The Nursery Update

Well here's some photos of the nursery!

[gallery type="square" ids="663,664,665,666,667,668,669,670,671,672,673,674,675,676,677"]

There's basically noooo natural light in there (or anywhere else in the house for that matter). And yes, I may have already put up a mini Christmas tree.

This past weekend was pretty eventful. One of my childhood BFFs that I grew up next door to came down with her hubby to work on the electrical needs of our house. That includes changing out all the old 2 prong outlets for 3 prongs, some basic maintenance on several spots that have wires just hanging out of the wall, and installing some new light fixtures. Sounds like a pretty tame job....... until you realize the house might have been wired by a small child... or possibly a scurry of squirrels. I can't even begin to tell you all the issues that came up. The most excellent news is that ALL the outlets have been changed out AND the outlet in the nursery bathroom works.. (just as long as you have the hall lights on......Yeah...told you there were some issues). Brandon also got the nursery fan up, thank goodness, because that caused some issues that Cory and I probably couldn't resolve on our own. It was about 11pm when they left last night for their 2 hour drive back home. It was a very long hard-working weekend for them and I couldn't be more thankful that they were here.

And now we're down to less than 2 weeks til our due date, WHOA! This week will be rather busy and next week looks like it's going to be very not busy. We have a doula visit this evening, prenatal massage tomorrow night {YES!}, doctor's appointment Wednesday afternoon, and a work event I've been planning and have to oversee on Wednesday night.

Here's to hoping the next couple of weeks don't drag by very slowly. I'm very much looking forward to sleeping on my back again.

The Sudden Onset of Cankles

[caption id="attachment_452" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Grayton Beach 2013[/caption]

 

We had an excellent vacation in Florida over the past week. Lots of sunshine and warm weather. When we stepped out of the car after our journey back to Tennessee on Saturday I noticed my feet were fairly itchy. When I bent down to scratch them is when I noticed it.... The dreaded cankles. My left foot was fairly larger than the right, but both were nicely swollen. Between the long car ride home, the super sunburned knees (yes... my knees were the only part of my body that were burned somehow), and the hot and humid beach weather, my poor little ankles and feet couldn't take it. You can kind of see it getting started in the picture above. Luckily it was temporary and I'm now back to a regular ankle/foot connection. {I am, however, being a bit on the cautious side and watching the salt intake and doubling up on the water.}

 

Now it's back to the grind of a normal work week.

 

I'm currently at 25 weeks and 1 day. Which means I'm 6 days away from being in my third trimester. WHAT!? That can't be right... there's still so much to do! We got the crib set up yesterday and all the furniture moved around in the nursery where I think most of it will probably stay. The only piece of furniture we're missing is the glider and ottoman that should be here sometime this week. :) I also finalized my decision on the baby bedding. I'm going with the something I picked out from Cottage and Cabin on Etsy in blush and vintage white. Now we just have to get the order in and wait 8 weeks!

I think the nursery is to the point now where I can say it's more shabby chic themed than it is sheep. But sheep are definitely present. I still love the sheep.

 

As far as home improvement goes... We had bath fitter come out and give us an estimate for the master bathtub (currently blue and used for giving the dogs baths in winter) the week before we went on vacation. I think that's what we'll be going with so now we just have to get a vanity, mirror, toilet and tile. We also need to get started on the electric. They said it would only take a day or two so that's excellent. AND we noticed that one of our doors on the side of the house has gotten a little too moist... it's mildewed quite a bit and is swollen to the point of splitting on the side :( So that needs to be replaced... Check one thing off the 'to-do' list and add two more, right?

I think those are the main things left to do. (You know, other than anything baby related.... picking a hospital, birth plan, baby showers... etc.)

Tomorrow I'll post about my upcoming week in the food department. I even made my own ranch. Mmm.

Nursery Business Time

I'm uber happy to report that Baby Colette's nursery has been painted. Many thanks to my husband and his mom for working on it yesterday! We haven't set the room up yet, and I would rather wait and take pictures when it's all put together, but here are a couple of sneak peaks.

These are just quick snap shots. It's a very dark room, so it wasn't easy to get an accurate shot of the wall color. It's a bit darker and a bit greener than this.

[caption id="attachment_440" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Wall Color: Behr - Dill Seed[/caption][caption id="attachment_441" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Wall Color: Behr - Dill Seed[/caption]

 

Now I'm into thinking about the layout of the room. Trying to picture it in my mind is terrible because I'm not very good with scale. So I went to the Pottery Barn website and used their Room Planner tool which was pretty helpful. Here's what I've come up with so far:

[caption id="attachment_443" align="aligncenter" width="488"] Preliminary Nursery Layout[/caption]

Lots of lights! Originally I was going to put the mini chandelier between the two pendant lights above the double dresser, but I think it would probably look better hanging above the crib. Haven't decided on a chandelier yet but here's what I have in mind:

[caption id="attachment_444" align="aligncenter" width="560"] thebellacottage.com[/caption][caption id="attachment_445" align="aligncenter" width="320"] overstock.com[/caption]

 

I did pick out the pendant lights over the weekend. (And a new ceiling fan/light fixture!) Here's the shade that goes over the pendant:

[caption id="attachment_446" align="aligncenter" width="560"] 5'' Crystal Pendant Shade - Lowes[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_447" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Full Pendant Light[/caption]

As for crib bedding, I found some things that I like at Cottage and Cabin on Etsy. She makes some really beautiful and simple things. I requested some fabric swatches that should be here in a couple of days. If I do decide to go with Cottage and Cabin, I'll have to decide pretty quickly! Orders being taken now are for October shipping dates! *insert panicked emoticon here*

 

In other news, we leave for the beach in 5 days. Hooray!

New Things!

I'm quite pleased to announce that the Taylor's are now proud owners of a car that can successfully and comfortably hold two adults, a baby, a large dog and a medium/small dog.



We brought it home on Monday and with any luck we'll keep it around for a long, long time. It's a serious upgrade from our previous vehicles, but of all the fancy features, I think the one I'm *most* excited about... is the dual control heat and A/C. :) So excited. And the seat coolers/heaters aren't bad either.

 

In other news we had a check-up yesterday afternoon. Everything is good so far. Colette's heart rate is still in the 150s and I've started gaining a little weight (imagine that...), but not too much.

After the appointment I went to HomeGoods to see if there was anything I couldn't live without for the nursery. I came home with a white picture frame and a fancy little mirror.



Okay, I didn't take a picture of the frame, but here's the mirror. I got the two little candle sticks at Heirlooms Vintage Boutique in Lafayette, GA a few weeks ago.

 

And I guess that's all for now! Have an excellent weekend!

 

Nursery Furniture

So we have all the furniture for the nursery now! (Erm. Except that glider I'd like to have...) It hasn't been set up yet because we still have to get it painted, but I thought I would post some stock images of it.

It's Baby Caché, Style: Montana, Color: Driftwood.

[caption id="attachment_418" align="aligncenter" width="497"] Baby Cache, Montana, Driftwood[/caption]

 

I think it will look really nice with the color we chose for the walls. You can purchase Baby Caché fron any ToysRus or BabiesRus. We got the pieces shown plus a nightstand. They also have a hutch available, but I opted not to get it. I think I would rather have some floating shelves instead.

 

We'll also be putting in some new lighting in the nursery. It's very dark in there as the large window actually only looks out into the garage. I'd like to do something similar to this:

[caption id="attachment_419" align="aligncenter" width="427"] Lighting Ideas[/caption]

 

Now, as much as I would like to have that chandelier, our ceiling is a bit too low... and I'd like to keep a ceiling fan in there.. So we'll probably just go with a neutral fan/light combo, and possibly some mini pendant lights over the dresser/changing table area. We'll see.

 

That's all for now! Baby registry list and a couple of other topic to come in the next week or so!

A big thanks!

I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for their congrats and complements for the big reveal on Saturday. We had an excellent holiday weekend with family and letting everyone know we will be having a little girl made it that much better.

We also revealed her first name at the end, so in case you missed it, it will be Colette. Full name will be Colette Josephine, and we intend to call her Lettie. :)

[caption id="attachment_413" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Colette Josephine Taylor[/caption]

 

In other news, we decided on a paint color for the nursery and the nursery furniture has arrived at our local Toys-R-Us! We'll be picking it up today or tomorrow. We're also going to look at cars today. Cory sold his 2-door Civic a few weeks ago as we don't think Colette and 2 dogs will fit comfortably in the backseat on our pretty frequent trips to see family.

This little girl isn't even here yet and she's already draining the funds! Now that we know we're having a she,  we should probably go ahead and start putting back money for proms and college and wedding. And maybe add on 3 or 4 jobs a piece. *sweats*

It's also time to get registered for baby showers. As a first time mom, I really have no idea what I need, so I've been searching and researching the web for practical lists of the do's and don'ts for registries and what I'll actually need. My plan is to make a preliminary list and send it to my sister-in-law, and possibly other mom's for guidance. And actually, now that I think about it. I'll probably post the list here so I can get feedback from any of you who are moms already!

 

14 Weeks Pic

14 weeks and 6 days to be exact. So... it's more like 15 weeks. Oh well. I'll get on track with these one day.

[caption id="attachment_330" align="aligncenter" width="560"] That bump is there, I promise.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_331" align="aligncenter" width="560"] You have no idea how many times I took this one.[/caption]

Admittedly, it is quite a small bump. But a bump is a bump.

I'm so glad it's a holiday weekend AND that Cory and I will be home for the duration of it. This is our first weekend at home since the middle of April and we've got a whole lot to do while I can still help do things.

On the list for this weekend are the following tasks:

• Finish the laundry

• Finish mowing

• Clean the kitchen

• Clean out the garage - we ordered a big dumpster that's being delivered today. It's going to be quite the undertaking. Look for home improvement pictures to come.

• Organize the den - we got some new couches from one of Cory's coworkers and they're great. So we're getting rid of the old ones and officially making the den where we spend our time. We have a 'living room' that we do this in now, but we're moving the big TV out and making it more of a formal space. We'll also be moving all of our office equipment into the den, so we'll basically only have to leave it to get food and sleep. Again, look for home improvement photos in the future.

• Clean out the sun porch - not a huge deal. The outer door has been cracked open for the last few weeks, so now there's a lot of spiderwebs and such residing in there. Time to make those disappear.

• Pick up trash (inside and out)

• Prep office for the move - I currently have a conglomeration of miss-matched desks that make up my workspace, so I ordered a new one that should be delivered Tuesdayish. So I'm going to get everything ready to move out. Cory can go ahead and move his stuff out when he's ready. We need to clean out the closet in there too. And once that's done it's ALL ready for Baby Taylor's nursery to start being assembled!

Hopefully most of this can be done and out of the way. We've got someone coming to take a look at the electric next week too. I'm so glad we're getting a move on things.

Oh and I don't know if you've noticed, but I also added tabs for crafts, home improvement, and cooking. I'm hoping to get started on some of those things very soon!

Hope everyone has an excellent Memorial Day Weekend!

Preliminary Furniture Shopping

According to my BabyBump phone app, I have somewhere in the ballpark of 200 days to go. As I stare at that number I think to myself... how on earth do I maintain a blog for that long? I know there will be posts about doctor visits and kicking and gender reveals eventually, but what happens in the other 190 days?

I've decided I will most likely go over products and baby gadgets I enjoy to fill in where I literally have nothing else to talk about. Hopefully this will serve as a helpful tool in choosing what products are right for me as a new mom and young mom (and maybe you too if you've happened upon this blog via a search engine or something of the sort).

My mom and I went out yesterday to do a little preliminary baby (window) shopping. This was not a trip intended to purchase anything, but rather a chance just to see what's out there (mainly in terms of nursery furniture). For me, venturing out into the sensory overloaded world of baby this early is probably a good thing. With so much going on, I like knowing that I have time to really go over my options and pick what I truly want rather than something I have to have because I've procrastinated my searching endeavors to the last moment.

Our first stop was at Burlington Coat Factory. Coats? What? Indeed. It's not just a place to get coats. They have a lot of discounted things including baby items. And then we did the obligatory Babies-R-Us run. So many nursery options. Luckily, I already know what "theme" our nursery is going to be so I don't have to worry about that. I really just have to focus on the furniture.

Our nursery will be fairly neutral (please, don't confuse neutral with boring!) with bits of a sagey/baby green. We'll throw another color in there once we find out the sex, but there will definitely be green involved. The main theme will be sheep and lambs. There will be plenty of time to discuss the theme in depth later, when I know more, but for now I'm just going to post a couple of the furniture options we looked at yesterday.

[caption id="attachment_259" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Westwood Geneva Collection[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_258" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Suite Bebe Barcelona Collection[/caption]

There were a lot more and if I remember what they were I'll come back and update this post later! We took pictures of most of the things I liked but mom has those :)