BabyBit's Nursery

So I’m not quite complete on the nursery, but I keep meaning to show it to you. If I wait until it is complete, babybit will be 10 years old by then.

This room was our guest bedroom so fair warning to any future guests, you will now have to sleep on the couch. Due to tax reasons, we have to keep the Den/office an actual work area so that room was off limits for sleeping accommodations.

I don’t really have any before pictures, more just in-progress after we emptied out the room and were trying out paint colors. 

Room prep/progress

I knew I didn’t really want to do pastel pink and blue, or even green and brown (which has become the go-to gender-neutral colors). My goal was to do primary colors without being over the top. Its funny how the mood board originally created looks nothing like the end result. No matter, I’m VERY happy with the results. The baby blanket I made was really the color palatte I tried to stick to.

Baby Blanket Color Pallate


We chose a rich honey butter color to paint the walls. Side note – make sure the home improvement store properly mixes the paint when you buy it. We circled the room before we noticed that all the pigment was at the top of the can. As you can see we had two different colors where the gallon started and finished. A second coat fixed that problem though.

Paint Fail

As soon as I showed Aunt Biscuit my idea for the alphabet letters, she requested that she take on that project. Considering how juvenile my craft projects typically turn out and what great style she has, I was happy to let her take it on. I wasn’t allowed to see the letters until they were complete. They are awesome. It took me too long to hang them on the wall and as you can see I eyeballed it when hanging them. Some are closer together than others and crooked but ce la vie.

Alphabet Wall


I’m actually surprised at how inexpensively we decorated the room, thanks to all the donations. The dresser and mirror were in the room already. I just re purposed them with white paint. The other furniture was all hand-me-downs (rocker from SIL, pillow made by Momma T, crib from co-worker, and changing table from a friend). The lamps were craigslist finds that were painted. The rug was on sale at Menards (where you can save big money, by the way).

Dresser and Mirror


Crib and Alphabet (please ignore all the clutter that I don't know where to store)


Changing table and Rocker (imagine white storage cabinet above the changing table)


As you can tell, space is a premium in the room – already storing things under the crib and where ever we can find room. There are a couple of remaining items, including shelves/storage over the changing table.
 
Only 4 days until the due date - Merry Christmas from BIGbit

Too much time to worry...

With the holidays approaching, work is starting to slow down. Multiply that by the decline in projects due to my looming maternity leave and you’ll understand that I have a little too much time to be impatient, worry about complications and generally stew about motherhood.

That means you all get the joy of reading about every thought that crosses my mind. At least I’ve put it here so you can ignore it without insulting me directly!

Patience – It is a virtue I’ve never been blessed with. I was moving along fine with the idea that it would be January before babybit arrived. I had told myself there was still a lot more waiting to be done. That was until my doctor examined me last week and said I was 80% effaced (google it if you really want to know what that means). I was so caught off guard with the idea that my body was actually progressing toward labor that I rushed through the last of my tasks to get the house baby ready. It took exactly one day. Since then, no more progression, despite all the aches, pains, Braxton Hicks (that hubs has affectionately named Braxton Millers), sore boobs and overall uncomfortableness (pretty sure that isn’t a word). Don’t get me wrong, I KNOW that first time moms typically go past their due date. I KNOW my mom and my sister both went late. I KNOW that there is NO WAY to know when you are going into labor and I keep telling myself that another couple of weeks is NOTHING compared to the 9 months of being pregnant, and the years of trying to get pregnant. But logic hasn’t taught me patience.

Complications – Hubs asked me a question the other day that has been a cloud of a thought in my own mind for months. A thought that I didn’t really want to give shape and texture to, “What if our baby has special needs or isn’t completely healthy?” Well, if you know the Hubs you know the question wasn’t that succinct, but that was the gist of the conversation. With the pending introduction to your new little one, I imagine everyone fears their bambino won’t be perfect. My response, also originally not as succinct, “I can’t worry about it, because the worrying won’t do anyone any good. We’ll handle whatever comes our way the best we can.” But of course now the question is out there. A constant worry than I can’t really ignore.

General anxiety – It is probably naive of me, but my fear of labor hasn’t been about the pain. I guess knowing an epidural is an anesthesiologist away helps put me at ease with that. My fear, grounded completely in infertility struggles, manifests around my body not doing what it is “supposed to”. The uncertainty of being able to breastfeed manifested itself into a dream where Momma T was scorning me for starving my baby. She took matters into her own hands and feed it canned cat food. SOMETHING had to be done. Of course then there is the fear that I’ll have a C-section fear if I don’t dilate. This fear is only compounded by my sister’s disappointment that result for her own labor and her painful recovery process.

But not everything is all doom and gloom of "what if things go wrong". Some of the time spent is thinking about all the cool wonders of pregnancy, like:

There are currently TWO souls in my one body – how crazy is that?

If babybit is a girl, then the eggs have already been created in her little ovaries, and I am carrying not only her but possibly my future grandchildren.

I am more proud of my stomach than I have EVER been in my life (and probably will be again). I am showing it off to anyone that will look. My skin has NEVER been this tight.

I really love feeling him/her move inside of me. I spend so much time with my hands on my belly, trying to discern the shapes of a leg or a butt that I am bordering on the obsessed.

Let the waiting begin

December is here! I am so excited to finally be within THREE WEEKS of my due date. I do think that there is no WORSE time to be pregnant though. I'm totally stressed out about Christmas shopping. I have so much to get done, but I can only stand to be out at the stores, fighting the crowds for short periods. Hubs and I tried to go shopping last weekend and only 30 mins into it, I was leaning over the cart to steal some back ache relief. Last night I had to go to Target and Lowes. I ended up paying WAY too much for stuff at Target because I wanted to skip the trip to Lowes since I was already drained. I guess it's going to be a online shopping kind of year.

Biscuit finally unveiled the finishing touch for the Nursery last weekend. Hopefully this weekend we'll assemble and take pictures for the blog. I'm excited to show the before and after pictures of the room.

Not much else going on. Just trying to keep myself busy, because, you know, a watched pot...

Tick, tock.