I have been in all-out nesting mode for weeks now! I am a nester even when I'm not pregnant, so my nesting instinct goes a little off the chart toward the end of each pregnancy.
It started back in January when my BFF offered to come over and paint my nursery for me. She and I and another friend browsed pictures of little girl nurseries online, and they helped me come up with something that would go with the used bedding I'd bought (and stay within my very tight budget). The third weekend in January, she and her hubby came over and turned Ethan's old room pink! I did all the prep & painting during the day on Friday, so Marcus, Al & Quenta were able to start and finish the two-toned pink walls on Friday night. I painted the white border stripe over the next week.
The rest of the decorating I did bit by bit, as I had time, and I'm pleased that I spent right around $200 on the whole project. I bought a crib bedding set second-hand from Craig's List for only $50 (it's a Caden Lane set that still retails for $450), and then just picked up little things here and there that went with the bedding. Sheer white curtains were $30 at Target, a white lampshade (on a base I already had) was $5, a pink basket for diapers was $8, name letters were about $12 and the polka-dot baskets were $20. The most expensive part was the painting & supplies, but since a good friend lent me a lot of painting supplies, even that only totaled about $85. It is not my dream nursery for a little girl (that would have required all white furniture and a bedding set with accessories from Pottery Barn Kids), but, for the price, I am very happy with it.
I was very blessed to be given a baby shower by my church, even though this is my third baby and I thought my baby shower days were over. I got a lot of beautiful and useful things, and had a lot of fun washing everything and putting it all away. I have to admit I had a bit of a surreal moment when I opened the dryer and saw a full load of pink baby clothes. I think it hit me anew that this girl thing is going to be a whole new adventure. I enjoyed washing and putting away the few little baby bottles, pacifiers, and other things and carving out a little cabinet shelf for "baby stuff" again. Over the past few weeks, I've dragged the stroller, baby car seat, swing, and bouncy seat out of attic and cleaned each one thoroughly. The boys get excited about each new baby thing that appears.
I made myself wait until after the baby shower to buy any clothes for this baby. Since I have known that she is a girl for seventeen weeks, that has been a monumental exercise in self-control. I have browsed and fingered and wished, but all without spending a dime on clothes until this week. I'm glad I didn't buy anything before, because between my Mom's shopping spree back in November, hand-me-downs from two friends at church, and the baby shower, I really hardly need anything. The only two things left to buy were a little bathing suit for the summer and an Easter dress. I decided to choose between the two, and went with the bathing suit since she will wear that more. Besides, she will only be a week or two old on Easter and will likely not even make it out of her swaddling blanket at church :) So the first outfit I bought for my daughter was a SUPER cute little bathing suit with a matching hat from Gymboree.. I'm sure there will be pictures of her in it on the blog eventually :)
My nesting has definitely expanded outside the home into a frenzy of appointment-making. I just looked at the calendar and counted FIFTEEN appointments for Caleb, Ethan and me during the next five weeks before my due date (e.g. hair cuts for all three of us, maternity pictures, prenatal visits, carpet cleaning, AC maintenance, spring pictures of boys, hearing evaluation for Ethan, an optometry appt, and annual well visits for the boys!) Add to that the fact that Marcus's brother and his family, as well as Marc's Mom (Mimi) will be coming to spend the week with us for their Spring Break, and you can see that we will be keeping ourselves busy between now and Baby Sister's arrival!
I have to put the finishing touches on the nursery (including hanging the name letters, now that we have finally settled on a name), and then I will take and post some pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment