Nursery delays...

It is now April 10th and we still have no floors in our bedroom or the nursery. The carpet was supposed to be in by now. Matt went through the entire order process with a gal at Lowes back on March 19. Around March 28 Matt talked to a guy at Lowes who told us the carpet had been delivered to Lowes and the install crew would be calling soon. When we hadn't heard from the install crew last week and we couldn't get someone on the phone at the store, Matt went in and cornered someone in the flooring department. "It doesn't show that any carpet has been ordered." WHAT!?!?!?!?!? 

It's probably best for that lady at Lowes that Matt was handling this. If I would have been there I probably would have been crying and screaming. Apparently people straight up lied to us. They gave us a discount but Matt's not one to make a fuss so there certainly wasn't any crying or yelling going on. The carpet has now been reordered and should "be here in a couple weeks". Install should only take a day, so hopefully we won't have to wait long once it actually arrives at lowes.

I realize that the baby doesn't really need much when it's born. We have a pack and play that could be set up in the basement with us which should work. But I would feel so much more comfortable and ready if we could actually put up the crib in the nursery. I'm 35 weeks today and the doctors said that if I go into labor anytime after 35 weeks, they won't stop it. And while I realize most first time mom's go 41 weeks, because we're not ready yet, I feel like the baby is more likely to come early.

And I would really love to sleep in our 3-yr-old, queen-sized bed -- not the 20+ yr old, full-size bed in the basement.  (I know, I'm whining... I should just be grateful that we have a roof over our head and a safe place to bring baby home to. And that we are blessed enough to even be talking about bringing home a baby. I am very grateful, but just very frustrated too.) Ok, rant over...

Since my hope of having the nursery all put together has pretty much been dashed, I've been thinking about fun ways to customize it for a boy or girl once the little one arrives! Here are a few of my favorites right now...




Options are endless :)
http://www.etsy.com/listing/96827057/yellow-and-gray-nursery-wall-art-yellow?ref=shop_home_active

 

Instead of blue, thinking green for a boy and pink for a girl
http://www.etsy.com/listing/108809368/nursery-quote-print-8-x-10-print-baby?ref=af_you_favitem

  

Or at least we hope Gable will be their (first) best friend
(Can't actually buy on Etsy, just found it and love it)

 

Thinking white washed board and different colors of yarn
(sorry - I can't find the etsy link for this....)



How adorable, right?
http://www.etsy.com/listing/127649462/custom-name-wooden-letters-block-puzzle?ref=usr_faveitems



Baby Mack

Kelly & Joey had their baby back in December. He came a week early during a snow storm but was perfectly healthy. It also worked out well that he was early because Kelly wanted to spend as much time with him as she could before starting back at nursing school in January. Visiting Mack was so fun - he has the silliest expressions. And when is holding such a cute, adorable baby not fun. But this time, knowing that there's a baby growing inside of me, it's different holding a newborn. Still fun and exciting, but it caused my brain to start running a mile a minute with all sorts of questions and daydreaming.

Here is a week old ...

And here he is almost 3 months old...



I am so thankful that we're having Baby B around the same time as so many of our friends. Matt and I were ready so regardless that "all the cool kids were doing it" we would have been trying for Baby B anyway. But it is so much more fun that our friends are having babies too. While we won't be in the same school district -- Mack and Baby B will be in the same grade at school, just like Kelly and I. It's so fun thinking about them being friends! (Plus there are SOOO many other babies being born plus or minus a year of Baby B -- it's incredible!)   

Oh Gable...

Such a silly dog!

Nursery Mood Board

After weeks months of consideration, we decided to go to go for a grey / yellow / teal theme for the nursery. (And when I say "we" I really mean, I decided and then told Matt and he didn't have any objections.) It's fun but still neutral enough (hopefully) that we won't have to repaint the room when we decide to sell. Here's my current mood board.

 

I have gone around and around on this... but I finally made my first purchase today so now I'm somewhat committed. I bought the yellow zig-zag (chevron) fabric to make curtain panels and also a crib skirt. Thankfully my mother-in-law can (and likes) to sew, so she's going to make those for us. And depending on prices I might ask her to also make some teal crib sheets, a pouf/ottoman, a changing pad cover and also pillows. More to come!

Nursery Design Brainstorming

You know how some girls have been planning their wedding since they were little -- that most definitely was not me. But I have been thinking about babies for a long time. One of my favorite girl names was "discovered" back when I was in high school because it was the name of a baby at the YMCA nursery where I worked. While I'm not willing to share the names we're considering for our little bundle of joy - I will share some of the ideas I've been mulling over in regards to the nursery.

Gender Neutral
As I've previously mentioned, I always thought I would wait to find out (again something I probably decided in my mind way before getting pregnant) so throughout the years I've gravitated towards gender-neutral nursery themes. And when I say themes, I really mean concepts instead. I don't want a bunny theme or carnvial theme, etc. I want it to be more eclectic (mostly because I don't think I could commit to a theme and it will end up eclectic anyway). The soft, calm, quiet, neutral nurseries are so stunning but because I don't think I could keep that vibe going, colorful is more my thing. Thanks to Pinterest there is lots of colorful nursery eye candy. Here are a few that I pinned...

Source: goo.gl via Christine on Pinterest

Source: ohdeedoh.com via Christine on Pinterest

Source: chiccheapnursery.com via Christine on Pinterest

Source: embellishmentsstudio.com via Christine on Pinterest

Source: babyletto.com via Christine on Pinterest

You are my Sunshine
Back in February 2011 I did this quick post on art that I want in my baby's nursery someday. While I love the bright colors above -- I do like the vintage / muted / restful vibe that this picture invokes so I'm going to do some compromising to make the nursery work. I've already got Jackie thinking about creating something similar to this for me. She just needs to see the rest of the nursery to know how to make it fit in.

Rocking Chair
My Grandpa refinished lots of wood objects and rocking chairs were one of the most popular. I'm not sure if it was on purpose or by accident, but they accumulated so many rocking chairs at my grandparent's house that each of us grandkids gets one (plus they have more to spare). Here is the rocking chair that I received and want to incorporate into the nursery. (It had a home in the downstairs den for awhile so ignore the background.) Just add a few pillows and I think it will be comfy enough (and if we decide later that we wish we had a glider in the nursery - no big deal. We can just buy one then and use this in other rooms where we won't be rocking in it for hours on end.

Giraffe

At the end of December Matt introduced this giraffe into the mix. In all honesty it has kind of thrown me for a loop. His grandpa made it for him and then it was in his sister's room and then got sent off to his cousins in Cali. Given the sentimental value, we're obviously including it and we can't really change it (like painting it white). When he showed it to me, I started wondering if maybe the nursery should have a giraffe or animal theme. I've seen some cute fabrics that have giraffes on them - and elephant ones too. But as I said I'm not really into it being too much of a theme. So I guess we'll just throw this in to the eclectic category and call it good.

 

So that's where my head has been at... there's just so many decisions to make and I keep going around and around so I haven't actually made any decisions yet. Hopefully soon...

Vacation day!

I used my first vacation day since starting the new job in October on Jan 4th! (Even though I have PTO time to take, it's weird to take it now knowing that it's "stealing" time from baby later this year.)

We started off the morning with a doctor's appointment. Around 20 weeks they do the ultrasound where they check the baby to make sure they are developing properly and if you want, they can typically tell you the gender. Because of Christmas, I was actually at 21 weeks + 2 days for my appointment. After lots of discussion we decided not to find out the gender. It was a split decision - Matt wanted to know and isn't into surprises at all and I kept going back and forth about finding out. I've always thought I would wait, but the temptation to find out is pretty strong but I really want the surprise - for me and for telling our family and friends. I knew if we did find out we wouldn't be able to keep it a surprise from family and friends so that helped encourage me to convince Matt we should wait.

The ultrasound was really neat. It was a huge relief to finally see the little one growing inside of me. Everything they check for medically at this appointment was just as it should be. The baby had its hand up near its face so it was a little more difficult for the ultrasound tech to get the profile and face pics but we got a couple to bring home with us.I did find out that I have an anterior placenta which means the "thick" side of the placenta is near my belly button rather than my spine. It's not a big deal, but it does mean that we won't be able to feel the baby's kicks as well as we would have with a regular placenta. While it's kinda a bummer, finding out was mostly a relief. People told me - oh you'll know when you feel the baby. But I've been feeling movement since Christmas but wasn't sure if it really was Baby (which made me nervous). Doctor said that my questioning is typical - whew.

After the doctor's appointment we did some window shopping for floors (nothing purchased yet) and then drove over to Iowa City. We got to hang out with Stacy and Maya before heading to an Iowa Wrestling meet. I never thought I'd be someone to get pumped about wrestling, but weirdly it's actually a really fun sport to watch (maybe because Iowa is/has always been good makes it more fun). Plus trips to the Carver Hawkeye Arena mean ICE CREAM CONES. Such a delicious tradition. After we watched Iowa win the meet we went over to our new favorite IC hangout - BackPocket Brewery.

We stayed the night in IC (actually we got "upgraded" to a room with a jacuzzi tub because the tv in our original room didn't work) and before heading back to Huxley we stopped at Wendy and Kyle's new home. It was fun to compare pregnancy notes with Wendy and I was totally jealous of their custom built home. Love their floorplan - especially their master suite!

Hello Maya!

OT - Hawks get the win!

Love BackPocket's stone-fired pizza!

Checking out the fire pit at BP

Seriously... smiling for the camera isn't so bad Matt.

Gable's being promoted - May 2012

Last night the official facebook announcement went out so I figure I'm finally safe sharing this here! Official due date is May 15th. Even though no one seems to really have their baby on their due date, we're probably ok assuming he or she will arrive sometime in May.

In case you don't want to do the math, a due date of May 15th means I'm 18 weeks pregnant. But the first thing I learned was that you really don't know you're pregnant until weeks 4-5. So this means we've known since the beginning of September. We waited to tell out parents after our 12 week appointment (end of October). And while it's been a hard secret to keep for so long - it was most defintiely harder for our family to keep it quiet. But thankfully we all made it :)  

I have so many posts I've been wanting to write that relate to the baby, so get ready! :)