Nursery No. 4

So, my nursery is totally finished. Ya, for reals. And a whole two months before I'm even due with this baby. I'm totally on top of it. It's about the only thing in the world that I've got under control at the moment, so I find that when everything else in my life seems to be spinning away, I'll go sit in my clean, finished nursery and just soak in the peace that it brings me.

For some reason, with my first two girls, I felt compelled to try and have gender neutral-ish nurseries. I'm not really certain why or how I came to feel that way, but I did. This time around, I was in the mood for girly, so I decided to just commit to the idea. And commit I did. At my last appointment, the doctor did an US to check on the size of the baby and confirmed that I was STILL having a girl, which is good, because I'd be feeling pretty silly putting a boy to bed in this room.

This nursery was a total 'renew and make do' kind of project. I bought THE RUG new and the curtains and the fabrics, but (with the help of my mom on the bedskirt and darling gingham blanket) I made or re-used most everything else in the room.

Jane actually did most of the work on the cute little curtains to hide all my baby junk. I got the little frames from my neighbor, like, a year ago. She was going to give them to DI. I just replaced the ribbon and put some of my fabric scraps in them until I have some photos that will work.

Brent helped me make the shelf. We just used some pine and bought the little corbels from Lowe's. I figured that the mason jars would be stylistically appropriate and they can hold all the small baby paraphernalia that I require.

I DID opt to get some new hardware for the dresser, but in my own defense, it came from the dollar spot at Michael's, so that makes it ok, right? Plus, I really like it.

If there are pictures to be taken, Lizzy and Charlie are sure to get in on them. When I look at how big they are, it makes me freak out that I'm having another one!

I made all the bunting from scraps left over from the bedding and other projects. I love the color they add, if I do say so myself.

Like most of my best ideas, I stole the one for the pictures over the crib off of Pinterest. I was a little nervous about how they would turn out, but I've decided that I really like them. I bought the cards from THIS SHOP off of etsy and bought a couple of the frames from D.I., but I actually had all the other ones and the mats.

I made this blanket, except for the hard part. Leslie made the binding for me and taught me how to make it in the first place. It was super nice of her. She's super nice like that.

I didn't get a good photo of the red blanket that my mom made. She's made them for all her grandkids. I love the red in there. Red makes me happy.

Hello again, Miss Biz. She's standing on a chair that we already had and just moved into the nursery. That pink message board thinger has been about 5 different colors as I've moved it from room to room. I also repainted the red lamp and covered the shade in ruffles made from an old sheet-turned drop cloth. I had to wash the sheet rock dust out of it first, but the price was right, so I made it work.

And there you have it.

Even if the rest of us aren't quite yet prepared to bring a new baby home, the nursery is ready and waiting.

Sing Ob-La-Di-La-Da.

And another month has passed me by since I posted last.

Lately, I feel as though I am in the middle of a life where the months fly by almost unnoticed, but the days themselves are painfully slow. It seems like every new day holds a new surprise or a new challenge and usually, in the moment, it feels hard and miserable and unfair, but what can we do? We do what you have to do. We deal with it.

And I have to admit that once each day and each challenge comes to an end, I look at things with a little perspective and realize that in the grand scheme of life and the universe, it probably wasn't actually all that big of deal, so we move past it.

So basically, you know. Life goes on.

This past week, life was particularly full of surprises for us, and for once I took a couple of pictures to remember it by.

Our Lizzy caught herself a little cough/cold thing, which really shouldn't have been that big of a deal, but when you are predisposed to have asthma, it seems like things that shouldn't be big deals work themselves into huge ordeals. She was struggling to breathe, so Brent took her to the quick care for (what I thought would be) a simple nebulizer treatment and oral steroid to push her through the worst of it, but it didn't turn out to be so simple.

When they got there, her oxygen levels were alarmingly low, so they ended up coming home very late, after several unsuccessful nebulizer treatments, followed shortly by the HomeCare people who delivered her prescribed oxygen. It was a little crazy, I must admit. We had it for a few days and I was glad to see them come take it away. The only times I've ever been around people who needed to be on oxygen, they were older people who needed it to stay alive because of lung diseases. Since Lizzy generally seems like a normal, healthy little girl, it was difficult to mentally shove her into that category.

But push through it, she did. And as cheerfully as you could expect an almost 5 year old manage it. We spent a LOT of time in the doctor's office (ours was on vacation, so we had to go to a referring dr. across town who's waiting room was jammed full all the time and constantly playing The Emperor's New Grove. i think i watched it all the way through 3 times in 2days in that waiting room) and a lot of time inhaling albuterol, but she's doing so well now.

And on the bright side... she never was actually admitted to the hospital, she never had to be sent to respiratory therapy, we now own our very own nebulizer for future emergencies, and her oral steroid has completely cleared up her eczema (for the moment). So we are left with a completely healthy, delightful little girl.

As soon as we had Lizzy under control, my body decided to give out on me. Dumb bodies. I wish they would just do what we want them to do instead of making trouble for us all the time. I ended up in the hospital over the weekend with kidney "issues." I think the diagnoses still depends on who you are talking to, but there were DEFINITELY problems with my kidney and when you are already seven months pregnant with a low ridin' baby AND you have kidney issues, it makes for an.... uncomfortable weekend.

I had been considering trying to have this baby naturally, but I have since changed my mind. Prenatal kidney "issues" can have that effect on a girl. Sigh.

And on that note, here's what I look like at 7 months pregnant.

Charlie is quite the iphone photographer, aint he?

I keep getting harassed for being "so tiny!' Seriously. Even random people at the supermarket will comment. But looking at these pictures, and considering that I've still got 2 whole months to expand, I feel like I'm plenty big. Take that, random people in the supermarket!

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go brace myself for another day. Let's hope its a good one. :)