With just one week until baby’s due date the notorious nesting instinct has well and truly kicked in and as well as setting up the bedside crib, washing and organising his clothes and baby proofing, I’ve been compelled to get clear and clean in ways I’ve probably only ever done a handful of times. To help keep on top of the daily chores, I’ve teamed up with VonHaus to take on their 14 day challenge to a tidy home. I’ve been taking on one cleaning task a day to make sure everything here is ship shape ahead of baby’s arrival. They sent me some nifty little cleaning gadgets as well as this simple schedule to stick to over a two week period and asked me to report back on how I got on.

Day 1: Bins and recycling: sort through all the bins in your house and get your recycling separated.
Day 2: Wipe down your kitchen units and steam the cooker tops.
Day 3: Empty and clean out the fridge freezer – don’t forget the kitchen cupboards!
Day 4: Vacuum Day: Focus on the floors, give all the rooms in your house a good vacuum.
Day 5: Vacuum Day: Move the furniture and hoover those hard to reach areas of your home.
Day 6: Clean the windows – inside and out!
Day 7: Wash the curtains and wipe down the blinds.
Day 8: Take everything off the sideboards, shelves and get dusting!
Day 9: Get your bedding, blankets and cushions washed – after all everyone loves fresh bedding!
Day 10: Wardrobes: Clear out any old clothing, reorganise and wipe down your wardrobes.
Day 11: Remove wrinkles from clothing, curtains and upholstery.
Day 12: Wash out your shower, shower screen and/or bath.
Day 13: Let’s mop: antibacterial your floors and wipe down the tiles.
Day 14: Finally take a trip to the tip: Declutter your home from unwanted clothes, items or food and take it to the tip, food bank or local charity shop.

I love how this list of 14 tasks can be used on repeat as any easy peasy housework schedule. The simple tasks are fab for new, busy parents to be able to complete without feeling too overwhelming. They’ve also been things I’ve been able to involve Florence in – she loves to ‘help’ and has swept and dusted behind me.

There are probably things I’d do more than once or twice in the two weeks – vacuuming for example, as with two dogs, a toddler and a baby as well as four adults living here there’s a LOT of traffic through the house. Using the VonHaus Stick Vacuum Cleaner this will likely be a breeze! I’m going to be reviewing this along with their steam cleaner in a separate post.

Things like a tip run and wardrobe clear out can probably be done monthly in future. I really value them being included though as the whole decluttering process was a really cathartic one. I’m going to try and make sure they’re regular features in my housework schedule from now on as if done regularly they won’t seem like too daunting of a job!

Will you be taking on the VonHauss 14 day challenge to a tidy home this month? Let me know how you get on along with your top tips for keeping on top of those household chores!

JUST SO YOU KNOW

I was invited to take part in the VonHaus challenge and have been gifted two products to help me complete the challenge.

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I’d like to say that since my last update at around 34 Weeks, everything has been plain sailing but it’s safe to say that this little boy is set on giving us a bit of a bumpy ride in the lead up to his imminent arrival and I suppose it would just make these little updates a bit boring if nothing else.

Getting ready

Everything about the last few weeks have been about preparing for baby. I’ve packed my hospital bag, written my birth plan (which now needs tweaking a bit as I can’t go to the birth centre), we’ve started to get the house ready by putting the SnuzPod3 together, setting up his changing area and giving everything a good clean. We’ve even picked out a name that we are 99% certain we’ll use. Looking back it’s been a pretty productive time.

Capturing my bump

I really wanted to make sure I captured this bump and pregnancy on camera and so we set about doing a little DIY photo shoot at home. The photos actually turned out really well and I love that we got Florence involved too.

The Baby Sprinkle

A couple of weeks ago I had a little baby shower / Sprinkle with some of our closest friends and family. We went for afternoon tea at Puddings and did some baby related crafting which was really fun.

Bleed at 36+4

I spent last weekend in the hands of the midwives and nurses on the Antenatal ward. I’d gone to the toilet on Friday night and passed what felt like a clot which when I looked down in to the loo turned out to be lots of very bright red blood. We phoned maternity triage straight away and they got us to go in. I was examined and while there was no explanation for the bleed there was some old blood lingering around in my cervix so I was kept in over night for obs and to see if labour would start. Nothing much happened at all but it took until 8pm that night for any doctors to come and see me and when they did they were frankly, not very helpful. Emergency c-sections, restricted growth and inductions were just three of the things banded about in the room while nobody actually examined me or even really acknowledged I was in the room! It seemed I was going to be in hospital until the baby came, whenever that may be. Fast forward to Sunday afternoon and I was suddenly discharged with a ‘nothing to worry about’ diagnosis. All very very strange.

A night of contractions

37 weeks arrived on Monday and that night I had another ‘show’ followed by intermittent contractions all night long. They came to nothing though so up we got on Tuesday to get on with the week!

Reduced Movements & losing fluid at 37+3

Yesterday we had a fairly busy morning with friends over and a trip to the park in the falling snow so It wasn’t until lunch time that I realised baby had been pretty quiet. I fed Florence and then we went up for a nap which is normally when he moves the most but it didn’t matter what position I was in he just wouldn’t budge. I fell asleep for an hour and then as I got up to run a bath to try and encourage him to move I felt myself lose some fluid ‘down there’. It carried on while I was in the bath in little trickles and then after a call to hospital to let them know what was going on I started to get dressed and lost a great big gush of clear water!

We got to the hospital and I was immediately put on the monitor to check the baby. He was absolutely fine! They wanted to confirm that my waters had broken and so did an internal examination with a speculum and found that they were still intact. It definitely hadn’t been urine that I’d lost but not amniotic fluid either. Another unexplained weirdness!

We were sent home with a view to keep an eye on things and it was confirmed that I’d need to have baby in the hospital on the labour ward when I do eventually go into spontaneous labour.

Current symptoms

All things mentioned above aside, I feel pretty good in fairness. I’m getting a lot of Braxton Hicks but am no way near as uncomfortable as I was this time in my last pregnancy. The SPD has definitely eased – thank goodness! The only one thing I do get from time time is a pain where my cyst was removed a couple of years ago, but judging on my 20 week scan, my placenta is sitting right near it so if there’s swelling there, it’s probably just a bit agitated.

What’s baby up to

Well, as well as keeping us well on our toes, baby is now classed as ‘term’ and while every day he spends on the inside is another valuable day of growing and getting stronger, he should be a-okay to come out now. His lungs have been busy developing over the last few months and so when he is born they should be able to cope with the adjustment to the big wide world. He has a tummy full of meconium. He’s been engaged since 36 weeks (at least) and is currently sitting with his back one side of my tummy and his limbs the other. Hopefully over the next couple of days he will move into prime position. According to the fruit chart, he;s the size of a honey dew melon! If that doesn’t make your eyes water I am not sure what will. 

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