it. It should also be entertaining to them while I'm sitting around nursing a newborn.

Any way this is my plan. Now to find a kitten. Complicating factor: Jon's cat allergy! Siamese have never bothered him and they are my favorite breed. The problem is finding a male kitten. I've had a request in at the humane society for 6 months and nothing.... the more Siamese the cat the better for Jon's allergies. Which means getting a pure bread cat, something I'm not terribly excited about. There' s a breeder about an hour away with a chocolate point male kitten but it's pricey! Ouch.
A hard decision to make.

I've pretty much decided to do, I've been emailing the breeder and I've been really honest with him. Some breeders are nervous about small children and their kittens- even though this traditional Siamese breed is suppose to be excellent with children. So it's basically up to him now, I'm waiting to here back.