Plans, Projects, and Pregnancy

When we got married almost a year ago, we knew we wanted to make paying off student loans a top priority. We want to have children, and when we have them, we want for me to be able to stay at home with them.

Getting our student loans paid off before we start having children would go a long way toward making that wish a reality.

Which means that we carefully planned our budget such that most of my income goes towards principle on student loans (while Daniel’s still provides the minimum payments-so that we’d have an easily flexible arrangement if a surprise came along.)

It also means that we have a specific date for when we expect to have our loans paid off–and a specific date for when we think we can start “trying” for a baby.

And, since I’m a planner, it means I have a whole list of tasks to be completed before, around, or after those magic dates.

Before we start trying, I need to get my last two wisdom teeth pulled (don’t want to go under OR risk damaging any of my amalgam fillings if there’s a possibility I might be pregnant). I need to evaluate my current medication use and see if I can find effective alternatives to the ones that aren’t safe for pregnancy (like pseudoephedrine.) And I need to get in all the lead exposure I intend to get until the baby’d be at least one.

Does that last one surprise you a bit?

I don’t imagine it’s something many people think of when they start planning a pregnancy.

But lead exposure during pregnancy or breastfeeding can be dangerous to a baby’s health. And my old house likely contains plenty of lead.

Which means that if I need to do any home improvements before baby turns one (the earliest I would consider stopping breastfeeding), I need to do them before we get pregnant.

And, since I’m a project person, of course I have some home improvement projects that I want to get completed.

I want to get the interior doors all sanded down and repainted (we started this last summer but haven’t finished yet!) I want to scrape all the flaking paint from our hall cabinets and trim and get the hall repainted (especially important because I don’t want a toddler coming into contact with potentially-lead-containing pain flakes). And I want to finish vacuuming down the peeling paint in my craft room downstairs so I can hang pegboard on the wall frame my sister-in-law so graciously finished for me last September.

Which means I’m deep in the throughs of project-happiness: removing and soaking door hardware to remove a half dozen layers of paint. Scraping and sanding the doors. Trying to guesstimate when I can have the doors finished, how I’m going to do the hallway (it’ll be more difficult, since not all the parts that contain peeling paint can be taken off and taken outside for scraping like the doors can.)

What am I doing?

Projects. Getting ready for pregnancy. Planning ahead.