Why on earth am I doing both at once?

We move into a new home at the end of June. Three weeks later, our new baby is due to arrive. My midwife has already warned against moving heavy boxes or furniture so I won’t go into labour early.

 In the meantime, I have retreated to my sister’s house in the suburbs with my son and the dog – I’m sleeping in my 10-year-old niece’s room surrounded by Build-A-Bears and Twilight posters – while our decluttered and staged home goes on the market. (My sister is sympathetic – she moved into her current house when her son was just a few weeks old.)

At a time in my pregnancy when I should be taking afternoon naps, I have been packing boxes, scrubbing floors and worrying whether our house will sell.

Why on earth am I doing both at once?

When we bought our house five years ago, we were dazzled by the available space. Three bedrooms! A dining room! A backyard and a roof-top deck! We each came from tiny Toronto apartments where meals were consumed on living room couches and outdoor living meant perching on a small balcony overlooking a parking lot.

It didn’t take long for us to fill the space. First we got a dog – a sweet Golden Retriever puppy that grew into an equally sweet, 70- pound dog who takes up half the kitchen flopping on the floor and waiting for highchair scraps.

We got engaged, then married and began buying grown-up furniture – the kind that comes already assembled. Our empty rooms soon became an office and a spare room. Our basement filled with bikes, skis and other toys.

Then, after we were married a couple of years, along came our son, Oliver. We happily juggled a couple of rooms to set up a nursery and acquired all the infrastructure needed to raise a modern baby. A stroller now sits in the corner of my living room. A highchair takes up the half of the kitchen not occupied by the dog, filling the space where a baby swing once stood. My dining room, where we once hosted dinner parties and family celebrations, now looks like a daycare centre. There are foam squares in bright, primary colours on the floor and a growing mountain of toys in the middle, designed to amuse and entertain a busy toddler.

With another baby on the way, we are busting at the seams. After months of searching, we finally found a place in a great neighbourhood to accommodate our growing family. There are bedrooms for everyone with one to spare and a playroom to contain the growing mountain of toys. There’s even a nice backyard with a patch of grass where Oliver, Lil Bean and the dog can run around with a soccer ball or build a snowman.

While I won’t miss tripping over trucks or stepping on wooden blocks on my way to the kitchen, moving is bittersweet. Our house is the first home we shared as a couple. We got engaged in the dining room and we took our first family nap with Oliver in the sunny spare room. What was once just a house is now a home filled with memories.

Despite the worries and stress, we are looking forward to moving to the new house and creating new memories. And we couldn’t ask for a better housewarming gift – a new baby.