Basically Ready

It has been a long time since my last post.  There have been bridal/baby showers to plan & attend, baby gifts to sort through and set up, thank you notes to write, and finally, a wedding to attend.  Nonstop contractions over the last four weeks have forced me to slow down on pretty much everything I was doing.  Mostly, I went to work (taking a few days off here and there when things were really bad) and did the minimum amount of laundry and grocery shopping in order to be able to go to work.  Then at home I'd just lay around and try to sleep.  I found a new show I like (Property Brothers on TLC) and could give you a full briefing on every current news story, but mostly, I found out that I hate not being able to take care of myself and my life like I normally would.  My brother-in-law's wedding was last night and I will be 37 weeks tomorrow, which means the baby will be officially full-term.  In other words, I can now stop worrying about going into labor before we're ready!  And believe me, I am sooooooooo ready!

Thank goodness I (basically) finished up the nursery the DAY BEFORE all the contractions started.  Here is how it turned out!  Note: Most of this nursery was put together through generous gifts and I haven't done much shopping for our child.  We're very lucky to put something this nice together on such a low budget!

This stenciling took weeks, and honestly, didn't quite turn out how I wanted it to.  But I used cheap stencils ($5 at Michaels) and kept re-using them (which is why the letters got thicker as I went on), a silver thin Sharpe paint pen ($3), and left-over paint from the mural, so at least it was a cheap project!

I got this glider & ottoman as a joint gift from my extended family in Wisconsin, the quilt and pillow was made by my mother-in-law and the banner decoration was made by my newest sister-in-law.  I really didn't have much to do with this side of the room, aside from registering for the glider, but I love the way it turned out!

I have posted photos of the mural wall that my cousin did before, but now I have the dresser in there!  The dresser is actually more than 30 years old.  My mom bought it used before I was born and painted it then to make it look nice.  She gave it another fresh coat of paint and now it is ready to be used again.  Last week I added the diaper changing pad and supplies to the top of it, but I haven't bothered taking another photo yet. You can't tell from the photo, but the drawers are actually filled with clothes, towels, swaddles and other gifts the baby has received from many friends and family members.

  

My parents bought a couch from Ikea earlier this year and received a $75 Ikea gift card as part of the purchase.  Since they didn't need it for anything else, we used it to buy the shelves & white basket "drawers" for it.  It is now filled up with lots of books and other baby gifts/toys that I received at my baby shower.

The crib was a gift from my parents and the mattress is from my Grandmother.  The quilt was a gift my parents received when I was born from my aunt Frances.  Sadly, she has since passed away.  The squares used to be orange, but my mom updated them to be aqua to match the color scheme of the nursery while preserving the original nursery rhyme squares that my aunt had made.  The blanket hanging on the crib was made by a friend of my mother-in-laws.  I loved a similar blanket that had been made for my sister-in-law's baby so she had one made for me.  I have since received bedding as a gift from my sister-in-law, but have not had the chance to wash it yet and put it in the crib.  Since he'll sleep in the pack'n'play in our room at first, I'm not too worried about not having the bedding in yet, but it is on my list now that I'm not too scared about over-doing it anymore!

And finally...

my diaper stash!  I did a lot of couponing in the second trimester when I had lots of energy, and then received some more as shower gifts.  I think this baby is set on diapers for quite some time now!!

So, kid, take note of this...we're ready for you!!