Kid Room Decor: Monkeys, Giraffes & Babies

Okay my fabulous Pocketful readers, here’s another decorating post for you – the nursery.

We weren’t really sure if we were still going to be in the rental apartment when Jack was born, so I started working on my nursery plans while we were still there. However, just in case we moved I made sure not to spend time on anything that couldn’t go with us. So, when we moved into our new house we had all the pieces I needed to put the nursery back together, we just needed the time to do it.

Well, you find time when your baby is born two months early! Within a couple days of my return from the hospital, we had thrown everything back together so that it was ready for Jack’s impending arrival home.

Luckily, the room was already painted a neutral brown tone with fun green carpet (well, fun if you’re doing a monkey and giraffe room). I really didn’t have the time or energy to paint another room, and I definitely did not want any lingering fumes left in there for my little preemie baby.

Here is a shot of the room before I prepared it for Jack:

What’s funny is that they already had a safari theme going on, or at least a huge wooden giraffe hanging out in the room. I would have loved it if they left that behind, but they totally took Hector with them (yes, I named their giraffe Hector).

Here’s the nursery after I finished with it:

Here are my favorite parts about the nursery:

I found a few jungle-ish fabrics that I loved and created a cute little pennant to hang over Jack’s crib. There are lots of tutorials online to show you how to do this, but I just kind of made it up as I went along and love the finished product. I also framed three of the fabrics as ‘art’ and hung them over the changing area.

So, I have an issue with spray paint… I LOVE to spray paint things random colors. So when I saw a drab wooden nightstand at Goodwill for $30 I immediately took it home so that I could sand it down and paint it a fun color. Love, love, LOVE this nightstand and it almost ended up in our hallway instead of Jack’s room.

The best part of the room is that we now have a baby home to enjoy it! Here is Jack on one of his very first tryouts of his new crib.

Speaking of my little stinker, he’s calling me with his request to be fed — so I’d better run! I’m thinking my blog posts will be ending quite abruptly for the next few weeks, um, months…

Like what you see? Share me with your friends!

Welcome to Parenthood: Take Your Baby & Go

It’s no secret that I was totally in shock at having a baby 8 weeks early with pretty much no warning or preparation.

After my surprise party of labor, leaving our son at the hospital was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Nothing prepares you for going into the hospital with a pregnant belly and then coming out a few days later with no belly and no baby to bring home. It was a bit surreal that I’d had a baby but really had nothing to show for it.

Every day since Jack was born, I’ve been keeping track of every little bit of his progress and hoping for the day he could finally come home. I’ve been worrying about my dwindling time off from work and counting down the days I have at home before I need to go back to the office.

Last week, one of the nurses said that it was possible that Jack could come home this week or next. However, another nurse cautioned me against getting my hopes up because he was still so young. It was possible that they might even keep him in the NICU until his original due date of April 13th.

So, I kept myself tentatively hopeful. In my head, I thought it would be nice if he could come home this week, but it was more likely to be the end of next week once he reached 36 weeks of gestational age. To pass the time, I’ve been keeping myself busy with house projects and visiting Jack at the hospital every day.

This morning I received a call from the NICU, which of course scared the poo out of me once I saw the number show up on my caller ID. Thank god the news was good – according to our primary nurse, as long as everything continues to go well we will be able to bring Jack home on Thursday.

Thursday. Meaning the day after tomorrow.

Holy crap.

You would have thought that I had no idea that I’d be bringing a baby home at all by the way I ran around the house like a drunk chicken. I still had bottles to sterilize, diapers and formula to buy, a diaper bag to pack, and a car seat to install among so many other things.

But what was most shocking was the fact that my precious baby, who has been hooked up to monitors and watched 24 hours a day by professionals for the past three weeks, would be handed over to me.

They’re going to just hand my baby to me and let me leave with him. As if I have some idea of what the hell I’m doing.

For the first time since even thinking about conceiving a baby, I felt so unqualified to actually have one.

Yes, I know how to change diapers, feed and burp a baby – I had tons of experience with my sisters and brother. Granted, that was 20+ years ago, but I’m still pretty comfortable with the basics.

But this isn’t a sibling that I could hand off to my mom while escaping out the door. This is my kid. I’m the mommy and I’m the big cheese in charge.*

And I’m not too cool to admit that I’m scared I’m going to mess up.

* Except for the daddy of course, he’s also very much in charge. And very strong and manly too. Yeah.

Like what you see? Share me with your friends!

Buying Myself Presents

So, in case you didn’t know this about me – I have a total weakness for clever marketing tactics. It’s like I should know better, but I just can’t help myself!

My latest obsession is such an awesome product that it’s almost like the maker was spying on me when they came up with it.

It combines my love of awesome packaging, presents, surprises, a low price and oh yeah, the fact that I just popped out a baby. They’re spying on me, right??

Anyways, it’s a company called Citrus Lane and they offer specialized care packages filled with adorable products for you and your baby. When signing up you tell them your child’s age (0 – 3) and they will send you out a box each month filled with full sized products for both of you to enjoy. You don’t know what’s in the box, that’s a surprise – but based on their previous boxes it’s sure to be awesome!

Each month has a theme and March is “Dining Out with Baby” month. Since my husband and I have pretty much eaten out most meals* for the last three weeks, I anticipate this being a perfect fit for us.

I can’t wait to get my first box in the mail and I’ll be sure to fill you all in on whether it was worth it. Either way, it’s a brilliant marketing idea and I wish I would have thought of it first!

If you’re interested in signing up for Citrus Lane and experiencing it with me, click here. Also, here’s a special little code for my readers, use 20TODAY and you can save 20% off the cost of the subscription.

PS. I was not rewarded in any way for mentioning Citrus Lane on my blog. I just think it’s an awesome concept and I’m excited to try it out!

* Since Jack has been in the hospital, we’ve pretty much eaten dinner out every night. Since the NICU is closed between 6:30 – 7:30, it’s a convenient way to spend the hour. However, I never thought I would say this, but I am REALLY SICK of restaurant food!

Like what you see? Share me with your friends!