Building a Nursery

Whew! It has taken a lot of hard work and sweat to take our second bedroom from a study/storage room to a nursery. Mitch has been such a trooper.The journey started in January with cleaning out all of our closets to make room for all the fun stuff that a baby brings. I finally got Mitch to throw out some of his hundreds of t-shirts that he NEVER wears, and I finally threw out some of my clothes and shoes that I forgot I had from high school. I think it helped that I couldn't imagine ever fitting into some of those clothes again and that those crazy nesting instincts had started to kick in. I just wanted to throw away everything! As we were putting some of my clothes in the donation bin, Mitch saved a few things that he had to remind me that I wear everyday, like my gray shoes that are pretty beat up but happen to be the only pair of gray shoes I have so I still wear. Mitch couldn't part with a few (or more) of his t-shirts because it would "be like throwing away trophies from basketball tournaments." It wasn't perfect, but we made enough room...I hope.

The room we were facing in January. We slowly gave up on keeping this room organized and clean after getting things like a stroller and carseat, borrowed maternity clothes, and too many med school books with no place to put them.

                                                          Here's what we threw out.

                                                                        Blank slate

I was so excited for our crib to come! I think I tracked the package at least twice a day, just to see if anything had changed. It was scheduled to come in on Martin Luther King Jr. Day which Mitch and I had off from school, so it was perfect! At 6:00, it still hadn't come so we decided to go to Pappasitos for dinner. When we got back, our condo number still wasn't up at the guard tower (where we usually pick up our packages) so I was getting a little impatient, just ask Mitch. We parked and were walking to our condo and Mitch got an email saying the crib had been delivered! We decided to run in and put our stuff down and then go back to the guard tower to pick up the crib when we ran right into this huge package on our doorstep!!

 Mitch got his big bag of tools and we got to work. I was in charge of holding stuff and reading the manual. So it was probably my fault when we went to put on the spring board and realized the whole thing was backwards. Whoops!

 Mitch has had a lot of hard jobs. Putting up the drapes was maybe one of the hardest. Our friends Jerrick and Amy were so nice to come over and help us. No ladder so a chair on top of a desk was the next best thing...maybe not so safe?

 Our next adventure was the dresser from Ikea. We had to make three trips to Ikea in the worst Houston traffic with a round trip time of probably an hour. The first time we got our rug and drapes and tried to get our dresser but it was out of stock. A lady told us it would be in stock on Wednesday so we made the trek back out there (tried to call before to check if it was there and couldn't get anyone to answer). It wasn't there. A guy told us the truck had a flat tire- yeah right- and that it would be there on Friday. On Thursday, Ikea called Mitch and told us it was in stock! We made our third trip in one week to Ikea and finally came home with the dresser.

 Mitch built a dresser! It turned out so cute and we love it! After spending a couple of hours on it, Mitch figured out the genius business plan of Ikea. No one would possibly take the dresser back, even if it had some nicks or scratches, after spending all that time putting it together.

Mitch had to have a basketball game on in the background to keep him motivated.

Our painting project...

                                                            Whitewashing the shelf

The crib skirt was such a fun project over Spring Break. My friend Diane who is amazingly crafty helped me figure out how to make it work.

The latest project was hanging the mobile. It was a lot harder than we thought it would be. The picture doesn't show all the work Mitch went to but Mitch was sweating bullets by the end.

One of my favorite projects of the whole nursery was washing the baby clothes and organizing his dresser. There is something about pulling a tiny onsie out of the dryer and wondering how it will ever fit someone that makes laundry so fun...

                                                       The Before one more time...

                                                                              After....

                           Mitch's mom made this stitchery when Mitch was born. It is amazing!

 The little giraffes were the first things I bought for the nursery, sort of the inspiration for it the whole thing. Minds and I got them way back in November when they came for a surprise visit.

I think the shelf is crooked now that I see it in this picture. You're not done yet Mitch!

The funny thing is, both of us love being in the nursery. I think we're just a little excited. Mitch never studied in there before, but now, that chair is his favorite place. Thanks mom!

It's crazy to think that we will meet our son so soon. April 2nd is only 8 days away and I am hoping that I am ready for such a life changing event. It feels like just yesterday we were 8 days away from getting married. I feel kind of similar to how I felt before our wedding. You know the day will come that you really will be married or you really will have a baby, but at the same time, you don't know what it's like to be married or  how it is to have a baby so it feels like it will never come, it'll always be just coming.

I am so grateful that Heavenly Father is letting us bring this baby boy into the world and hope that everything goes well and that he is healthy! I always worry that he is looking down thinking there is no way I'm making it down there with a mom like her. She can't even read her scriptures every day! All I know is that I will do my best. I'm so lucky to have Mitch on my team. He has been an incredible husband for the past 2 1/2 years and I know he will be such a great dad.

We've had a blast building the nursery for the past three months!