It's a Boys World: November 2013

Shortly after school started, I began transforming what was our spare/guest/scrapbooking/dump-all room into the baby's room. When my parents last visited, back in June, my dad very graciously painted the room for us, so with that taken care of, it was a matter of clearing everything out (which also involved finding a new space for all said stuff) and beginning the process of unpacking those moving and storage boxes labeled "Baby."

It was really fun. :)

The theme and decor has remained the same for all three of our babes. {For memory's sake, go HERE and scroll to the bottom of the post to see what the nursery looked like for the boys, at our previous house.} Thinking back to when we were expecting Drew, we knew that we wouldn't be able to switch out nursery decor with each child, so settling on a very neutral theme was the goal. Teddy bears and "green" it was! I'm so glad that was the direction we went, because I still love it. Classic and simple.

The baby's room in this house is considerably smaller than it was at our old home; half the size, I would say. I can manage with the space limitations just fine, but it did require a little downsizing and reevaluating what was necessary and what needed to go. {And to be honest, that's kind of the way things have been since we've moved - there just isn't the space we use to have. And it's been good. Time to cut out the clutter, ya know?}

To start, here's a 360 degree look at the room as it is right now, beginning with the view from the doorway.

Now for some details:

This pennant banner is a new addition to the nursery decor. I wanted something new, and these banners are so perfect for a baby's room. As a bonus, I was able to use the leftover fabric from two other baby projects (details below). {Related, but not important: I'm debating the location of the banner here on this wall. It looks a little cluttered with the mobile hanging right in front of it, but once that comes down in a few months, it'll probably look less congested.}

In the boys' old nursery, we had teddy bears everywhere; and we had the space for shelves and bookcases to house them all. Such is not the case here, so the teddy bear collection was downsized and more creative display options were explored. Thanks to Pinterest and the flower boxes that use to adorn the front of our new house, we now have this ever adorable bear cage! Yes, yes, it is simply the cutest thing ever. I know.

The teddy bear cross stitch, made by my mom, and the bookcase, made many many moons ago by Brad's grandpa, have made their reappearance.

The nursery in our old house had two huge closets. Granted, they housed more than just baby stuff, but the blankets alone would take up the entire single self we use to have in here. So we replaced the old rod and shelf, and installed a new one, along with two extra shelves to hold all the excess. Baby's require a lot of stuff, ya know. {And yes, that entire bottom shelf is full of blankets, towels and sheets. Please, no more.}

My favorite part of unpacking all of the "Baby" boxes was finally reaching into the totes of baby clothes. Such deliciousness, I say. What was not-so-fun was discovering all of the stains that surfaced after being stored away for four and a half years. But with a little masterful mix of detergent, oxyclean, vinegar, and a good amount of soaking, they are looking fresh and new! This is our collection of neutral sleepers. We'll know soon if I need to start washing up all the blue stuff, or if Mama gets to go shopping for pink, pink, pink!

I'm pretty excited about having a newborn here at Christmas time. :)

I have purchased very little new for this baby, but I couldn't resist this little Santa sleeper. And the big boys may or may not also be receiving Christmas jammies this year. ;)

The dresser and crib are the same as before. But that glider. Oh, that glider is the pride and joy of this room.

Previously, we had a green swivel chair for the nursery. It looked great in the room, but it truly wasn't used much. It didn't really rock (just sorta swayed) and as all the bedrooms were on the second floor of our old house, we usually relocated to the living room to the big, comfy rocker/recliner to feed and rock the babies. Our current home is a ranch, with all the bedrooms on the main floor, and the big, comfy rocker/recliner now lives in the basement. The thought of finding a new rocker for the nursery wasn't even on my radar (I figured we'd use the green chair and/or just do without)...until Brad and I spotted this beauty at a garage sale. For 20 bucks. Retail pricing for these gliders and ottomans start at $100, so I really felt like we had found a steal. It is in really good structural shape; the cushions, however, were filthy. I had never attempted to recover anything more than a pillow, so it took me a while to convince myself I'd at least be able to try. But for such a great deal, I decided to give it a go (with a lot of help from this tutorial).

And man, I impress myself sometimes. :)
{They are all removable slip covers so they'll be easy to toss into the washer when needed.}

So now it is clean, functional, and really quite comfy. I think the baby and I will enjoy it very much!

And just a few small decor items on a small shelf. All recycled from the old nursery.

{And who's that baby in that picture frame? That'd be Baby Drew. Apparently updating photos when Reed was a baby never happened. Huh.}

One last project that I completed for the baby is car seat canopy, which is like a glorified blanket for the cold, winter months. Rest assured, the baby will be wrapped up tight underneath the canopy, but it does provide extra protection from wind and precipitation. And it's pretty cute, too.

I had seen this one on, you guessed it, Pinterest, and really loved the look of the patchwork fabric. While on one of my many fabric store adventures, I had fallen in love with the elephant fabric, and went from there in finding some coordinating, gender-neutral fabrics to create the patchwork look I was going for. The extra fabric, then, from this and the glider went in to making the pennant banner.

And there you have it! Everything is ready! Now we just wait for baby!

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A few funny notes to record here so that I always remember...

I'm obviously pregnant. The boys still love to hug and kiss the baby, and Reed has even taken to saying "Mama, that's a big baby you have there!" But what they find especially hilarious is exactly *how big* my belly is when on the very rare occasion they see my belly bare. Holy eyes-as-big-as-saucers Batman!

In a conversation a few weeks ago, the boys learned that the baby is all naked in there. They found this to be equal parts shocking and funny. They very kindly suggested I eat some pajamas so that the baby would be warm. :)

Today marks week 37 of this pregnancy.

Three weeks to go, give or take a day or two. Hopefully.

I have a hunch that this baby will come before the due date. I also think that this baby will be smaller than both of the boys.

Or maybe it's less of a hunch and more along the lines of wishful thinking. ;)

I am both reluctant and ready to have this baby. I would still declare this as my best pregnancy, and as I've previously disclosed that this will be my last, I'm not in a hurry to wish it to end. I'm wanting to still relish in it a bit, while at the same time, I've been doing a lot of moaning and groaning lately. The extra weight and size make for some uncomfortable moments, and I'm quite looking forward to wearing jeans that I can button. In just the last week I've really noticed how much I've grown, and the size of my belly does hinder my ability to do certain things.

I shared with my doctor this last week that I'm finding myself more anxiety-ridden over the delivery of this baby than I was even for Drew's birth. I'm not sure why that is. I've done this before - twice - and yet while I know what to expect, you really can't plan exactly how things will go. Mentally, I have some work to do to find a place of peace and rest before I go into active labor.

And while I have been over-the-moon excited for the arrival of this little one, I know that with that comes major changes for my little family. Four will become five, and life won't be like it has been for the last four and a half years. Anticipating this change, and the significant adjustments everyone will have to make, is a challenge.

But this change, the ways in which things will be different than they have been... they're good.

Really, really good.

To commemorate {if you will} this significant "last" in my life, I wanted to capture myself, and these last few weeks, in pictures. I really wanted to invest in a professional photographer to get the quality of photographs I was wanting. However, after thinking more about it and discussing it with Brad, we decided to save those professional costs until next fall for a full family photo shoot, when our family officially numbers five.

So I hired Brad. Last weekend, we spent a few hours outside, trying to capture me, the boys, and our family. We had some weather issues (it was cold and breezy) and some camera issues (neither of us are schooled enough in using the fancy thing) but Brad did a really great job, if I do say so myself. Here are a few of my favorites (my plan is to create a Shutterfly photobook to include all of the images).