3 Months!

Our little man is becoming quite the chunk...

This month's picture session was much more fun.  He was laughing and giggling the whole time.  So much so that he threw up after the final shot.  Glad he held out till we got all the poses done!  Hahaha...

Our Easter weekend was fabulous.  But it turns out it was distracting me from the fact that I'm returning to work next week!  Ugh, I've been a mess the last couple of days.  Officially sporting waterproof mascara for the next two weeks.  I'm dreading leaving my little guy.  I know he will be great.  It's me that I'm worried about!  I know it will all be good - it's just a big adjustment.  Trying to soak up all the morning snuggles and afternoon naps in the rocker while I can.  Oh, this is going to be tough!

Someone's getting bigger!

Yesterday was Sam's 2-month birthday! He was a good sport, but was OVER it by the time we got to this photo...

One month, already?!

It's true... today Sam is ONE whole month old!

We of course had to come up with some creative ways to document his monthly growth.  My SIL sent us a fun idea she found on Pinterest where you put baby in an outfit that's entirely too big for him at first, and photograph him in the same one every month to see how he grows into it.  So we did that with a size 12mo sleeper - which totally swallows him right now!

Then we put him in one of the PB Kids baskets from his changing table... (OK that reminds me that I totally need to get nursery pics on here!)

And the "main" pic is this one - just a simple overhead view of him on a blanket with one of MY old toys - a crocheted Cookie Monster doll.  Love it!

I always love seeing how people document the actual month.  I've seen onesies and tees and stickers/patches you can use to put on the kid.  I liked that idea, but of course decided to do a budget-friendly version with stuff I already had.  So the solution?  Iron-on printer paper.  It's so darn easy...

Here's a very quick how-to if you're interested in doing something similar...


Easy Month-by-Month Iron-on Decals

1. You will need a plain onesie or tee for each month.  I just went with plain white onesies by Carters.  (Or sorry, "bodysuits" since Gerber officially coined the term "onesie" - whatev.)  And I'm doing these month-by-month because who knows what size Sam will need as he grows!

2. Assuming you've got an iron and a printer at home, the only other thing you need is iron-on printer paper.  I have found this at the grocery store, but Walmart usually has it and certainly any office supply store would.  It comes in the same packaging as labels - so look for those.  I used Avery brand and it comes in two varieties - one for light fabrics and one for darker fabrics. 

3.  I designed my own image just using Microsoft Word - I went really simple.  But you can get as fancy pants as you want.  Design your own decal, or find some clip art or other pictures to use.  The big thing to remember here, once you're ready to print, is you'll need to print a mirror image of the decal.  Some programs have you do this through the print menu, or you may be able to flip the image itself before printing.  I created my image in Word and then copied it into Paint (yeah, that free program under your Accessories - love it) and printed from there.  So I just flipped the image itself before printing.

One other thing to note - this iron-on paper is designed for inkjet printers.  I broke the rules and used a laser printer though.  It worked fine for these small and simple images, but really an inkjet printer will do best.  The heat from a laser printer screws up the iron-on material some and may affect your decal.  But the image itself transfers fine if the paper around your decal survives the printing (which mine did).

4. Transfer the image!  Follow the instructions on the iron-on paper package - they are plenty detailed and easy to follow.  It takes a matter of seconds to transfer the image - especially a small one like this.  And then you're done!  Come month #2, start back at step 1.  :-) 


So there you go.  We are obviously having a complete BALL with Sam.  Love him to pieces.  He is ridiculously cute.  He's a good sleeper too.  The nights are hard... we've had to grow accustom to "naps" rather than getting a full night's sleep, but we're coping well.  He's a fabulous eater and pooper too.  The plumbing is definitely working.  His projectile pee and poo range is quite impressive.  I just recently had to start a clothes bin for items he's already outgrown!  I mean, really!  He's out of most of his NB items and is in 0-3mo or 3mo sizes now. He's growing like a weed, that's for sure. 

I've got lots of great post ideas swimming in my foggy head right now... it's just a matter of finding the time and opportunity to sit down at the 'puter and get them posted.  I definitely want to share my favorite maternity items and baby items so far, among other things.  You know I love dishing on fun clothes and products!  And as I mentioned, I need to get our nursery pics up!  My Dad took a bunch of great ones after we got everything finished, so I'll have to get those on here shortly. 

Also... any fun Valentine's Day plans, y'all?  We typically stay in and do fondue for V-Day, but seeing as we stay in like ALL the time lately, that's not quite as appealing this year!  So we are having our first official date night on Tuesday!  Well, date afternoon really.  My parents are going to watch the little man at our house while the hub and I go to see "The Vow" and then have an early dinner at a local Italian restaurant.  We have 5pm reservations - which officially makes us old farts.  Seriously, who eats at 5pm?  People with one-month-old's at home with grandparents waiting to have their own Valentine's dinner out.  Yep, Nana and Grandpa have 7:30pm reservations, so we'll be home in time to relieve them.  And we thought caring for the dogs was hard enough to coordinate!  Ha!  Looking forward to it...  you know I love Valentine's!  Any reason to celebrate is... well... a reason to celebrate!  Hope you all have a great one filled with lots of love!

Sam's Birth Story

Please excuse my little "maternity leave" from bloggy world... like I said, time just escapes me these days.  Before I turn around, I'll be back at work.  Newborns have like a fast-forward button or something.  The hours in the day seriously just slip away and I'm like, wow... look at all the things I have NOT done today! But that's OK... my #1 to-do right now is loving on sweet Sam.  And I'm definitely getting plenty of that in!

So if you remember, we were scheduled to have a c-section on January 19th, when he was 39 weeks.  On the 11th, we had what we thought would be my last OB appointment before delivery.  Before the doctor came in, the nurse asked if I wanted him to check me for dilation, etc.  Well sure, what the heck?  They don't regularly check your cervix as a planned c-section patient, but I figured it couldn't hurt.  Well, turns out I was already dilated some to 1-2 inches and 75% effaced.  At that point, I was a day shy of 38 weeks.  My OB was like, "Well if you were delivering vaginally, this would be great news."  But seeing as my team of doctors didn't want me going into labor at all, this freaked me out a little bit!  With how things looked that day, the OB didn't think I'd make it to the 19th.  In fact, he said he'd go ahead and take Sam that day if there wasn't the big hooplah over waiting till the 39-week mark.  (Not that it's all hooplah - but a lot of it is about hospitals and money and politics.)  So my instructions were to call in if my water broke or I had continuous contractions over a 4-hour period. 

Well this all kind of threw me for a loop...  we had a plan.  January 19th at 5:30am.  We had a nice to-do list to get done in that last week before heading for the hospital.  But God had other plans!  That same day, after going back to work after my OB appointment, I managed to have a ridiculous amount of contractions all afternoon.  They were just Braxton Hicks, as far as I knew... but contractions nonetheless.  And after we hit that 4-hour mark, we called.  The nurse put me on hold after I told her what was going on.  She came back after a couple of minutes, having talked to my doctor.  "It's time, honey.  Head to Labor & Delivery!"  Holy shit.

That call happened about 3pm... I was still at the office and LUCKILY I had really focused on crossing all my T's and dotting all my I's earlier that week so that I could vacate early if need be.  Good thing I did!  I just spent maybe a half hour tying up some little loose ends before the hub picked me up.  And so that was my official last day of work before Sam!  We did have our hospital bags mostly packed, thank goodness.  So once I got picked up, we ran home to grab our stuff, change clothes, get the dogs situated, and head to the hospital. 

Once we got to the hospital, it all went so fast.  We checked in just before 6pm.  The nurses immediately got us into an L&D room and hooked me up to the monitors...


Let's do this!


Sure enough, after seeing my activity (i.e contractions like every few minutes!), the doctor on call decided we needed to do this thing.  Even though my contractions weren't too severe, they still put stress on my wonky uterus.  And we don't need to stress my poor uterus.  My L&D nurses were great.  Our short time there was right smack in the middle of a shift change, so we had two nurses, only for about an hour each before moving into surgery.  Besides their bedside manner, I gotta say I judge a nurse by how well they put an IV in.  This girl kicked ass.  Quick and easy!  The only other thing I had some apprehension about was the epidural.  The surgery itself really didn't scare me.  It's always the pre-op stuff that I hate. 

Because I hadn't eaten anything since my lunch at about noon, we didn't have to wait too long to go into surgery.  They typically make you wait 8 hours after eating, so luckily we didn't have to!  By 8pm, they were walking me back to the OR.  The hub had to stay back to put on his scrubs while they prepped me for surgery.  I had to sit up on the edge of the operating table to have the epidural put in. I was nervous, so I was a little shaky - but it was also wicked cold in that room!  The anesthesiologist was awesome and I'm not kidding when I tell you I barely felt it.  I think I was more nervous about jerking out of position while he was inserting it rather than the needle itself.  I mean, through this whole process, I've had my fair share of needles.  I can handle needles for the most part.  I've been stuck in every place imaginable.  Yes.  Every. Place. Imaginable.  But despite my shaking, I managed to stay totally still and before I knew it, my legs were feeling funny and heavy and then... holy cow, where did my legs go?  I see you moving them but seriously... whose legs are those?!  Totally weird...

Honestly the worst part of the whole epidural was the fact that my blood pressure slowed so much that I got nauseous almost immediately.  But of course they had some good drugs at the ready for that very reason and before long I was feeling fine again.  It was weird though because I could hear my pulse on the monitor the whole time and you could literally hear it slow way down once the epidural hit.  By the time I was feeling good again, the hub was by my side.  The curtain was being pinned up at my chest.  And here we go!

It was all so fast.  I could feel some pressure, but I was totally relaxed.  Well, as relaxed as you can be when your long-awaited son is about to enter the world!  I just stared at the hub the whole time.. listening, listening, listening for that cry.  And OH did he cry!  Boy was NOT too pleased to be yanked out so abruptly!  But it was a beautiful sound.  Holy crap - that's our baby!!!  Sam was born at 8:29pm.  So walking back to the OR to the time I was horizontal with a baby flying out... less than 30 minutes.  Wow.

The hub watched the whole thing (from behind the curtain).  He described the scene - said it was seriously like a NASCAR pit crew.  Nothing gentle about it, that's for sure.  And I sure don't want to ever SEE what happened on that table to my body!  But wow, it sure is amazing. 

After Sam was out, they eventually took him away to get cleaned up.  The hub stayed with me though as the doctors got me cleaned up and sewn up and ready to go.  I have no idea how long that took.  I was totally conscious and "with it" the whole time... but after that epidural, time just seemed to disappear.  And I haven't been able to find it since! 

Our families were in the waiting room - anxious to get word on Baby Sam's arrival.  So while I was back in recovery, the hub spread the good word and shared some pics on his camera.  Here I am holding sweet Sam for the first time...

I was in recovery for an hour or so.  I was able to start breastfeeding Sam there.  They had a lactation consultant there at the ready.  Everyone was super supportive and helpful.  Then we were ultimately moved to our postpartum room and our family was able to come back and meet our little man...

Grandpa with Sam

Nana with Sam

It was all a whirlwind!  We stayed in the hospital for three nights and went home that following Saturday.  We were at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta and I had a fabulous experience there.  ALL of the nurses we had while in postpartum were fantastic.  Of course we had our favorites... Nurse Amy was our day nurse on the second day.  I had a total breakdown when I couldn't pee.  It was a total repeat of the nightmare recovery after my first surgery years ago.  Sometimes when you get catheterized for surgery, you forget how to pee once they remove the catheter.  Imagine needing to pee like a race horse, but not being able to get your muscles to function properly and relieve yourself.  Um, friggin nightmare!  And just super frustrating.  I had a feeling this was going to happen when I couldn't pee the first time I tried.  So basically what happens is, they have to insert a straight catheter in if you can't get the job done yourself.  And if you don't know... that hurts like hell.  At least that's how I remembered it.  So knowing this was coming just made me lose it.  But y'all, Nurse Amy could NOT have been sweeter about it.  You know I hate crying in front of people.  So breaking down in front of the nurse was not in the plans.  But there was no stopping it.  And she was just super about it.  She was totally comforting and to top it off, she kicked ass doing the catheter.  Yeah, it was not fun - but it was not NEARLY the painful experience I had at Northside years ago after my first surgery.  So now, along with IV's, I can judge nurses on their ability to insert a catheter.  ;-)

The last nurse we had, Nurse Marsha, was also amazing.  I tried my best to hold it back, but I totally cried when she was loving on Sam as we were packing up to go home.  Heading home... into the real world... was emotional enough as it was, but seeing her say goodbye to our boy... ugh, wow.  I'm telling you - our nurses were the best!  And I certainly have a whole new respect for L&D and postpartum nurses.  They see stuff and do stuff no person should have to.  Goodness.  Modesty just goes out the window while you're there. 

The drive home was surreal.  We kept saying, "There's a baby in the back of our car."  And we both cried... driving up 85.  It's been 3 weeks and it's still so unbelievable sometimes.  Not sure I'll ever stop pinching myself!  We had a photographer come out on Sam's one week birthday.  Here's one of my favorites...

Samuel Nolen

This little guy melts my heart!  So in love. God is good.

Welcome home, Baby Sam.

Samuel Nolen Rogers

born January 11, 2012 at 8:29pm

7 pounds, 10 ounces and 19.5 inches

I know... I'm like WAY behind on getting Sam's birth story up here! I promise to get lots of pics and details posted shortly.  Somehow, with a little one in the house, everything that should take 5 minutes takes 5 hours.  And what I meant to do on Tuesday might get done by Friday.  It's a new world, that's for sure. But we're in love with our sweet boy, clearly.

I'll be back soon!  I know I've not responded to all your sweet tweets and messages, but please know I'm loving every one of them!  We appreciate the prayers and well wishes so much.  Now I'm off to go snuggle my little peanut some more...

A Very Merry Christmas

This Christmas certainly is a special one.  Anticipating Sam's arrival in just a few weeks has us all excited!  The holidays, while I always love them regardless, can be tough when you're in the thick of the infertility battle.  Every year there for a while I wondered how many more Christmases we'd have to endure without a child of our own.  Again, I'm no Scrooge... I still loved every minute of every Christmas the hub and I have shared together, but I'd be lying if I said there hadn't been a hollow spot in my heart all those years.  So being pregnant during this season has been a true blessing.  There are such exciting things to come in the New Year.

But this Christmas is so much bigger than that...  It is extra meaningful this year because of the story of another sweet baby.  If you haven't had the privilege of reading about sweet Hallie Lynn Green, please take a quiet moment over the Christmas holidays to let her story into your heart.  Hallie's mom, Katie, and I have several mutual friends, but we've only met a couple of times - I'm not even sure she'd remember me.  But through her special little girl, she and her husband have touched SO many lives this Christmas.

I'm sure my hormones are half to blame, but I've shed more tears over this little angel and her family in the last week than I can remember.  Tears of sorrow, but also tears of joy.  Joy for the miracle of this little life that has touched countless souls over just a few short days.  Little Hallie came in to this world and did more in her sweet little life to further God's Kingdom than most people can hope for in a lifetime.  I hope you will take a moment to learn about her and pray over her sweet family.  You can follow her story here.  At tonight's Christmas Eve service we were reminded that Jesus was and is the light of the world.  How bright he shined through Hallie's life here.

[Short pause while I wipe my swollen eyes and blow my runny nose.]

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas!  We are certainly enjoying our time together with family and friends this weekend.  Presents are wrapped and waiting, the family (and doggies) are all snug in their beds... Now I better get to sleep before Santa realizes I'm still up...  yikes!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Dude...

WHY cannot I not get my butt on the 'puter to blog?  Like everything else in life, it is a total chore right now.  Going to the bathroom is a chore.  The 3rd trimester slowdown has come on with a vengeance.  I'm not fatigued like I was during the 1st trimester, but Sam is so mushed up in there that it's hard to breathe.  So the littlest thing, like talking, gets me out of breath.  My sweet husband suggested I just stop speaking.  Hahaha...

My Braxton Hicks contractions did get the better of me last night...  we missed the neighborhood Christmas party because of them!  I've had them on and off throughout the day the last few weeks, but the doctor said not to worry about calling unless we had more than 6 an hour.  Well, first I'm supposed to get horizontal and drink a glass of water if I have six.  And if they don't slow down, then we call.  So last night I was having them like every 10 minutes for over two hours, so we did call.  Only for them to tell me that there's not much to do since I'm past 34 weeks.  Baby is super viable at that point, so if labor were to start, they're not going to interfere too much at this point.  OK whatever... I felt better after hearing that, although I do want this little booger to stay in there and bake as long as he can.  We go for another OB visit on Tuesday so I will ask again if there's any different protocol for my situation since my doctors don't want me going into labor period... I failed to think to ask that last night, but I'm not worried.  These definitely aren't true labor contractions.  But hopefully we can get some more assurance on Tuesday.

We were supposed to hit the mall after church today to finish up the last bit of Christmas shopping we had, but decided to play it safe and lay low.  Shopping (well, standing up or walking for long at all) has gotten super difficult.  I've only been able to do quick trips.  I did do a BRU-Kohl's-Target run Friday afternoon with my mom and I think that did me in.  From now on it's either Amazon or a motorized scooter.  The hub is taking good care of me... whether it's a 4am poptart or an emergency backrub, he comes running.  The other day he said he can't wait to sit in our rocker and doze off with Sam in his arms.... wow, melt my heart!  He's going to be such a great daddy.

So, all is good... the nursery is really, really coming together!  As I type, the hub and my dad are upstairs finishing up the beadboard in the bathroom.  The cornice board for the nursery has been assembled, but for the fabric - it is going to look SO great!  Still waiting on some other little odds and ends - various fabric projects/accessories and also lighting fixtures... but the major projects are all but done.  Can't wait to see it all come together!

And lastly, for now, here are some pics from one of my last showers.  This one was hosted by my wonderful godmother.  We had a fabulous turnout - lots of great friends of my mother's came all the way from Alabama to help us celebrate.  And a lot of my sweet friends came from all over as well - many who I hadn't seen in forever!  It was a great afternoon...

Sam's own little Christmas tree!

The sweet hostess with the mostess!

Eating for two... nom nom nom!

One of my favorite gifts!  A sweet name plaque for Sam from my friend, Jill.

I think I'm trying to explain to my mom what Baby Legs are...

One of my dear friends gave us this awesome wagon!

Uh, yeah...

This is what I wore... Gap dress with my Target shoes and grey tights.  Dress was cute on - if I didn't move.  But I had horrid static cling that day, no matter what I tried... so it did not hang so well at the shower.  Oh well...

Couples Shower - Nov 5th

Finally, some pics for you!  This incredible shower was put on by some of our very good friends.  Every detail was fabulous and we had an absolute ball.  It could not have been more perfect!  We are truly grateful to be blessed with such amazing friends and family that were so excited to celebrate with us.

The table set-up for a delicious BBQ dinner

Adorable centerpieces with baby books and rubber duckies

Favors with one of my faves... white chocolate covered pretzels!

Monogrammed petit fours

The petit fours and some delicious red velvet cupcakes

And you gotta have some chocolate!

Sam's loot!

Me and the hub... and check out the cute mason jars with tags and paper straws!

Yes, folks, there really is a baby in there!

Showered with Love

Wow, what a weekend!  And thank goodness we have an empty room downstairs... or had I should say.  The "empty" room has now become storage for all of Sam's loot!  And the boy racked up this weekend.  We had two lovely showers thrown by sweet friends of ours.  My dad played photographer (in addition to grandpa-to-be) at the couples' shower Saturday night and he got a lot of great shots.  And one of my sweet hostesses from Sunday got some great pics as well.  I'll be back soon with more deets and pics (still waiting on some to get sent to me), but check out these adorable cake pops that one of my girls made for Sunday's shower...

And how stinkin' cute are these monogrammed petit fours from Saturday?  I'm a sucker for a monogram... especially with sugar.

Lots of love for little Sam this weekend...  so grateful.

First Shower Invitation!

Another one of those "is this really happening?" moments...

Back later with more updates.  I'm buried in work for the time being!  Hope you all are having a great week!

Birthday Week!

Today's actually my birthday... woot!  But I like to stretch out the celebration as long as possible.  I've been meaning to get on here and post my maternity goodies that my mom got me when we did a birthday shopping trip last weekend, but I've been tired and sick this week.  I know, right? Of all weeks.  Just a little cold, but it has definitely slowed me down.  Work is very busy with another approaching deadline, but I've been doing my best to take it easy at night and go to bed early this week.  Because tonight, we're heading to the Fox to see...

Can't wait!!!  This show has been on my must-see list pretty much since it opened nearly 10 years ago.  So yeah, it's been a long time coming.  The hub got us tickets for my birthday - a BIG splurge for us.  But seeing as this is my last birthday before Sam gets here, we figured we better live it up!  I think we're gonna hit Baraonda before the show for some pizza... mmm... one of my faves!  So fun!  Don't you just love birthdays?  I think 34 is going to be pretty darn awesome.

What about BOB?

We got 'im.  That's what!  My mom's been chompin' at the bit wanting to get something special for Sam.  As soon as the hub and I got our act together and figured out what all to register for (mostly anyway - pretty sure we'll never figure it ALL out), Mom wanted to know what she and Dad could get us.  Answer: The BOB Revolution CE Stroller!

We registered for it at BRU, but Amazon had the best price currently.  Always check Amazon!  Sometimes their free shipping and no sales tax (in most states) alone can make a huge difference.  Honestly, if I could only visit one retail website for the rest of my life, I'm pretty sure I'd pick Amazon.   I was tempted to do a baby registry on Amazon - they've got some products that neither BRU or BuyBuy Baby carry.  But I think we're pretty well covered!

We decided on the "CE" version - which has significantly smaller back wheels than the standard SE version.  I read that the only real reason to get the SE instead was for really, really rough terrain like vigorous hiking trails.  Um... I don't really see myself ever strolling up and down vigorous hiking trails.  With or without Sam in tow.  CE it is!

Now we haven't actually seen our BOB just yet... it arrived yesterday at my parents' house, so we'll get it tomorrow.  Can't wait to check it out!  Pretty sure Sam's gonna love it!  Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Sam's Rocker Arrived!

Ooooooh... and I'm in love!




That blue line of tape in the background is where the built-in shelving will be. (I need visuals.)




The soft taupe color fits in perfectly with our bedding swatches. Can't wait for the bedding to come in and see it all start to come together!




We got the call late Saturday from BRU that the rocker had arrived. I had to work Sunday, so the hub surprised me by having the rocker picked up, set up, AND the blinds installed before I got home! MADE my day. :-)

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!

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.