Sep 30, 2011

Before and after: the nursery

I feel like an ENORMOUS drum-roll should precede this post. You've all been waiting to see Amelia's room for so long now, and today is the day you FINALLY get to see the space she gets to come home to!

The talented Rene at Cottage & Vine thoughtfully pulled together a mood board for the room, taking into consideration my inspiration pictures and likes/dislikes. Here's what she came up with:



As a reminder, this was the boys' nursery, which was my starting point. You can see that transforming it into a girl's space was going to take a little bit of work!





And after a few months of picking things up (on sale when possible or substituting when I needed to), here's where we are today:



I didn't purchase the exact prints that Rene picked out for the crib wall, but I went with similar ones. I'd Pinned a couple of these at some point and realized that if I didn't use them in Amelia's room, I likely wouldn't ever find another place to use them. I ordered them from The Wheatfield on etsy.

The watercolor above the changing table was painted by our family friend Dottie, who has done a custom name watercolor for each of our kids.


I would have used the pelican print here -- and therefore been stretching my design style a bit -- but it's really large and wouldn't fit above the wainscoting once it was framed.

The laundry hamper isn't actually going to sit that far out into the room, but right now there are still about five Rubbermaid containers sitting over there by the crib. I knew you all wanted to see the room so I went ahead and took the pictures, but this is one of the "tweaks" that remains to be made. Just pretend like that hamper is tucked back in the corner.



In that picture you can also see the infamous green rug, which Jake christened with baby powder not too long ago. I ended up purchasing the rug in a larger size than what Rene had priced out, because when I taped the rug size off on the carpet, it looked like a bathmat. Rene was trying to stay within my budget, which I appreciated, but I cut out a couple of things to make way for the larger rug.

A friend who lives nearby took my old blue Pottery Barn chair cushions and used them as the template for the new raspberry cushions. I love the pop of color the cushions make in this corner!



This bookshelf isn't anything to write home about, but I've had it since I was in middle school and it's certainly serviceable. I just bought a few baskets to store blankets, socks and miscellaneous other items that won't fit in the drawers. The basket that says "baby" was a gift from our babysitter Anna.



As for closeups of a few elements in the room, here's a better view of the watercolor that Dottie painted.



She used the curtain fabric as her color inspiration, and I think she did a great job!



Here are some closeups of several of the etsy prints ... I love how the bright colors pop off of the grey walls.





I've never been much of a "floral" person, but I do really love the colors in the curtain fabric. I think it's a print that can grow with Amelia ... the colors are youthful and fun, but the print itself isn't juvenile. The two panels were made by the very talented Melissa, and I highly recommend her services! She added blackout lining to them for me (for a small additional cost) because Amelia's room faces East ... I need to be able to block out that bright, early-morning light.



Here's another view of the print:



I can't thank Rene enough for her keen eye in helping me with the design for the nursery. I adore the way it came out, and I look forward to enjoying many, many hours in it with Amelia! Be sure to check out the details on Rene's design services here.

Sep 29, 2011

We're going home!

This sweet girl and I



get to go home today.



I know it's going to be hard ...



... but she's totally worth it.



Wish us luck.

Sep 28, 2011

24x24: Monday, Sept. 26, 2011



This c-section recovery is a little tough. Thanks for being patient with me! Here's a batch from Amelia's first 24 hours with us. She has already stolen our hearts!


























HOLY SWELLING, BATMAN! Thank goodness most of that is gone now.

Lord willing, Amelia and I will get to go home tomorrow morning. I feel like I've been in the hospital forever!

24x24 is a series posted at totally irregular and unpredictable intervals. I invite you to participate anytime you'd like! Simply post 24 pictures from a 24-hour time period. You can just post the pictures alone, caption them, put a time stamp on each one ... whatever you'd like. If you'd like to write a 24x24 post of your own, grab the button at the top right of my blog and come back and let me know when you've published your post. I'd love to visit!

Sep 26, 2011

Live-blogging: Amelia's birth story

Well, I don't really know how this is going to go, since I didn't have a blog when I was delivering the boys. But I'm going to give it a shot.

Basically I'm starting now and will do my best to keep updating this same post until Amelia arrives. Hopefully I'll be able to include pictures sporadically, but again, this is all-new to me and it may just be brief text until I can come back in and add pictures tomorrow. We've already had a substantial change of plans, so I can't make any promises!

I got my IV around 11:00 last night, and then I felt more prepared for things to move along at whatever pace they needed to. You can't get an epidural until you have your IV (which I found out the hard way with Jake, when I REALLY needed my epidural but they'd stuck me six times for my IV and my veins kept blowing out ... loooooooong wait but finally stick number seven on the underside of my second wrist "took"), so getting the IV in successfully last night was a step in the right direction.

I have to say, it was really odd being at the hospital by myself overnight. I didn't want Grayson to spend a sleepless night in the room with me, so we'd decided in advance that he and my sister would stay at the house with the boys, drop them off for school today and then join me in L&D as soon after 8:00 as they could arrive. Still, it almost made me feel like I wasn't having a baby, since I was here alone and there wasn't a lot of hoopla. I wouldn't change it though ... I think we'll all have a happier day today for it.

On to what else has happened so far: 

2:05 a.m. - My water broke! That meant that the contractions started coming harder, and since they were already pretty strong, I was dreading it.

4:00 a.m. - Even with continued strong contractions, I still wasn't dilating, so my nurse did an ultrasound. SURPRISE! Amelia is transverse, meaning that she's sideways and won't be able to turn head-down for a vaginal delivery. She's going to be a c-section ... my first!

4:40 a.m. - I got my epidural! They were feeling sorry for me because I'd been contracting for so long, so I got my beloved epidural.

5:15 a.m. - I called Grayson to tell him the news. I am now waiting on him to get the kids off to school at 7:00 and then head over to the hospital. We think the section will be around 8:00.

WELL. That whole "live-blogging" thing kind of got shot out of the water when I went from vaginal to c-section. Sorry!

I'll do my best to fill in the blanks now.

6:00 to 7:30 a.m. - I got to sleep for the first time! It wasn't a peaceful sleep, but I'm grateful to have gotten any at all.

7:35 a.m. - The nurse and CRNA came in to prep me for surgery.

8:05 a.m. - Grayson arrived and got gowned and masked up, and the nurses rolled me down to the OR.

8:07 a.m. - Thus began a terrible experience that I don't want to re-live. I think the section went as well as it could have, and the end result is a happy, healthy baby. However, the epidural significantly affected my diaphragm -- and therefore, my ability to breathe -- and it also made me severely nauseated. Those of you who have done it -- and in many cases CHOSE the Section Path -- I applaud you. I couldn't do it again.


8:20 a.m. - Amelia Gray was born! I had to wait several minutes to meet her, but when I saw her, it was love at first sight. She is beautiful! (There was a flat-screen monitor beside me so I could see what was going on.)






Amelia Gray
7 pounds, 6 ounces
20.75 inches long



8:22 a.m. - The long process of closing me up began. Amelia was allowed to be bundled up and sent out with Grayson, but I was another 20 minutes or so in terms of recovery before I could truly go to the Recovery Room.



8:50 a.m. - I was wheeled to Recovery, where Amelia and I did an hour of skin-to-skin contact and she took her first bottle.



9:50 a.m. - We moved up a floor to the room we'll be in until Thursday. (I wouldn't have thought just a week ago that I'd be in the hospital from Sunday to Thursday. Just goes to show that the best-laid plans ...)

9:55 a.m. - My parents and sister came in to have some quality time with our new little star. Everyone had a chance to hold her and love on her. She loved every second of it.



12:25 p.m. - The nurse is prepping Amelia for her first bath! It will be done here in our room, and I'll be sure to take pictures.



We have lots of pictures already, but most of them are on other people's cameras. I'll have to see what I can come up with for you for tomorrow.



Most importantly, THANK YOU ALL for your thoughts and prayers in the days leading up to today, as well as today. Your Tweets, e-mails and comments have meant so much to me! You are really a special little corner of the Internet, and I look forward to continuing to share this journey with you.
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