Nursery Decor/Struggles/Fun

Poor Nate. He got his "office" taken away from him in preparation for it to be transformed into the nursery. Watching him move his desk down to the basement was a little sad. Ok, I'm completely fibbing. It was entertaining - not to him, he truly was sad but I couldn't help but giggle at his "woe is me" show. The room was being used mostly for storage, not some amazing in-home office. Also, his desk was being moved to the basement which is his man cave anyway. Its new location is literally right next to the big Sparty fathead, what more could he ask for?

I've never been all that great at coming up with a vision for room decor and being able to fully pull it together, but I'm sure trying with this little girl's room. I wanted it to be soft, crystals and pearls, peachy pink and white with maybe some gray. Sounds like a mess huh? Yeah, I think so too but somehow I'm still going for it. Got the paint up - we did one wall where the crib is and a thick stripe across the room to bring the color through the room without overwhelming it. Definitely don't want that look of pink just threw up all over this room!

This past weekend we (mostly Nate) spent putting the crib and glider together. Not a fun task for him but it was so exciting to see it start to come together! Biggest challenge is this room is absolutely tiny, which would be ok except that we have a huge cabinet/hutch that is massive. It's a great piece of furniture, provides awesome storage and is the perfect height to be the changing table. But it is a giant and probably weighs 1,000 pounds. We don't have anywhere else to put it so it's either make it work or get rid of it. We decided to try and make it work and came up with this arrangement:

It's the best for not overpowering the room or becoming the focal point of the room which as a mismatched piece I really didn't want. It's a bummer that it goes past the window a bit though. Probably won't end up being that big of a deal later but right now it's throwing my slight OCD for quite the loop. I just want to cut the thing down by a few inches and would feel so much better. But it literally can't fit better any other way - and yes, I made Nate try lots of different spots. It's a wonder he didn't throw out his back with all this fun activity :)

Here's the crib:

And her new fancy lamp came in:

I'll try and retake more visible photos next time once the room is done :) But with just a few things left to get for the room and some decor projects, it's pretty much all set. So strange and exciting to think we have a little nursery in our house now!!

Third and Final!

Officially kicked off the third trimester and feeling great! Well, not great as is there's not a human growing in me because that causes challenges, but great all things considered.

My energy is slowly slipping away again and it feels like a different kind of tired than in the first trimester. Instead of sleepy I feel more worn out. Just sitting, laying or holding still for a minute feels awesome. I feel like I'm getting worn out faster with each day. That won't end well but I've been able to chug along so far. I'm definitely having to introduce more rest moments, walking breaks, and stretching at work to make it through the day.

One other complication at work - this little girl does not appreciate her space being infringed on. So if I'm sitting straight up or leaning slightly forward for too long, as I do when working at my desk, she revolts. Not too long ago we used to refer to her as a gymnast, now, straight up ninja. What used to be sweet little bumps and flips are now jabs with a purpose and scrapping limbs or her butt across my belly. And of course a majority of her jabs are directly on or around my belly button - my biggest pregnancy fear! No I haven't gotten more used to it and no it's not yet reversed my pain. Maybe there's still hope. But it has remained an innie ... so far!

This week it's almost as if she's flipped her days and nights all of a sudden too. She's pretty active throughout the day (won't let me sit still at work for more than 45 minutes at a time) and at night only interrupts my sleep once between 3am-5am instead of 2-3 other times earlier in the night. Makes work more complicated but I'm loving the longer periods of sleep at night! Here's hoping she keeps it up after she arrives (no need to snort "wishful thinking", I get it's a long shot).

So I've had to tilt back while working during her refusal to let me focus in a position that works for me but usually standing and rocking for a minute or going for a quick walk chills her back out. And yes that means some conference calls, meetings and even typing have been done standing up to calm the beast within! She still gets really active and shows off her ninja moves when I stress a little or get worked up. A tense meeting at work results in me having to hide the fact that I'm getting jabbed. Not sure if she's telling me to chill out or sticking up for me and telling the situation I'm dealing with to leave her mom alone :)

Our last checkup she decided to hide a little and they couldn't find the heart beat for a minute or two. I still hold my breath every time I go in until I hear it, so that didn't help any nerves that won't seem to go away. We heard a faint sound near my belly button and determined she had set up shop directly underneath it. This doctor was the doctor that nearly got kicked in the face the last time he touched my belly button so he was steering clear. Instead, he started pushing at her to get her to move. Nothing. No movements, no heart beat. So he pushed a little more and then all of a sudden boom! She kicked where his hand was and he nearly dropped the wand as he was not expecting such a jab. He giggled in shock and I couldn't help but feel my first "I'm sorry my kid just did that to you" moment. Her heart was heard loud and clear after that!

After our checkup came the hospital tour - informative and helpful while also being completely terrifying. Overall it made me feel more comfortable just seeing everything and becoming a little more familiar with it - what our room will look like, where Nate gets to sleep, thank goodness there's a bench in the shower, wow those pillows really do look like they suck, and all the suggested items to bring (i.e. pillows!). I also learned what are red flags to security. Trust me, I'm the one who would go walking down the hall with my new baby in my arms not knowing that would get me detained by security. Baby must always be in the cart, got it.

But seeing the machines, all the rooms, and where we would go for all the "what-ifs" just made it more clear how crazy and scary of an experience this is about to be. I'm amazed I didn't pass out. You see, there was this one time when my dear friend Aly had her baby. I went to visit her. I saw her. I saw the baby. I realized holy crap that baby just came out of her. I passed out. I'd like to think I did ok on this tour because I'm older and "wiser" now and will be able to handle this like a champ. A phrase I will keep repeating to myself over and over until we're there. No turning back now!