Nursery Bargains: Rocker & Ottoman

The hunt is over! This sweet rocker is on its way to Sam's nursery...






The fabric we ordered is actually a tad lighter than this and compliments our paisley print beautifully. And it's just a good neutral taupe color, so it will last through our whole army of embryos awaiting us. (Kidding, Mom... I promise we'll stop at 10 or 12.)

We actually noticed this very rocker first at my sweet friend Pammy's house. She is expecting and is 4 weeks ahead of me. She ordered her rocker from Babies 'R Us and I LOVED the look and feel of it. I made sure we added it to our list last week when we went on our rocker hunt all across town. After looking at all kinds of rockers in similar styles to this one, both the hub and I felt the BRU rocker was our best bet. I did like several of the Best brand rockers we saw at The Baby's Room, but for the price (as in several hundred dollars more) they just really weren't much better (that we could tell) from the Newco brand rocker at BRU. Plus, I consulted my Bible Baby Bargains book and the Newco brand chairs in general got very good ratings. I made sure we steered clear of any brands that had crappy ratings.

So how good of a bargain was it? Well I was personally stinkin' excited considering my first rocker musings were in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog, where we'd have to fork up nearly $1200 for a similar rocker after their ridiculous shipping surcharges (on top of the already high prices). I knew we could find something for less. And the good thing about ordering from a place like BRU? Coupons. The rocker and ottoman together were right at $580 retail. Reasonable in my book - about middle of the road for all the rockers we looked at last week. Plus $500-600 was the target price range in my head. I didn't want to skimp on a rocker - it's such an important piece - but I didn't want to go apeshit either. The customer service gal at BRU was actually super nice. I wasn't expecting much because I've read that customer service in these big box stores is a joke, but we had a great experience (at least thus far - we don't exactly have the furniture just yet).

Our BRU actually didn't have the exact rocker we were after, so I texted Pammy to get the item number and customer service helped us track it down and get the right set ordered. And without even asking, they did what I was hoping they'd do - split the rocker and ottoman order up so we could slap on two 20% off coupons. So we got 20% off the whole shebang, making the set only $464. Record-breaking bargain? Doubtful. But for the quality and style of the rocker, I am loving that price. And the kicker is the hub's momma is paying for the rocker as her sweet gift to Baby Sam! But don't you know I don't want anyone paying retail! Of course we got asked like three times if we wanted to save an extra 10% by opening up a store credit card. My husband's response to the cashier? "Dave Ramsey would whoop our ass." Word. You can have your 10%.

Oh and this beauty's gonna be here in only one to two weeks! I tell ya, I cannot wait to have this thing set up in our nursery so I can sit there and rock and stare and daydream. Right now there's nowhere to sit in that room... except the toilet. So it's starting to come together! Now that we've got our swatches (finally), we can pick out paint colors for the bathroom. And the nursery itself too... I'm still contemplating what I want to do on the main walls. I'm thinking a harlequin diamond print in taupe/neutral shades similar to this look (found on Silverspoon Murals)...




I wouldn't want to do something that fancy pants and not be able to recycle it for say, a girl. It looks hella complicated though and I can guarantee you I don't have the patience to do this crap...




So I've already concluded we will probably have to hire a pro to do the nursery walls if we do decide to go in that direction. And it would be the whole damn wall - not just above bead board or some chair molding. Yeah there's no way I'm doing that. I would absolutely lose my mind. We are sloppy painters in my household. We get the job done, but the process ain't pretty. So we can handle "simple" paint projects like the orange closet and the bathroom, but the main nursery walls? Yeah, let's get some help on that.

Oh and I'm thinking maybe a muted, pale metallic gold color for the ceiling. Ralph Lauren has these really pretty metallic finish paints at Home Depot - we've used them in a few rooms on the ceiling and the walls. I love them. It may sound scary, but I promise it's not. It's just a little drama in a can.

Other nursery developments? Our blinds came in, so those poor nekkid windows will finally be clothed! The sun comes in that room SO badly in the mornings, so we've got all our furniture draped in blankets right now to prevent any damage. It'll be nice to get those windows covered so we can finally start putting the room together. On the to-do list for this month is getting the bathroom painted and bead board installed. I'm uber excited about doing the bathroom too... I LOVE baby and kids' bathrooms. And the hub and his talented wood-working buddy are probably going to start the built-in shelves sometime this month. I can't WAIT to see those come together! That's truly the focal point of the room, so until those are up it feels pretty bare in there. But yeah, I guess as far as what I can really do this month, it's going to be concentrating on the bathroom and also ordering the crib bedding and accessories. Oooh how fun! Every step is so fun.

Well again, y'all enjoy this holiday weekend! It's a busy time at work with deadlines on the horizon, so I'll probably work a little from home Monday morning, but in my jammies no doubt!

18 Week Belly

Something's starting to POP! And boy, do I feel it. I've been pretty crampy the last few days because my belly (and Sam) are on quite the growth spurt right now...




There wasn't much difference between 10 and 14 weeks, but you can definitely see a change here!





We'll see how the waistline progresses over the next couple of weeks - I think it may be time to move to belly updates every two weeks instead of four.

So in other fun news, look what a sweet surprise Sam got in the mail yesterday from his Auntie Kathleen!!!




I was literally looking around on Monogram Chick's website this week and saw these shorts and thought, aw... how cute would those be for Sam?!




Apparently my friends are mindreaders! And look - it's Sam's very first monogrammed goodies!!!




Thank you, Kathleen! I'm in love with it all and Sam will be the most dapper little dude on the block! Mom also picked up a couple of goodies at Target yesterday...




I tell ya, this boy is going to be SET. Oh and my fabric swatches finally arrived this week! I knew I'd love them but I had to see them in person. And yeah, they're definitely way prettier in person. Looks like we're definitely going to go with this group for the bedding and other accessories around the nursery...




I laid all the swatches out for the hub last night and asked what he thought. He studied them for a half second and then pointed at the blue and white striped print. "That one." No, I mean ALL of them together, honey. "Oh, oh, yeah, OK." So you like them? "For what?" For the bedding. "Yeah, sure." Clearly he does not share my enthusiasm for these sweet fabrics, but he approves!

Well, Happy Friday all! And I hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend! Enjoy this last toast to summer and be safe out there...

Maternity Goodies

In case you've forgotten, I have a *mild* obsession with maternity wear - have for years. So to be able to actually wear maternity clothes now is a total thrill. For the most part. As my belly is really starting to pop, I'm learning what kinds of clothes I like and don't like. And there are so many designers and brands out there that I love to drool over (Isabella Oliver for one), but it turns out I have more of an Old Navy budget. Which is totally fine - for the price, I think their line is pretty stellar - especially the basics. Some of their stores have a maternity section, but all the ones I've visited pretty much suck. The selection is VERY limited, but I will sometimes find a decent piece on clearance. But to really get a feel for what they've got, you have to go online. Most of their maternity collection is online only - which is kind of annoying, but whatever.

Luckily, my maternity wear obsession led me to collect quite a number of pieces over the years for "future use." So once I finally got here, I found myself with a ridiculous amount of maternity tops - especially tanks and tees. All bought on clearance, of course! But really, it worked out great in the end because I find myself nearly suited for my entire pregnancy - at least on my top half. Bottoms are more of an issue. Those are kind of hard to nail down until you're actually there. So now that I'm getting bigger, I've been hunting down some good options for my bottom half. And so far, this skirt has by far been my favorite maternity purchase to date...





This is the maternity maxi skirt from Old Navy, which I got on sale (duh). It seriously feels like jammies. It has a simple fold over waist that you can wear over the belly or under. And you can totally wear this later post-pregnancy. I got both colors since I knew this would be a staple for fall! My whole game plan for fall (especially at the office) is maternity tanks and tees with cardis. And like I said, the tanks and tees are more than covered.

I want to wait till I'm a little bigger, but my next big hunt will be for a pair of great jeans. And possibly some fun outfits for showers, but other than that, I really don't need much at all. So what were your favorite maternity pieces? Where was your go-to place to shop?

Oh and we finally took my 18 week belly shot - I'll get that posted later today or tomorrow!

Nursery Closet: The Finished Product!

I must say, we are doing a great job of getting our August nursery to-do's marked off the list. The big goals for this month were to order the crib (check), find a changing table (check), order blinds (check), paint the closet (check), and update the closet shelving (check). Look at us go!

So this weekend we added that second row of shelving I mentioned in the nursery closet, some hooks for the wall, and a couple of other organizer caddy things from Wally World to complete it all. (Hop over here if you want to see the "before" pics again.) Total spent on the closet makeover... about $120.

- Paint from Home Depot, $25
- Extra shelving and wall hook pieces from Lowe's, $47
- Canvas shelving and rolling carts from Wal-Mart, $48

And here's the end product! I'm in love. If the nursery itself is half as much fun as the closet is, I think we'll be in great shape...










Only thing left to do is add a tension rod and fabric for a "door." But I'm considering that more a part of the nursery room decor itself since we'll most likely use one of the fabrics to coordinate with the bedding. And seeing as my swatches still haven't arrived, we don't know what those fabrics are just yet! I did contact Carousel though and they sent another order out. They responded almost immediately to my email! Looks like my first batch (that I ordered over two weeks ago) got lost in the mail or something.

Alright, gotta get going. Meant to post an 18-week belly pic this weekend, but never got around to it. I'll get one up shortly! Oh also... the rocker hunt went well this weekend too! Nothing purchased yet, but we got a good feel for who has what. Probably will do a little more looking this weekend and make a final decision once our fabric swatches arrive.

Checking things off my list!

Moving right along here... 18 weeks today!  Can't believe it.  So grateful.  Literally, every night when I get up to pee a million times, I recite what day we're on while I'm half asleep... 17w5d... 17w6d...18 weeks!  We're truly thankful for each new day.  It is all progress.  We're still a long way away from taking Sam home in our arms, but every step is very exciting and encouraging.

 

We got a couple of appointments set up with local pediatricians and I suppose I'll be calling on daycares next.  A lot of the ladies at work use the same daycare close to our office so I think I'm going to pop in there with a co-worker next week to get a first look.  Working moms, do you think it's best to have daycare closest to your office or to your home?  My commute is only about 15 minutes, so it's not a huge deal either way, but it's sounding like it might be more convenient to have a spot close to my office.  Another plus is that my parents literally live like 2 minutes from my office, so they could access a daycare nearby easily if need be.  It also seems to makes sense to have Sam's daycare and doctor close to each other, if possible.  And back to pediatricians... what questions do we need to be asking?

 

So nursery projects continue... this weekend we're on a rocker hunt!  I've got a plan of attack all laid out for us, thanks to several tips from friends on places to hit.  I'm really hoping my fabric swatches will arrive so we can figure out the bedding and bring the colors along with us.  I ordered them nearly two weeks ago - hurry UP!  Either way, I think we will go with something neutral for the rocker - probably a soft taupe color.  And I'm definitely after the upholstered chair look.  I'm not a fan of the wooden glider look personally and there's going to be so much wood and trim in our nursery between the furniture and the shelving - I rather soften it up with something more plush and cushy!  We plan to hit BRU, Buy Buy Baby, The Baby's Room (local place in Norcross), and probably some regular furniture stores too like Haverty's.  I also need to run in PB Kids to grab a basket liner to send to bestest - she's going to make me some with whatever fabrics we end up choosing!  (The baskets with liners are for the changing table.)  And we're also going to swing by Home Depot and have them cut another row of shelving for our sweet orange closet!  Makes for a busy Saturday, huh?  Fun though!

 

Oh, also... a reader asked if I'm still doing acupuncture.  I am, actually!  I know I haven't said much about it, if anything, lately.  I was still doing weekly appointments all through the first trimester and now I'm down to once every four weeks.  The funny thing is, ever since becoming pregnant, I am SO restless during acupuncture.  I used to be able to sleep some or at the very least relax during sessions, but not now.  It's seriously a fight to make it through those 30 minutes!  Too funny.  I'm not on any herbs though.  Just sticking to my prenatal vitamins and baby aspirin.  LOVE having a low-maintenance regimen!

 

Hope you all have fabulous weekends!  I'll report back on the rocker hunt.  :-)

 

 

Orange you glad we finally painted the closet?

Yes, us too! And it turned out SO great. And it is seriously orange - I love it! Now remember this has no bearing whatsoever on our nursery colors - it's literally just the inside of the closet. I wanted something fun, bright, and gender-neutral. Turns out orange goes fabulously with blue AND pink. And while you can't really tell in these pics, it's like a sherbet orange. Rather delicious! Once again, here's the BEFORE pic in boring beige...




And the finished product! (The color shows up best in the 2nd pic, but none of these do the orange justice.)






Oh yeah, it is ALL orange, ceiling included. It's wise to put on some shades before entering. Once we get things more situated, I'll definitely get some better pics up, but for now I'm being lazy and using camera phone pics, so excuse the poor quality.

We're still going to add one more row of shelving on that left wall, and probably some more organizer thingees on the back wall. I just bought a couple of things at Wal-mart to see what might work. So this is a start! Sam's already racking up some goodies...




And speaking of goodies, I had another "spare change" trip to Kohl's this weekend. I rarely go in there, but if they send me a $10 card, I come runnin'. Just look at these cleareance cuties...



For literally, spare change! Love it!



Hope y'all have a great week! I'm still working on getting pics of our consignment goodies up. Check back soon...

Gearing Up

It seems like we have so much time before Sam gets here, but then I start sorting out all the things we have to do and figure out before he does and YIKES - we don't have that much time after all!  We've got five months left.  And everyday I think of something else we need to sort out.  And really, I'm wanting to have everything baby figured out and put together by the time Thanksgiving gets here.  For a couple of reasons... (1) You never know when baby is going to act up and either put you on bed-rest or insist on coming early, and (2) the holiday season is so crazy busy for us and I want to be able to just enjoy it and not be frantically finishing up the nursery or something.  And then hello, it's suddenly January and it's almost time!

 

So here are some of the major things we're looking to accomplish over the next few months.  Feel free to jump in and add something I need to consider because, obviously, I don't know what the hell I'm doing...

 

- Setting up the nursery (duh).  We've got all our furniture except the rocker.  We're still looking around for the best price for that item, as it will undoubtedly be the most expensive piece.  I'm not a big fan of the wooden gliders, so I really want to find an upholstered chair/rocker.  I like the style of the basic Pottery Barn Kids version, but not at $1200 (once you add in delivery, etc).  I've got some places to look, thanks to fellow momma friends, but if you have any suggestions, please advise!  The Baby Bargains book suggests looking at regular furniture places too, so we'll probably do that as well.  Aside from furniture, we're wanting to do built-in bookshelves along the back wall so we're working on figuring all that out right now.  I got a quote for a monogrammed cornice board for the window, laughed out loud, and then decided we could make one on our own.  And we've also got a closet and bathroom to work on.  So much to do!  But it all looks fabulous in my head.  I'm currently waiting on fabric swatches to arrive so we can figure out the bedding and go from there.

 

- Registering for gifts. We're planning to do this next month and we're going to bring along a momma friend to help us since we don't know what we're doing and Babies 'R Us is mildly terrifying.  May do Target too. Any other suggestions?  Maybe Pottery Barn Kids, but honestly I don't think I'd have more than a few things that I'd put on there, so what's the point?  I'm not registering for my bedding anywhere - we're just going to buy that because hell if I'm waitin'!

 

- Becoming parenting experts.  Apparently we need classes... so I've got us all signed up for a bunch of stuff.  Piedmont Hospital offers up a free prenatal series, so we're doing that in October.  And we're also doing a breastfeeding class in December (yeah, that's after Thanksgiving, but just barely).  AND we're signed up for a CPR class next month.  Oh yeah and a hospital tour next month as well.  After December 3rd, we should know everything there is to know about parenting!!!

 

- Figuring out daycare and healthcare.  Next month the hub and I are taking off a day to peruse local daycares and also visit pediatricians in our area.  I've never doctor-shopped, so this should be interesting.  Luckily, we have lots of great friends nearby who have offered up referrals.  Good thing too, because otherwise I'd have no idea where to start.  I guess we'll need to actually make appointments with the doctors, but we just plan on dropping in on the daycares. 

 

That is the major stuff.  And of course there are other important things in the mix as well, like getting our wills established.  That task has been "in process" for months, but it's time to finally bite the bullet and get it done.  We should have them anyway, regardless.  And figuring out how to best adapt our pups to having a new little brother in the house.  We predict they'll be super protective of Sam - they're both great around little kids.  But it's how the two dogs are with each other that can cause problems.  Two crazy bitches.  So we just have to set up precautions there.  Lots to think about! 

 

So in other baby news, my mom and I went to our first baby and kids' consignment sale yesterday and it was NUTS.  To say we were overwhelmed is an understatement.  I'm not sure I'm cut out for these things.  Well for one thing, I didn't know what the heck to look for.  And there was just SO much stuff.  And generally I'm not the type who likes to fight crowds and dig for stuff.  There were times when I just stood there with our basket and stared off into space because I didn't know what to do!  But, we did come away with some cute clothes, a clock that might work in the nursery, and we also found a pack of monogrammed burp cloths that all said "Samuel."  Too funny - had to get those.  I'll get some pics up later of our loot.  There was a ton of baby gear, but I just didn't know what to do with it.  I think after Sam is here and I'm a parenting expert, I'll know better how to navigate these mega consignment sales.  But for now, it's a bit much for me.

 

Well, hope you all have fantastic weekends!  We will be painting the nursery closet (for real this time) along with other fun chores around the house.  Pics to come!

Some goodies for our boy!

I promise I won't bore y'all with EVERY little thing we get for this kid, but the first few things are definitely fun! I am so more excited about a boy than I ever thought I would be. I am just so girly and always assumed I'd prefer having a girl (if I could choose), but I am all about boy now!

On Saturday we were running errands all over the place and stopped in Costco for a quick hot dog lunch. It is the happenin' place on a Saturday afternoon. So after lunch I told the hub I just wanted to *look* at the baby clothes to see what they had. Uh huh... I'm sure you can see where this is going. I couldn't pass up this sweet little Hanna Andersson sleeper!




Costco had several prints, all at less than $12. They retail for $26, so that's a pretty good deal. You can get cheaper stuff of course, but I love Hanna Andersson stuff (especially at Costco prices). Now I KNOW we're going to get all kinds of goodies at showers and stuff, so don't worry... I'm not going crazy! I just wanted to buy a few *boy* things now that we know. The hub said it feels so weird to be buying this stuff for us and not other people... so true. I've bought a million baby gifts before, but now it's for OUR baby. What?! And I've decided I'll only buy killer sale and clearance goodies I happen upon. Because seriously, I know I will get loaded up. But when I get a $10 Kohl's card in the mail, I can't help but run over there and rummage through the clearance section! Like I did Sunday and found these...

After applying my $10 Kohl's card, my grand total was only $2.97! Can't beat that. And how stinkin' cute are those? They're MUCH cuter in person. These are lousy pics. The one on the left is chocolate brown and the other is navy blue. I'm also buying larger sizes for the most part - because I know most people buy the itty bitty stuff for gifts. And of course my mom couldn't help herself either. After getting the "boy" news on Thursday, she was at Target on Friday and picked up these goodies, along with some matching wash cloths...




Too fun! Our little guy is going to be all set come January. And speaking of him, we DID come up with a name this weekend! My Dad's birthday was yesterday and we gave him the "big reveal" first as part of his gift. So are you ready? Introducing (sort of... in my belly anyway)...


Nolen was my grandfather's name and if you know my story and are familiar with the Bible, then Samuel's probably pretty obvious! But read up on Hannah's story in I Samuel 1 if not and it will make sense. I can't get through it without becoming a blubbering mess. We plan to call him "Sam." I'm a fan of one-syllable names for boys.

So yay! That was our weekend pretty much... lots of running around, Dad's birthday, and playing the name game. And yeah, no closet painting got done! Hmm... next weekend?

I guess my maternal instincts were a bit off...

Totally shocked, but completely thrilled!

I really didn't think we were going to get out of there today with an answer because baby was sitting with its legs all folded up for the longest time and not budging. He was definitely wiggling around in there, but wouldn't unfold those sweet legs. But finally he started stretching out some and the doctor caught some lucky shots of the goods. He kept calling it a "weiner" - it was hilarious. "Don't tell anyone we're taking all these weiner shots!" he said. Too funny...

The doctor said he could feel the baby moving through the ultrasound wand thingee - whatever you call it. So he let me hold it a while to see if I could, but I couldn't tell. We did get some good profile shots today. The little booger was very active and I'm convinced he's a dancer. He was doing a serious back bend at one point, a toe-touch at another, and then I was sold when I saw... jazz hands.




Aside from getting the fun news, we also got to take a really good look at all the major organs and see how everything's measuring up. We're right on schedule and all looks perfect! It is CRAZY what all you can see. All four chambers of the heart pumping away, both sides of the brain, the kidneys, the bladder, the intestines... and oh yeah, the weiner!!!

SYTYCD Finale

My money is still totally on Melanie after last night's performance finale! It'll definitely be a girl this year - that's for sure. Sasha is great too, but Melanie just melts my heart and hello, she's an Atlanta girl! Here's her delicious performance with All-Star Robert last night...



Guest judge Katie Holmes was so stinkin' gorgeous last night, but the hub and I kept laughing because her vocabulary for every critique consisted almost exclusively of the words strong, amazing, beautiful, and magical.

Go Melanie!

So in other news, it looks like about 70% of you are thinking pink... I hope we'll have an answer for you this afternoon! Exciting!

Welcome to my crib, yo.

Our sweet crib arrived yesterday! And we didn't waste any time getting it assembled. I'm so happy with it. Now, baby, if you'll just cooperate and show us your goods on Thursday, I can start getting serious about fabrics!






I've been browsing here and there, and lately these softer hues have really caught my eye. Which is NOT like me... I always assumed I'd do something bright and funky. But something about a sweet nursery just oozes "baby," you know? No decisions made yet of course, but these two collections are looking rather delicious to me right now...




This is too fun! I'm hoping to get started on the closet paint this weekend. We did finally get to IKEA (which yet again, confirmed my hatred for the place) only to find nothing that would really work. So instead of revamping the entire shelving system in there, I think we're just going to add one more row of the basic wire shelving, definitely remove the door, and incorporate other boxes and hangy-down organizer type things to maximize storage. A much cheaper solution anyway, so I'm all about that! But first, paint. Pics to come soon!

If only...

Monday Funny.

Namaste

Lots of great numbers last night on SYTYCD, including solos by all the top 6. The solos usually aren't my favorite - I mean, how much awesome can you really fit into 30 seconds? Then Melanie said, "This is how much."



My money's on Melanie!!! (And how freakin' cute is her grandma, by the way?!)

In other news, I went to yoga last night for the first time since being pregnant. I hadn't felt up to it until recently and I finally took the plunge last night. I knew our instructor (at my gym) would be helpful with what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-while-pregnant tips, but she was amazing. I spoke with her briefly before class just to let her know I was knocked up and she told me generally where I should take it easy, etc. And throughout the class she would look in my direction and give me safer options to do. But then after class she came over and talked with me for like 10 minutes - the girl knows her stuff. She knew all kinds of prenatal facts and big words I've never heard of... I have a whole list of things to google. And she's going to make some copies of some helpful prenatal yoga stuff for me and bring to the next class. How awesome is she? So yeah, it was great to get back to class and do something active besides housework or walking.

And one more thing... we have our 16 week ultrasound in ONE week! So if baby cooperates, we should be able to determine the sex. Seems like everyone I talk to thinks it's a girl (including us for some reason). What do you think? I'm putting a poll up on my sidebar, so go cast your vote!!!

Back to School

School starting back really means nothing to us right now other than heavier traffic in the mornings, but I gotta say I LOVE this commercial for some reason...



Can she my kid's future teacher? I love glitter.

I'm thinking of all my teacher friends who are back in the classroom this week getting prepared for the students. And enjoy these last few days of summer, kids! I can still remember the anticipation of the first day back...