Nursery reveal

Stayed up until 2am, yet still woke up at 7am today. Took care of errands, set up the monitor, and cleaned as best as I could. Finally, here is baby girl’s room!

This doesn’t look terribly different from before, other than the addition of the pennant and position of the picture. My parents will be staying with us for a month after baby girl is born, so keeping the bed was a must. Not to mention it’ll probably be handy for sleep training later.

The diaper changing area and crib turned out just how I was envisioning them! The hardest part was placement of all the art, and I’m still a bit nervous about having one hang over the crib, but I’ve double-secured it with a screw and Command picture hangers.

We kept the bookcase from before. I was able to use some of the baby shower decor above the closet and on the memo board. The dog tail hooks from Ikea below the memo board were a huge pain to install securely, so I’m happy I figured out a good solution. Yes, it involved a power drill and drywall anchors.

So that’s it for now! I’m thinking after my afternoon snack, I’m indulging in a nap before I tackle our giant piles of laundry. Let’s hope my nesting energy holds over for the rest of the house, because we really need it!

Crib and diaper changing area DONE!

Posting these progress pictures now because I don’t think we’ll be quite done until tomorrow, partly because I want to switch out a tray for a couple more boxes on the diaper changing station instead. Still need to hang all the decor and set up the rug.

I debated pegboard for this, but went with the elfa utility board from Container Store in the end since I was nervous about the more DIY aspect of pegboard. It was so nice to have a couple of hubby’s teammates visit this afternoon – they totally wanted to pitch in, and this was one of the items they completed! The dresser is a vintage find we’ve had for a couple years, and the changing pad is by Keekaroo – I like being able to just wipe and clean a solid surface, rather than deal with washing changing pad covers.

After a lot of cursing at the provided crappy tools, hubby set up the crib today – hurray!! My parents bought this for us, and it’s surprisingly affordable at <$200, especially since it includes the toddler rail for future toddler bed conversion. Hubby wasn’t a huge fan of the 2-tone, but I feel like it really ties in the rest of the room, rather than being all white or all wood tone. I found the crib skirt on clearance when Naartjie had their closing sale, and the crib sheet is from Zulily, though on a regular basis we’ll probably stick with plain-colored QuickZip sheets for the ease of quick changes.

Other extra items we took care of today – completely set up the high chair with its baby seat, cushion, and tray, and assembled the snap & go. Yes, with all the drama with Target, they finally sent it out yesterday and it arrived today! I attached and detached the car seat on it, and it was much easier to deal with than on the regular stroller, so I think worth it in the end.

Nursery progress!

After a week of late nights and tons of laundry, the nursery is finally coming together! The closet and drawers are stocked, and I was surprised to see we have a good amount of storage left, which is great since I know more stuff will accumulate over time.

I also set up the diaper cart that’s staying in our bedroom initially. I ended up not lining the tray bottoms because with all the diapers on there, it’s enough to dampen any vibration/sound. The top tray has a wipes dispenser, hand sanitizer, diaper balm, burp cloths, and loose diapers. There’s still room for my water bottle and some snacks (protein bars and granola – whatever I can easily eat with one hand), since it will also be sitting near the glider for feeding sessions. Also filled a tote to use as a diaper caddy downstairs.

So I think we may finish the nursery tomorrow! Both of us are home all day, and here’s what’s left on the to-do list:

• hang the new smoke/carbon monoxide detector
• assemble the crib and make the mattress ready to use, even though it probably won’t be for a couple months other than daytime naps
• hang the diaper organization unit on the wall over the changer and stock it with essentials
• set up the baby monitor
• organize toys and books on the bookshelf
• hang all the wall art, decor, and a couple hooks

It’s quite a list, but I think we can do it! Looking forward to completing it, so that I can move onto our neglected laundry and scary closets. I love having the time to get organized! I haven’t had any significant time off at home since we moved here almost 3 years ago, and it shows in how haphazard our storage areas look. I certainly won’t have this kind of free time again 🙂

Still chugging along, a little arts & crafts

We had our weekly prenatal visit this morning. Baby girl continues to do well, though my OB scared me by saying he thinks she already weighs 7 pounds! Fortunately, we know these guesses by ultrasound can be way off, so I’m not going to let it freak me out too much. We again reviewed when I should head into L&D, and I’ll text him when that happens. He works a lot, so there’s a fair chance he’ll be able to deliver her, but otherwise, I know most of the other OB’s as well.

The guest room/nursery is really starting to clear out as I continue to assemble things, and now there’s actually room for the crib! Hoping hubby can set that up this weekend. Yesterday I set up the Mamaroo swing and the rolling cart from Ikea that will eventually go next to the dresser/changer to hold more supplies. It’ll initially be in our room, and a good place for me to keep water and snacks while breastfeeding. Thinking I need to put down some sort of padding on the bottom of the trays, or it could get quite noisy. Any ideas as to what type? I don’t know if a piece of felt would be durable enough unless I tack it down with something, though I suppose I could use spray adhesive. Looks like I may have a field trip to Michael’s in my near future! I’m just not super crafty, so it’s hard for me to improvise. This is about as arts & craftsy as I get:

I’ve had the text prints at the top for over a year now, waiting for the appropriate place. And though they’re not typical for nursery decor, I love them and they’re just right for the daughter of myself and my ex-DJ husband. I did dress up the 2 smaller cards with some washi tape, and I really like how they turned out! The bottom left print was a buyable download off Etsy, and the alphabet print was a direct Etsy purchase. There are a few more things that are already hanging in the room, but I’ll likely need to rearrange once the crib goes in, and we see where everything lands!

Up way too late as usual

Nesting totally gives me nervous energy, and throws off my sleep schedule! Didn’t quite get as much done today as I would’ve liked with hubby not feeling well all weekend, so the crib is still not assembled. He did at least assemble the closet storage unit so that all the laundry I did today can start getting put away. I had to order more hangers too, since I completely underestimated how much clothes she’d end up with.

I assembled the bouncer, and refreshed an old set of plastic drawers hubby has had since college with some shelf liner I found in Target’s bargain section! My hospital bag is now completely packed, other than a list of last-minute items I wrote on a post-it and stuck on our front door. One more load of laundry left for tomorrow, thinking I should tackle sterilizing feeding supplies next.

Today’s prenatal visit and full-time nesting begins!

Lucky you guys, looks like I’m posting more than just my weekly updates now that I’m on maternity leave! I had my prenatal appointment this morning, and the OB confirmed that baby girl is still in optimal position – head down, back along my left side. He reviewed my “birth plan” (do whatever is needed to keep me and baby safe, open to trying without meds but ready to order the epidural when I can’t take it). Unfortunately our hospital is not set up to donate cord blood, so that’s sad – I was really hoping we could contribute to the public registry.

Afterwards, I enjoyed my last float session pre-baby, though I can certainly see myself returning for some much needed shut-eye after she arrives! Ate a quick lunch, then rushed home to plow through the last of my charts, which I finished ahead of my predicted schedule today. Hurray! I am officially not logging into the electronic medical record system again until August 31!!

Then I turned my attention to the neglected laundry. Goal is before I go to bed tonight, it should all be washed and dried. Folding and putting away is another matter. My hospital bag is halfway packed right now. I made sure to wash baby girl’s going-home outfit, but otherwise I’ll tackle the rest of her clothes once I receive the last deliveries this week, and get this mess somewhat sorted:

Yup, my parents are supposed to stay in this room in less than a month. Wish me luck!

The glider is here!

Even though it’s going in our bedroom for now, I think this definitely counts as our first big nursery purchase. It’s the Savvy model from Little Castle that’s only sold at buybuyBaby stores (not online). We sat and rocked in this and some other models at the store, including Dutailier, which so many friends recommended, but actually found this to be more comfortable – and even better, less expensive, even including the gliding ottoman! I can definitely see myself sleeping in this as the pregnancy progresses, as it gets more uncomfortable just laying on my side.

Since buybuyBaby is part of the same company as Bed Bath & Beyond, they accept their coupons (non-expired only as opposed to BB&B’s more lenient policy) and gift cards. I bought some BB&B gift cards at 9% discount from Raise, combined it with a $100 off furniture coupon from bbB, and voila, bought the chair for 75% of its retail price!

We already have a mid-century dresser in the guest room/nursery, which we’ll top off with the Keekaroo Peanut Changer in aqua I bought from Giggle.com during the holiday cyber sale. That just leaves the crib, which we plan to pick up from Ikea in a couple weeks, along with a Kallax shelving unit for the closet, and some other odds and ends. Ikea has some simple, inexpensive toys too, so we’ll also pick some up while we’re there.

S***’s getting real now!

We’re “out” on social media, and lots of shopping

I had no plans to post anything about the pregnancy on social media for at least a couple weeks – at least not until Thanksgiving. So hubby surprised me when he said he would prefer to post earlier, as in this weekend! Since his coworkers met me this week and I’m showing quite a bit, he’d already told them ahead of time. Then he became worried that his other coworkers would be offended if they heard through the grapevine rather than directly from him. Even if it was on Facebook… weird tech people 😛

So I went ahead and posted a picture of 2 onesies this morning – the one that said “Crawl-Walk-Pull-up” that I’d surprised him with when I got the positive HPT, and another one I just bought in Vegas that says “Daddy’s Little Princess”. The response has been overwhelmingly positive -we definitely took some people by surprise, including his aunt (who I was surprised hadn’t heard yet from his mom but I guess 12 hours isn’t that much time overnight 😛 ). There were a couple “finally” or “at last” comments, good-natured of course but they definitely had no idea. I did post on their individual walls that this pregnancy didn’t come easy and that I hope the rest of it will be uneventful, but didn’t go into details. I didn’t want to make it part of the original post since our families are really in the dark about how much it took us to get to this point.

I found some great deals at the big consignment sale this morning. The best find was a clean barely-used Baby Jogger City Mini stroller for $150 (normally $250). Also picked up a brand-new-in-package My Brest Friend pillow for half off retail, and some cute baby clothes for a couple bucks apiece. One advantage of going public is we’ve already had several offers to give us clothes and other gear from friends who have completed their baby-making, so I’m hopeful that we can keep costs down once we outfit the nursery with a crib and glider. I managed to drag hubby to a baby store this afternoon also, so that he could try out gliders, check out car seats, and a diaper bag for himself also. I think that was much less painful than he was anticipating – we were in and out in 10 minutes, since I’d already narrowed down what I wanted over the last few weeks. I’ll go back later to actually order the glider since it can take a few months to arrive. That’ll definitely be the most expensive item in the nursery, other than installing a ceiling fan in there. Thank goodness for 20% off store coupons!

Getting more ahead of myself, or thinking positive?

I went to meditation class this morning, and the teacher talked about writing how we would overcome our “bad habits” – such as negative thinking. So much of the last 2 years has been spent consumed with “what if…” when trying to make plans for the future. I can’t predict the future of this particular pregnancy, but I don’t want fear to keep me from enjoying it and planning for it. I purchased the Circle + Bloom pregnancy program, and will start using it tonight before bed.

My closet was looking very sadly empty after the big clean-out over Labor Day weekend. Though it’s much too soon for me to even consider maternity wear, I decided it was time to finally go through the 3 boxes of maternity clothes given to me by a friend a couple years ago. These were actually hand-me-downs to her from yet another friend’s wife, whose son is now 7 years old. Thankfully basics like black and khaki pants never go out of style. She had a ton of jeans in there, but most were very wide-legged, which I hate. Still a lot of the clothing was XXS or XS maternity-sized, which made me laugh out loud as I’m too big already to wear those! In the end, I kept almost half of what was in there, which forms a good foundation – plenty of tops and bottoms for work and casual wear. She had very few dresses, and they either didn’t fit me well or were not my style at all. So my plan is to fill in the gaps with some well-priced, used jeans and dresses on Ebay and local consignment stores, and watch Zulily for good deals on new stuff. I could also probably use a good pair of maternity leggings when my regular ones get too tight. I have several Coobie bras, which should take me through the pregnancy. And I just ordered some belly bands, if only to help me stay in my regular pants for as long as possible.

I also allowed myself to start looking at my Nursery Ideas board on Pinterest, and to start bouncing ideas off my sister. She’s even more excited than I am, and has bought materials to make a mobile for us. Hubby is still cautious, but we did at least discuss planning to install a ceiling fan in the guest room/future nursery, since it gets very warm upstairs in the summer. Otherwise, the queen bed, small dresser, and bookcase will stay put. We just need to add a crib and a changing tray to the dresser. A glider would be nice, but I think we’ll keep it in our own room since there’s more space in there, and the baby would be in our room for the first several months anyways. I think I also want to take out the closet doors and maybe just hang a curtain instead, to save on room since it will be pretty cramped.

So yes, I’m definitely experiencing early nesting tendencies. It’s probably a good thing I’m too tired to physically do much about them. Washing all my “new” clothes is going to keep me busy enough this week!

Guilty pleasure… or torturing myself

We became homeowners over a year ago, and from the start it was a labor of love, turning the outdated home with gross carpet and dangerous stairs, but in the perfect neighborhood, into a place we could live in. It still needs updating, but we only had so much time and money to do so much. I think it was around the time when we were looking for a place that I seriously came to terms with wanting to become a mom. This house is the perfect size for a family with a little one, and we have a bedroom set aside as the guest room, that I really think of as the future nursery/kid’s room. I even bought a canvas of a print I’d admired online when I happened across it at HomeGoods one day:

My guilty pleasure, despite having way too many chores and household purging to do, is to browse for nursery ideas on sites like Pinterest and Houzz. I’ve created boards on there that are bursting to the seams with photos of rooms I love and products I’d love to make or buy one day. And of course, these boards are all secret, so that nobody else can see what I’m pinning and of course ask me or start thinking I’m pregnant. Because seeing my friends save/pin to boards like these is exactly how I found out some of them were pregnant, before they’d even announced it.

And I’m not…