Working with minky

Awhile back I found this awesome fabric and knew I wanted it for the baby's bedding:

The tree fabric is by Joel Dewberry and is in a collection called Majestic Meadow/Modern Oak--something like that. I found it on Etsy and am having someone make a crib skirt in the green tree pattern and a crib sheet in a brown tree pattern (not pictured). I was also going to have a minky blanket made to match, but that was going to cost me $80. Originally I was nervous about working with minky (the brown fabric in the pic--it's really soft and also stretchy and slippery). I haven't sewn with that sort of fabric before and figured it'd be better to buy a blanket.

After reading a few tutorials online, I had a change of heart and decided that I could make the blanket--at least give it a shot. I bought a yard of brown minky dot for less than $10, and I also purchased the green and brown tree fabrics for this blanket and other projects. I got them all online, and the cost of my minky blanket ended up being under $15 as I have fabric left in all three patterns. That's a huge discount from the $80 I would've paid! (I did order the skirt and fitted sheet--maybe one day I'll figure those out, but not during this pregnancy!)

These are the two tutorials I read before starting, but I'll also give my own instructions:

First tutorial

Second tutorial

I decided to make a 36x36 blanket as one of the blogs did. Both said to cut the minky slightly larger, but one said she cuts a little extra of all fabrics just to be safe. I did, and that ended up being a terrible idea. I'm not perfect with my measurements, but I do use a rotary cutter and board, so I'm pretty close. I should've trusted myself and cut the tree fabric to 36 inches and the minky to 37 or so. 

After cutting the fabric, you put the pieces wrong sides together:

Then let the pinning begin! (Oh, I did iron the tree fabric, too, for better cutting and such.) I followed the second tutorial and pinned the heck out of these fabrics. Because I didn't trust myself with cutting it was more difficult to keep the tree fabric centered within a border of minky, and I ended up taking quite awhile to pin.

I took one side at a time, pinned the ends and the center, then between those points. I then went back and  put a pin in the center of each gap.

The next part that was difficult was keeping a consistent seam allowance. I'm not great at this to begin with, but the extra minky made it difficult for me to tell where the edge of the tree pattern was, which was how I was supposed to be measuring. I did the best I could, and since you turn it inside out, it's okay if it's not perfect (this is also my motto for all handmade projects...I'll change my mind if I ever make clothes!).

I also took each pin out as I went because I've broken several needles by sewing on top of pins. I've had people tell me this shouldn't happen, so maybe I'm weird. I can sew over pins when using stiffer material and a regular foot, but anytime I've had thick fabric and tried to sew over pins it ends badly.

As you sew around the four sides, be sure to leave a gap from where you start and end so you can turn the blanket inside out. You can sort of see where the brown thread is on the far right and left of this picture.

After sewing (don't forget to backstitch!) turn the blanket inside out and push out the corners. It can help to trim the corners and some of the excess minky first, just don't cut too close to your seam.

The second tutorial link shows how to turn in the fabric at your gap and iron that down.

Then you pin that part together before you add the topstitch.

Then you just sew all around the blanket one last time to finish it. I decided I wanted to do like the first tutorial and do a decorative stitch. I probably should have done otherwise, but this is for my baby who won't even know what a topstitch is, so who cares that it didn't turn out consistently. I chose a wavy stitch that ended up being closer together in some places than others. It depended on how quickly the fabric went through the needle, and since the minky is so darn slippery, the speed changed constantly. I'll say here that I did use a walking foot for this because I have one. The speed was still inconsistent for me.

Even though my topstitch isn't consistent, I think it's cute and very childlike!

You can also see where I started getting too close and had to stop and pull back to my desired seam allowance. Again, I'm blaming the slipperiness!

Regardless of the mistakes, I'm super happy with my blanket that took me about an hour to make and around $15. I'll definitely try another one, and I'm sure I'll get better with more practice.

I also recently purchased a staple gun, so I covered a canvas with some awesome elephant fabric to hang on the wall. Two projects done, way too many left to do!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

It’s official! We will no longer be giving birth at Baystate. At 32 weeks I decided I would look into changing hospital delivery locations and therefore changing practitioners.

No I’m not crazy—well, that’s debatable, I suppose, and would be affirmed if you asked my husband. As I am 35 weeks at the time of writing this post, let me back up.

Our doula Lisa was at the house for a childbirth ed class at the start of my 32nd week of pregnancy. I mentioned that I had signed up for a breastfeeding class at Cooley Dickinson, not the hospital where we were giving birth. A friend took hers there, and it turned out to be cheaper than the one at Baystate, so I signed up. In doing so, I had the opportunity to read about giving birth at CD and about the midwifery center there.

I immediately felt at ease with everything I was reading—the support for the kind of birth I hope for seemed to be oozing out of every page. The hospital even has every woman, regardless of the type of birth desired,  fill out a birth plan! (This can take on very different forms, but basically it’s something you write to inform your practitioners of your wishes at birth—from no episiotomy or epidural to I want my baby immediately after delivery to I want to stay in my own clothes as long as possible.)

So as I was telling Lisa that I would be going to a class at CD, I said something about how if we were to get pregnant again while living in Western Mass, I would give birth at CD and use their midwifery center for my prenatal care. She said something to the effect of, “So switch.”

It never occurred to me that I could do that. She shows a video in her hospital education classes where a woman changed providers at 37 weeks, so me being 32 was definitely in the realm of possibility.

Andrew and I did some talking, thinking and praying following that conversation. I contacted the one person I knew who gave birth at that hospital, Lisa had attended a birth there and told me her thoughts, I spoke with the midwifery center and one of their midwives and we took a tour of the birthing floor of the hospital. Everything just felt right.

Now I wasn’t upset with my current midwifery clinic at all. But there were a few times where I felt like they weren’t as excited or supportive as I had hoped. For instance, I told my one of my previous midwives that I had hired a doula. She responded: “That’s good. One to two percent of our patients hire doulas.” I said that to one of my new midwives, and she said, “Oh we love to work with doulas!” Big difference.

Baystate is also a teaching hospital, and it’s the only hospital in our area with a NICU. They see all the high-risk patients, and it’s just bigger and somewhat more chaotic by nature. CD was really quiet, low-key and the vibe just seemed different.

Not only did my conversations put me at ease, but I also was able to compare the birth statistics for Baystate, CD and the midwifery center that delivers at CD. Those helped push me toward switching.

I started seeing the new midwives at 33 weeks, and I’m so glad I changed. The atmosphere is very different—more laidback—and I really feel like I’ll have the support I need to try for my birth goals.

To illustrate some of the atmosphere, think of every doctor’s office you’ve ever been in: that was true of my former provider. Now, picture a Victorian house. That’s the new office. After sitting with the receptionist (yep, sitting at her desk with her), she sent me to the bathroom “for my specimen.” Her instructions? “There are Dixie cups in the bathroom, and just leave it when you’re done.” No sterile glove handing me a plastic cup with my initials on it—I peed in a cup you could buy at Walmart that I picked out of a basket.

The exam room was also really large. And it had toys! Think about it—lots of pregnant women have other children and often need to bring them to their appointments. This office had play areas in the waiting room and in the exam room to occupy said children.

Finally, at my 35-week appointment, I was just chatting with the midwife (I’m seeing each one in the practice at least once to get to know them all), and she said, “You can do this. Your body knows what it’s doing.” Very simple statement, but it was nice to hear her encouragement.

Coming Wednesday: I get off my labor and delivery soapbox and post about the first crafty projects I’ve done for my baby! (I’m sure y’all can’t wait, thanks for putting up with excess words and no pictures!)

Oh the decisions!

Some of you hear me talk about our birth plans pretty often, while others of you have no idea what we hope for other than we do indeed plan to have this baby come out of me! Even if you know some of our hopes, they may not make a lot of sense. I throw around words like “midwife,” “doula,” interventions and speak of private childbirth education classes, but what do those things mean and why did we choose them?

I had the opportunity to explain some of this to my brother recently and decided I would do the same for my adoring readers, i.e. the handful of you that are really just waiting for pics of the baby or for Andrew and I to throw in the towel on our never-ending renovation.

To begin, two definitions that will become important if you choose to read further:

midwife: it means “with woman.” There are different designations depending on education and licensing, but I see a group of certified nurse midwives, meaning each has “graduated from one of the advanced education programs accredited by the American College of Nurse Midwifery (ACNM).  In addition, nurse midwives must pass a rigorous national certification exam and meet the strict requirements of the state health agencies (from my care provider’s website).”

So yes, they know what they’re doing, which is  a question I get a lot. There are midwives that work with OB/GYNs in offices and hospitals, those who work in birthing centers and some who attend home births. In Mass, the latter are not under consistent regulation, but hopefully will be in the near future. In Alabama, it’s actually illegal to be a home birth midwife, so many do it under the radar.

I could say more, but in any case, I see CNMs who are very skilled in “catching babies,” and they also perform routine gynecological care.

doula: (from dona.org) “The word "doula" comes from the ancient Greek meaning "a woman who serves" and is now used to refer to a trained and experienced professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after birth; or who provides emotional and practical support during the postpartum period.

Studies have shown that when doulas attend birth, labors are shorter with fewer complications, babies are healthier and they breastfeed more easily.”

Another way to think of a doula is a labor support coach. And they don’t catch babies.

So why did I choose a midwife? Mainly because I could. There are several options in my area for having a midwife so I wanted to give it a shot. Also, the nurse who confirmed my pregnancy asked, “What kind of birth do you want?” I said, “natural.” She recommended I definitely choose the midwives in the office, so I did.

The big difference I find in seeing a midwife versus an OB/GYN is that midwives don’t do surgery. OBs are trained surgeons. Many women who are looking to deliver with less medical interventions (these include but are not limited to episiotomy, epidurals/other anesthesia, continuous electronic fetal monitoring, induction) feel they have a better shot of achieving that with a midwife. That’s not saying midwives don’t use interventions—they do. (If a woman wants an epidural, she can certainly still deliver with a midwife.) It’s just that many midwives seem to be more patient and allow a woman’s body to do what it was created to do. The majority will give more time and try more alternative techniques. Some deliveries still end in C-sections. Some don’t. If a woman wants natural childbirth, with a midwife she may be allowed to labor for many, many hours before any interventions are suggested.

I’ve also just done a lot of research on labor and delivery in the last year or more and midwifery is the common practice in not only underdeveloped nations but in developed nations outside of the U.S. In many developed countries, women only deliver with OBs when there is an emergency.

And not to completely open a can of worms here, but through that research I really began to realize I wanted to deliver with the least medical interventions possible. I’ve always wanted natural childbirth, too. In the U.S. the national C-section rate is about 32-33%. The World Health Organization recommends it should be 15% or lower. Through my research (and even looking at birth statistics for various offices/hospitals in my area) I found that cesarean rates are lower with midwives. It all goes back to allowing a woman’s body to take the time it needs to deliver rather than trying to speed things up. Once one intervention is used, a lot of times things spiral from there and more follow. There are appropriate uses of all of the interventions—research just shows that many are used inappropriately in our country. (As my friends here know, I could probably talk about this for hours, so I’ll stop now. I can definitely recommend books and other resources to back all this up, though.)

So why did I choose a doula? To help me work toward having the labor and delivery I desire. A friend of mine in Alabama used one a couple of years ago and found it really helpful when approaching natural childbirth. I know very well that something could wrong with my delivery and it could end in the use of medication or even a cesarean. However, I’m preparing to do it differently. We hired an awesome doula named Lisa Beauchemin who also happens to be a childbirth educator, so she really knows her stuff.

Through our childbirth ed classes and prenatal doula appointments, Andrew and I really feel prepared for what will hopefully be a natural delivery. We’ve not only learned techniques to deal with pain and such, but doulas also help you advocate for yourself once in the hospital. In the heat of the moment, so to speak, you can’t be expected to remember everything, so a doula can remind you of questions to ask your practitioner and things like that. They also attend lots of births so they recognize when certain things may be happening that parents don’t because they aren’t in delivery rooms multiple times a year.

We actually have co-doulas due to some possible scheduling conflicts, but if everything goes well, we’ll have two doulas with us for the birth. Soon I’ll post more about things we’ve learned from our doulas in relation to helping get our baby in the right position for labor…stubborn Baby Floyd needed some help. More on that later.

One other thing we’ve found to be not necessarily essential to working towards our ideal labor and delivery but super helpful is taking our childbirth education classes privately, in our own home. I mentioned that Lisa is also a childbirth educator—she teaches at a local hospital, but she also does private classes. We have loved this option.

I originally looked for it because my Alabama friend who used a doula recommended I take classes outside the hospital since I wanted a natural delivery. I feel like I know so much more from having done private classes. We spend more time on the things Andrew and I need and want to know about while still covering all of the material related to birth. We don’t have to wait while others have their questions answered, and if something doesn’t make sense or we want to know more, it’s just us so there’s plenty of time.

The added bonus: it didn’t cost us anymore to take classes privately than it would have to take them through the hospitals in our area. I would highly recommend it to anyone, regardless of the kind of labor you want.

Before I close out this enormous post, I will say that just because I want a natural birth with zero interventions doesn’t mean I think it’s the right way to go for everyone. I do think it’s important to educate yourself on these things regardless of what you want—you wouldn’t buy a house without an inspection or send your child to a new school district without checking it out, why deliver a baby without knowing all the possible things that could happen?

I do think our country has gone down the wrong road in several ways regarding childbirth, but I also know there are appropriate and needed uses for all of the things I don’t want in my delivery. In addition to mentally preparing for the birth I want, I’m mentally preparing for that to go wrong because no one can predict what will happen once labor starts. I don’t want anyone to break my water, but if all other options have been exhausted and it has to happen, it has to happen. The same for other interventions.

As Andrew continually reminds me: the goal is for mom and baby to come home. Period. 

Placenta: the other…red…meat?

WARNING: If you are squeamish, this might not be for you. If you are squeamish but intrigued, continue reading at your own risk. I can assure you there will be no pictures in this post, if that helps you make a decision!

A few months ago I stumbled upon a blog from this very put-together-looking woman. She wrote about being a stay-at-home mom and things like that. (If I had bookmarked the blog I’d share it with you, but I didn’t.) Anyway, attractive blonde with modern hairstyle who gave birth to adorable blonde daughter wearing equally adorable outfits (pretty sure they were Southern by the ruffles and bows) suddenly shocked me when searching her posts I found one about her wanting to eat her placenta!

If you don’t know what a placenta is, open a new tab and do a Google search. I can’t spell everything out!

I read these back when I was still semi-nauseated (i.e. second trimester; the first was super-nauseating), and I also happened to be eating lunch. I say that because I managed to research the subject pretty well without getting sick—go me!

Back to crazy placenta woman: she came home from the hospital with her husband, daughter and her placenta in a bag that promptly went into her freezer. She had been saving it to one day cook and eat it. Apparently, she found a friend who also wanted to do this with her, and they were going to dine on their endocrine organs together.

I never figured out what recipe she chose or if/when she finally went through with it. I was so intrigued (and yes, a bit grossed out) by the thought of this that I began Googling anything I could find on the subject. First I read a column from TIME by a man whose wife also took her placenta home from the hospital, but rather than eat it, she had it encapsulated—she took it in pills. You can read it here.

After discovering some people eat it and some people take it in pills, I had to know more. I’ll sum up my initial findings in list form:

1. Women do this as a way to help avoid postpartum depression, a mood disorder that affects some women following delivery. Many women experience the “baby blues” that can last for about two weeks, but postpartum depression continues and is more severe.

2. There are four ways I found people use placenta: they plant it under a tree, they make a print of it as art (it resembles a tree; the umbilical cord is the trunk), they (or someone trained in this) cook it and eat it or they hire someone to encapsulate it.

3. There is little to no medical evidence to show that this actually does anything at all for women in the postpartum period, only anecdotal evidence.

4. My initial reading also informed me women should consume only their own placenta…as if I would be so inclined to do this with another woman’s organ.

The curiosity continues…

I couldn’t help myself. I kept reading. I found someone in the valley (where I live is called the Pioneer Valley by the way) who specializes in this. Turns out, she holds informational sessions about placenta encapsulation, so of course I planned to go!

I took my supportive, non-pregnant friend Kristin with me, and to keep this from being super lengthy and super gross, I’ll once again sum up our findings in list form. Then I’ll give you my final thoughts on this crazy practice.

1. This whole seemingly crazy thing comes from Traditional Chinese Medicine, which is why it hasn’t really been studied in the West…yet. There are lots of alternative therapies that come from TCM, and many are growing in popularity in Western culture. In talking with my doula about placenta encapsulation, she said it wouldn’t surprise her to see studies on this practice in a few years as it continues to trickle into our society.

2. The benefits:

            - being an endocrine organ, the placenta regulates hormones and therefore contains hormones. During pregnancy, a woman’s hormones majorly increase (something like four times the normal amount), then plummet after delivery. Taking placenta pills, if you will, replenishes the body with needed hormones, possibly staving off any postpartum mood disorders.

            - the placenta contains prolactin, a hormone that stimulates milk production.

            - it can replenish iron in the body, supposedly needed due to blood loss during pregnancy. (I disagree with this point, but I’ll tell you why later.)

            - it provides an energy boost. Kristin and I think this is supposedly due to the minerals and hormones said to be found in the placenta.

3. Risks: none that are really known unless your placenta is infected, which should be known by the doctor/midwife, and they wouldn’t release it to you if so. By the way, if you ever wanted to do this, you need to make it known to everyone around you at the hospital that you want your placenta. Otherwise it’s labeled medical waste and thrown out. Some locations give it more freely than others.

4. In this workshop, we were told that there shouldn’t be any problem with consuming someone else’s placenta, though why would anyone want to? Apparently you can also order sheep placenta pills from some supplement websites, and they may also carry several of the same benefits.

5. The pills last, so if you really wanted you could save them for PMS/menopause.

6. There is actually an organization that trains people in this. It’s called PBi—Placenta Benefits.info.

One other humorous thing I learned, and only someone like me would ask this, is that all placentas have a similar smell. She couldn’t describe it to me other than say it’s sort of metallic-y due to the blood. Oh, and from most accounts I’ve read and listened to, the whole process is really sterile and not messy. People who encapsulate placentas use all their own equipment and do it in the mother’s home. The organ is cleaned, steamed, put in a dehydrator for a day, sliced, ground and put in capsules.

I’ve also read that you can hire people to cook your placenta if you choose to eat it. And yes, I’ve read several recipes—people do eat liver ya know.

So what are my thoughts on all this?

First, I haven’t read anything “bad” about it (except this article…I’m sure there are more stories out there like it, I just didn’t search further) so I’m not opposed to doing it. However, the $250 price tag on the particular service in my area will definitely keep me from doing it this go round. That and Andrew would never let me spend that much money on it. If it were 50 bucks or so, I might give it a shot!

Second, I said earlier that I disagreed with it replenishing iron after blood lost during pregnancy and the first weeks of postpartum. From my wonderful childbirth education classes taught by our doula, I learned that your blood volume increases 50% during pregnancy. Once you give birth, you don’t lose ALL of that blood at one time—your body couldn’t handle it. That extra blood slowly cycles out of you. This means you’re never below your normal blood volume level and therefore shouldn’t need the extra iron. Besides, GNC sells supplements for that!

Sadly, I will not be consuming my placenta following this pregnancy. I can’t say I wouldn’t ever do it, but I also don’t feel like the positive evidence overwhelmingly supports doing it. It’s not FDA-regulated (but then again, some things are FDA-approved that I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole), it costs money that I’d rather spend on a day at the spa (how’s that for postpartum pampering!) and there are several other ways to deal with the possibility of postpartum mood disorders. For instance, eating well, getting rest at every possible opportunity and taking advantage of a good support network are all ideal options.

I included a couple of links throughout this post, but this is one for the service near me. She also makes tinctures (research on your own) and has pictures of the art. Kristin’s blog-partner-in-crime Laura also sent me this article recently. I don’t watch Mad Men, but the fact that January Jones is currently consuming her placenta in capsule form may have more American women doing it. At least it could spur some medical research on the subject!

Sprucing things up a bit

Other than the baby projects I’d like to get done, I’ve started two projects recently that will add to our kitchen and living room. They aren’t quite done yet, but I’ll share what I’ve done to this point.

The Wall O’ Travel

Andrew said something to me recently about hanging more of our travel pictures, specifically from our trip to Bolivia last May. He brings up moving there about once a week now, and he just wrote one of his grad school papers on the groundwater situation where we worked. Who knows if that’s where God will call us, but we’re both more than okay if Bolivia is a stop!

In order to display some of those pictures, I first had to think about where they could go in our home. We don’t have a ton of wall space, which is sad to me since I love love love hanging pictures and have a TON. In fact, we were going to hang several of the paintings we’ve collected from overseas trips in our guest room, but that got nixed when we found out we were pregnant.

We have two really large windows in our living room, and there happens to be a nice space between one of those and our kitchen. I decided that would be the travel wall space, but I wanted to do something fun to it besides just hanging framed pictures and art.

Then I remembered a shutter I bought at an estate sale last summer. It cost a $1, but it may have been thrown in for free with the other things I bought. I was picking up some cool bottles for my friend Amanda’s wedding when I stumbled upon the old shutter. I figured I’d find something to do with it one day!

My plan is to glue letters spelling “travel” on the shutter and hang it horizontally at the top of the wall space. Then we’ll hang our framed pics in a collage underneath it. I originally wanted small wooden letters, but I ended up having to go with what Michael’s had--they're slightly larger than I wanted and cursive lowercase. So far I have the “t,” “r” and “v.” I’ll check back once a week until I have them all, then stain them in a driftwood stain we have in the basement.

Windowpanes in the kitchen

In addition to shutters, I also really love windowpanes. I have a huge one I got in college that we’ve never found a space for in the house. Maybe one day. For now, I have the one my friends turned into a chalkboard/bulletin board in our office. When they found that one, it had a friend that they left for me in our mudroom. I’m turning it into a chalkboard for our kitchen so I can use it for menu plans and/or grocery items.

So far I’ve cleaned it up and painted two of the three panes. One of the panes has a crack in it, and rather than have Andrew fix it for me (he did that for my big one in college) I think I’ll try to tape it up and glue cork to that pane to hang notes.

My soapy water to clean the shutter and window

Stay tuned for the finished products!

Babymoon: Great idea, terrible name

I get weekly emails from babycenter.com that remind me how far along I am (which is actually quite helpful…I tend to forget), what size fruit/veggie my baby is comparable to and provide other articles related to pregnancy. Some of these articles are good and give me great information or drive me to do further research. Others are scary or dumb. Dumb would be the ten essential maternity clothing items I need or something like that. Nearly every example was from a high-end store that cost $70-$200. Liz Lange has a great line at Target that I highly recommend, and I didn’t pay more than $20 for any single piece of clothing. (Thrift stores are also encouraged.)

Many of these emails had links to articles about what is known is a “babymoon.” I Googled the term and found this information on Wikipedia to share with you:

Babymoon has several meanings. The original meaning is a period of time that parents spend bonding with a recently-born baby.

More recently the term has come to be used to describe a vacation taken by a couple that is expecting a baby in order to allow the couple to enjoy a final trip together before the many sleepless nights that usually accompany a newborn baby. Babymoons usually take place at a resort that offers appropriate services like prenatal massage.

Babymoon can also be used for a trip taken by a couple even before they get pregnant. As long as the trip is intended to be a final romantic fling before venturing into parenthood, the term babymoon applies.

Before my search I never knew the first definition. That doesn’t really matter as none of the famed baby sites use it that way. Even before reading these articles, Andrew and I decided we would go somewhere for a few days to have one final vacation sans baby. Not that we won’t take a trip ever again without children—we will, and if you play your cards right, you might be able to baby-sit for us!

Anyway, we sort of pushed the envelope and went when I was 30-31 weeks pregnant. Ideally, you take this trip in the second trimester: no more sickness, more energy and no huge belly. We didn’t have the money at that point or the time (plus I didn’t regain energy until really close to my third trimester, only to find it disappearing once again). And while I would’ve loved to go somewhere warm, the budget dictated we could take three nights away somewhere nearby.

We headed to Vermont for a long weekend, which worked out just fine. We stayed in Huntington at a place called Windekind Farms in a studio apartment above a barn. The place was great, the owners extremely helpful and we had time to rest. We did some hiking (not enough snow this winter to snowshoe…even in Vermont), lots of being lazy and Andrew skied at Sugarbush one day. We visited one of our fave towns—Burlington—where we ate at the Skinny Pancake (yummy crepes!) and hit up some other favorite places in the small towns of Warren and Waitsfield.

So while I think the term “babymoon” is a little dumb, I definitely support taking one if you have the time/money. We even took an extra day and just stayed home with no agenda. 

Andrew enjoys seeing what objects will fit on my belly shelf...sometimes I humor him :)

some of our studio apartment: the closet on the left made me feel like I was in 

Alice in Wonderland!

It's the baby's room...not a nursery

We do not have a nursery in our home. Not according to Andrew. We have a baby’s room. Apparently the term “nursery” upsets him. Or it at least doesn’t sit well. So I have to remember to call what used to be our guest room the baby’s room instead of referring to it as the nursery, even though he did use that word once. It was only the one time though, and I made sure to call him out on it!

People ask me all the time…well, not all the time. It’s not like being 34 weeks pregnant means everyone and their mom talks to me. I do live in the North where it can take some people two years to strike up a random passerby convo with another human—no offense to my close Northern friends, y’all are definitely exceptions! Anyway, people ask me occasionally if I’m ready for this baby to come out. And the answer is no. Nope, it can stay in there awhile! That’s because we still have a little ways to go before we have things ready for this child.

I posted earlier about my baby shower in Alabama. Because it was so far away, we set it up as a gift card shower, so I came home with lots of checks, cash and gift cards to different stores. Andrew and I have begun using our stash to slowly gather things we need for the room, but we’re waiting to do the majority of it in April after my shower in Massachusetts.

We have bought a few things, but our first day of shopping was not entirely what we expected. We found a glider and ottoman at Target, bought it and headed to Home Depot. Easy enough? Not quite, but that comes later. At Home Depot we were looking for an area rug for our living room. We wanted to put the current rug that is a 5’x7’ in the baby’s room (it doesn’t completely coordinate, eh, details), and get a new, larger rug for our living room. This way the baby has more comfortable floor space, and I just wanted a larger rug. Also—we decided we’d extend Sherpa’s boundary into the living room. We don’t want him feeling even more left out when the baby gets here, and this way there’s less hardwood floor for him to potentially scratch.

At HD we found the perfect rug—really a bound carpet scrap—that was less than $100. That’s fantastic considering most rugs in large sizes start around $400. We decided we’d come back for it on our way north. We then headed to IKEA to scope out some furniture.

Once there, we moved quickly. I’ll admit there are some great finds there, and it’s nice to study each space to dream of what could work for you; however, we’ve also had some nightmare experiences with their larger furniture (large piece + particle board = DO NOT BUY). When I go with friends we generally spend hours there, but with Andrew or alone, we're in and out as quickly as if it were Wal Mart. We hit up the dresser area to look for something that could work as a combo dresser/changing table. We found two options that unfortunately did not hold up to Andrew’s shimmy and shake test. We also found two options for storage but decided to just keep those in mind. After a quick walk through the marketplace for some glass jars, we were outta there in well under an hour! Oh, and we got cinnamon rolls. Those or ice cream are an IKEA requirement.

Here’s where the problems began:

a) I was slightly disappointed we didn’t buy the storage bookcase with baskets. It would have been great.

b) The awesome rug at HD had a grease stain. We then checked two other HDs and a Lowe’s. Nothing similar.

c) After Andrew put together the rocker (while I was napping), we realized it was the wrong one. The price should’ve been our first clue, but since we paid with gift cards we didn’t notice.

Needless to say I was definitely disappointed now and frustrated. However, we rallied and the following actions were taken to solve our problems:

a) I returned to IKEA about three weeks later and bought the bookcase and baskets. By then we determined it would fit just fine in the baby’s room and was a needed item.

b) I returned to the initial Home Depot where I rechecked the stain—it was pretty tiny—and found an associate to inquire about a discount. If this was a no go, we did have a second choice of rugs at the same store; however, he gave me 25% off! And I got the stain out, no problem.

c) I returned to Target with my disassembled rocker, returned it, purchased the correct one AND it happened to not be on sale but was marked down for some strange reason! Wahoo!

Then last week at the Trading Post (used/vintage furniture, often at great prices) I scored a dresser for only $45 that will be perfect for a changing table. I need to repaint it and do a little work on the drawers, but it's gonna be great!

Now we need a crib, some organization and motivation for me to finish the crafty touches on my ridiculously long list!

 

 Current pic: the changing area will be where the rocker is now. 

The floor is covered with gifts and borrowed items.

 The bookcase and baskets from IKEA!

The dresser/changing table. I plan to paint it a tan color.

(The items on top are living room/kitchen crafts I have going on.)

And just for fun, a picture of Andrew the night we inventoried all the cloth diaper stuff our friends the Olbrychs loaned us:

He's super excited about cloth diapering!!