I can get my own toys now, Mom!

Filed Under Nursery, Seven Months, Toys | 4 Comments

Bailey has discovered that she can crawl to her various toy boxes (which are those collapsible boxes from Target in faux leather and suede… we have them stashed in each room of the house, in the color to match that room- I love them)! Anyway she can tip them over and then spends FOREVER digging through them, looking at all her toys. We keep different toys and books in each room and try to rotate them sometimes, so she gets to see a variety of them instead of always the same thing. We also try to trade out what’s in her diaper bag and at Grandma’s house and stuff like that, but I notice that we always have “her favorites” in the diaper bag anyway.

Here are some pictures of Bailey after she got into the toy bin in her bedroom. She finally decided on this vibrating frog teether and then spent quite a while retrieving him and chewing on him. She is so much better at keeping herself busy these days.




Why do you keep taking my picture?

Bye Bye Bedding

Filed Under Nursery, Shopping | 6 Comments

So sad… last night after dinner (on our date night- and what do we do- look at stuff for Bailey) we went to Babies R Us to exchange her crib mobile because it’s been acting funny…. and so we go back to the kids bedding section and they are clearancing out her room decorating stuff!

Two reasons this upsets me:

1. I could have gotten her stuff for half the price or less if she was born three months later.

2. What if I need to replace her rug or something at some point? Do I just stock up on everything? Oh yeah and the rug is the ONLY thing that hasn’t been marked down and of course that’s the one thing that I would really like to have a spare of

But on a happy note, we used some of our store credit to buy a noise machine for her room- we don’t want her to get used to sleeping with it all the time but we thought it would be good for like when we have people over and she has to go to bed, or on trash day when it’s really noisy all morning, or whatever. I wrote about it some more in a comment if you want more info.

The Finished Product

Filed Under Nursery, Pregnancy | 2 Comments

Here is our nursery! Yes, it is finally finished. Now all we need is Bailey to go in it. Come out, please!

Nursery Progress

Filed Under Nursery | 4 Comments

Yay! We have finally gotten the comforter hung on the wall, the curtains are up, and the letters are up above her crib! I am feeling much better about the nursery. These pictures are only showing one side of the room, though, because the side with the changing table still needs some work. There isn’t anything on the wall over there yet, and we have stuff just piled on the changing table. Hopefully after my showers I can get all of that put away. Anyway, here’s what we have done so far:

Weekend Goals

Filed Under Home Sweet Home, Nursery | Leave a Comment

I need to do these things:

On Saturday we are going to T@rget to exchange these hooks I bought to hang towels on- that I later realized we don’t need- and to get the sticky things to hang BAILEY on the wall- which I forgot to get when I bought the letters. Scatterbrain!

While at T@rget I think we are going to check on our baby registry and maybe update it, since our two showers are coming up in the next three weeks!!! WOW!

Then we need to actually hang the letters on her wall (above the crib) and also hang the curtains- which we have been saying we will do for at least a week now- and try to hang the comforter on the wall but we’ll see how that goes.

I think that’s all we can do in the nursery at this point until we have more of her STUFF, and I don’t want to wash all the clothes yet, so we’ll be at a standstill after that.

I also want to reorganize our nightstand drawers.

Need to take some pictures of- and list- about a million computer parts to be sold on Craigslist.

Maybe sweep out the garage, but that’s negotiable or it might be assigned to Jonathon. Although he doesn’t care about the garage… he thinks it’s supposed to be messy because “it’s a place to work,” according to him. But it drives me crazy!

** Please check on me sometime this weekend and ask how far I’ve gotten with these things that need to be done! Right now I’m tired, but hopefully tomorrow I will feel more motivated!

Just One More Day

Filed Under Nanny Job, Nursery, Sleep | 1 Comment

Until I go back to work

I was actually supposed to go back today (Alison’s parents have been in Cancun so her grandparents are in town) but the mom called me last night to tell me Grandma and Grandpa were staying another day.

Good thing I didn’t have to work today, because once again, I couldn’t sleep. I fell asleep sometime after 3. This has become a regular thing with me. And I don’t sleep late during the day or nap, either- it’s not like I am screwing up my sleep schedule. My body just won’t go to sleep. I think part of the problem is that my mind won’t quit working.

Today I took my grandma out to lunch at Culver’s (well, actually she took me out, but I drove us there) and then we went to Target. I started frantically stocking up on things like baby wipes, lotion, breast milk storage bags, and all sorts of cleaning supplies for my crazy nesting cleaning frenzy that still happens from time to time. I have started getting more concerned about having things ready.

After my baby showers, I want to finish washing (at least some) of the clothes and get them hung in the closet. I need to hang the pictures and butterflies and letters for her name on the wall. Well, I need to buy some of that stuff still before I can do that. And I ironed the curtains this week so Jonathon and I are going to hang them one of these evenings.

Tomorrow I have my 32-week OB appointment! Time is flying by!

Happy Day Off Work!

Filed Under Friends, Holidays, Nursery | 2 Comments

Ahhhh, Martin Luther King day. A holiday that is never actually celebrated, yet those of us who work for schools or government get to enjoy a day off. Can’t say that we have any MLK traditions around my house, but I enjoyed sleeping late today:)

I got a pedicure today with my pregnant friend. She picked out a really cute toe color so I ended up copying her. Not going to post a picture of the piggies though- I really don’t like feet much to begin with so I’m not up for sharing mine with the world.

The other day my mom surprised me and bought me the mobile for Bailey’s bed. It was one of those things that we couldn’t decide whether to register for or not- do we really need it etc etc… but now that we have it I am so glad we do! It is absolutely adorable.

I stood in her room and listened to the music play and watched it turn around for quite a while. It makes her bed look even better. And the best part is that the butterflies have the cutest little smiley faces. I can’t wait for her to see them, and I hope she likes them as much as I do!

Baby’s Crib and Painted Walls

Filed Under Friends, Nursery | 4 Comments

We have finally finished painting the nursery…. well, with the exception of the baseboards on one half of the room, which need another coat of white. It was a long, annoying job, but I think we are happy with the results.

At first, we worried that the paint was too dark (it was much darker than we expected, but I think that’s what happens when the sample is about one inch by three inches, and then you put the paint all over a room). But once we moved the furniture back into the room it was better. Then when we put the bedding in the crib, it was even better. The color matches really well with the bedding, so I’m pleased with that.

That’s really the only thing we have done so far- the crib is ready. Everything is washed and ironed- it was all wadded up in the bag when we got it and really required a lot of work to get it decent looking- and we have the curtains but I still need to iron and hang them. Right now we have the comforter over the side of the crib, but I think we are going to move it and hang it on a wall as a decoration, since she can’t really use it anyway.

So here are the bed pictures- and you can see the wall behind it And she already has her little bear in her bed and waiting for her!
Now today I have a baby shower to go to for my friend Sarah- which I’m excited about, showers are usually fun- and then we have a wedding this afternoon at 5. The wedding, I’m kind of iffy about. It’s one of Jonathon’s friends from college. I’m pretty sure he RSVP’d for our wedding and didn’t bother to show up, and he lives in Greenville so I’ve only met him once or twice. But I can’t really hold that against his wife, I guess… I was tempted to get them a crappy gift but then I felt guilty so I did something kind of in-between. The good thing is that Jonathon’s aunt and uncle and maybe one of his cousins will be there (who is our age and lives in Chicago) and of course some random friends from college… so at least there will be people to talk to.

My big concern is that my feet will hurt after being stuffed into my dress shoes. I haven’t worn them in a long time since I don’t have to dress up for work- and I know my feet are more swollen/bigger than before

Happy New Year

Filed Under Holidays, Names, Nursery, Thoughts | 1 Comment

I can’t believe it. This is the year we are going to have a baby. We are going to become a family instead of a couple. There will no longer be just two of us (plus the cat) in our house. Nothing will be the same again.

Sometimes this really freaks me out, but right now I am just excited. We have gotten enough work done on the nursery that I am no longer worried about that- but also not ready to post pictures! We finally got the painting finished. It was a horrible project, but it’s done. The “really pale lavender” of course turned out much darker once we had it all over the room, but the good news is that it matches the bedding really well. Instead of being a lot lighter than the bedding, it is almost the same color or maybe just a touch lighter. But I think it will be nice.

I have thought a lot about our ages for some reason. I am 26 and Jonathon just turned 31. I think those are okay ages to have a baby. I always imagined that I would get married at 24 and have my first baby at 26– don’t know why but just one of those funny things.

We have also chosen a name for the baby- both first and middle name are final now. We announced it to our families this past week. I wanted to hurry and decide on the middle name (we’ve had a first name for a while) so that we could tell my parents on Christmas. I am going to wait to post it on my blog until we make sure that we have told other people that “should hear it in person” first. It’s really nice to be able to use her name now instead of just calling her “the baby” all the time. And it makes it seem more real.

Yeah, this sucks

Filed Under Nursery | 1 Comment

Continuing to fight with the wallpaper. Just taking a break now to give my back a rest. It is so much worse than we thought it would be. Went back to Lowe’s and bought some different sandpaper for the poor mangled wall. Got some primer to try to cover up all the patchwork from the people before us.

The wallpaper peels off in little shreds about 1/4 of an inch, after being picked at with my fingernail. Tried water and fabric softener, that didn’t work. Just got back from borrowing a wallpaper steamer from my friend Sarah so now we are trying that. It seems to be working better, but I could kill whoever hung this stuff. It still takes a lot of being picked at, even after the steam.

This is not a one-day project.

Painting the Nursery

Filed Under Nursery | 2 Comments

I am determined that we are going to get this nursery painted while we are both off work for Christmas. And get the curtains hung.

The problem is, the people who lived here before us had horrible taste. When we bought the house, one of the things we asked for in our offer was that they replace the PINK carpet in that bedroom with new neutral carpet to match the rest of the house, which they had just recarpeted. WTF- did they think they could just skip that room and nobody would notice? Oh yeah, and the blinds were also pink. The wallpaper? Some ugly dalmation stuff around the top, then pastel stripes and stars on the rest of the walls. They did not hang it right either- it is going to be a pain to finish taking down.

This is what we have to work with:

You can clearly see that the dalmations and balloons don’t match the stars and stripes AT ALL. And that it is peeling off in layers. Fun for us.

But today we went to Lowe’s and bought our lavender paint, and considering that we have become painting professionals since buying this house, it shouldn’t be too bad. Jonathon does the roller and I do all the edges with a brush. Over the past year, we have painted our whole upstairs with the exception of one bathroom and this baby’s room. This week we already finished painting the downstairs and redoing all the baseboards down there. And wow, does my back hurt after that! But I love the satisfaction of painting over someone else’s dirt and knowing that no one has touched these walls except us.

Baby’s First Christmas– kind of…

Filed Under Baby Gear, Family, Holidays, Nursery, Pregnancy | 1 Comment

We got our bedding for Christmas- from my parents- the ONE thing that I asked for! For some reason, Babies R Us sells the bedding all in one package for a million dollars instead of selling each item separately. So I knew this would be one of our big items we needed for the baby. I didn’t want to wait to get it at a shower or something because I wanted to start on the nursery sooner. Because I like to have everything now now now!

Here is the stuff we are decorating with- it’s the Paloma pattern from Babies:

It actually looks a little washed out here because I couldn’t use a flash- but the lavender and pink are not as faded looking as they are in this picture. We got a matching blanket to put over the rocking chair, too.
And Jonathon made his first baby-related purchase: This cute bib for me- well I guess it’s really for the baby, huh… but I was excited about it- he put it in my stocking

The in-laws surprised us by sending a gift card to my parents house for us to open on Christmas. Do I feel guilty for complaining that they didn’t get us anything? Maybe a little. But it was still weird how they did it a month after we did “Christmas” with them. Anyway there is more than enough on the gift card for our high chair, which is what they had mentioned us doing with it. I know we don’t need that right away, but I like the pattern that is out right now and don’t want them to replace it with a different, tacky pattern in the meantime. This one will match our kitchen really well.

24 Weeks- and More Baby Stuff!

Filed Under Baby Gear, Nursery, Pregnancy, Week by Week | 1 Comment

According to www.babycenter.com,

How your baby’s growing: Your baby’s growing steadily, gaining about a quarter of a pound since last week, when she was just over a pound. Since she’s almost a foot long, that makes a pretty lean figure, but her body is filling out proportionally and she’ll soon put on more baby fat. Your baby’s skin is thin, translucent, and wrinkled, her brain is growing rapidly, and her taste buds are developing. Her lungs are developing “branches” of the respiratory “tree” and cells that produce surfactant, a substance that helps the air sacs inflate easily.

I just love all the baby stuff. We got a new baby outfit for Christmas from one of Jonathon’s coworkers- and I swear I am not going to post pictures of every single outfit we get, but this one was really cute. The writing on the pants actually says “I love Mommy I love Daddy I love you” all over. And it’s so soft! It’s actually 9 months, so she’ll have to grow into it but it should be perfect for next fall/winter. Also, I mentioned that we got the rocking chair put together, so I thought I’d take a picture of that, too. Don’t mind the messy wall behind it or the junk piled in the closet- we still have a lot of work to do on the nursery before it’s ready!

All Kinds of Cool Stuff

Filed Under Friends, Nursery | 2 Comments

Yesterday, I went to get a pregnancy massage at The Face and the Body. It was great. And hour of complete relaxation. The exciting part was that I got to be on my stomach (kind of) on the massage table. It had a lot of padding around the sides so that my belly was just underneath me but there was no weight on it. She asked me about any areas that were bothering me, and worked on my back most of the time.

The good news is that in the area where I am having a lot of back pain, she said nothing was “wrong.” My muscles weren’t tight and nothing was out of place. So there’s nothing permanently screwed up with me. The bad news is that she said it’s probably just the position the baby is in that’s irritating it, so there’s really not much I can do about it. Like I can’t just go get adjusted at a chiropractor and have it go away.

Another cool thing yesterday was that I went to dinner with my friend Faith and we exchanged Christmas presents. She got me something off my baby registry that I was really excited about. When we registered for it, we thought it was cool but had never seen anyone actually use one. It’s to keep the baby swaddled- because they always seem to come undone or kick their way out of it!It is super soft and has velcro to hold it closed. The bottom section can just fold down on it’s own so that you can change a diaper without taking the whole thing off. It also has a little slot in the back so that you can buckle a carseat through it or fasted the belt on the swing while they are wearing it. The size we got is Small, so it’s for 7-14 pounds I think… if the baby still likes being swaddled after that size, we can always invest in the next size up. We’ll see how it goes.

Then today, our glider was delivered. It really does look exactly the same as it did online. Seems comfortable enough. I would have preferred that the chair was a little bit deeper, but with my feet on the ottoman it’s just fine. And it looks great next to our furniture- we couldn’t have found a better match!