Momma Kits/Stations

I have been spending so much time on Pinterest lately, it's a little ridiculous. Wait, what am I saying?! There is no such things as too much time on Pinterest. =) I have the nesting feeling but I'm not at the point where I'm acting on it impulsively, hence Pinterest. I currently feel the need to pack our hospital bags and make tons of kits or stations for after the baby is born. I will be updating this post as I actually create the kits/stations.

Here is the to do list I have made:

• Hospital/Diaper Bags (whole separate post coming)
• Breastfeeding Snack Station
• Breastfeeding Living Room Kit
• Diaper Changing Kit
• Momma Bathroom Kit
• Baby Medicine Kit (tacklebox)
• Baby Car Kit
• Postpartum Kit
• New Daddy Kit

All of these, I have found and pinned on my Pregnancy or Baby boards on Pinterest. I cannot wait to get started. Is that sad? I don't think so either. =)

The Breastfeeding Snack Station is on the blog Unskinny Boppy under a post called The Gift that Keeps on Giving. The author originally gave it as a gift to a friend who had just had a baby. I think it would be a great gift to give myself. =) Also, it's a really easy way for J to know what I need when I'm breastfeeding. I know he really wants to bond with the baby but he is being super supportive of my desire to breastfeed as long as I can. He also has a servant's heart and I'm sure he would be able to restock this station easily without having to ask for my opinion.

The Breastfeeding Living Room Kit, Diaper Changing Kit and Momma Bathroom Kit were all found on a blog called Healthy Tipping Point. The post was called New Mom Survival Stations. I will definitely be creating these small kits.

The Baby Medicine Kit is found in 2 posts on All Four Love's blog. The first post is just called Baby Tackle Box. The second post is called Restocking Baby Tackle Box. She goes into more detail on what is in the box since she is restocking it for her 2nd child. She breaks it down by types of medicines you will need for 0-12 months. So excited to make this!!

The Baby Car Kit is something that I've been wanting to do before I even found it on Pinterest. I'm just so glad I don't have to reinvent the wheel! This is in addition to the diaper bag but it ALWAYS stays in the car. Two Twenty One wrote a post on the Baby Car Kit. Loving this idea.

I also think a Postpartum Kit is a great idea. I mean, I will have just brought another human into the world. =) I found this idea from Tall Mom Tiny Baby. The Ultimate Post-Partum Recovery Kit shares what she gave to a friend who had just had a baby. 

The last kit I want to make is for J. Most of the gifts we have been getting are for the baby or me. I want him to feel included and loved. I found the New Daddy Kit on a blog called Life with My Littles. It was part of her blog post I love called 25 Things to Do before Your Baby Is Born. I can't wait to make this for my beloved and see his face when I give it to him!

I would love to hear of any ideas you have to put in the kits or any other kinds of kits you think would be a good idea. I hope to update you soon on the progress of these kits!

Valentine's Day

I'm I don't believe in Valentine's Day. I think it's a holiday made up by card, chocolate, & flower companies. They need an excuse to triple prices. 😃 My Valentine's Day consisted of taking advantage of a Kendra Scott deal and my hubby doing some nesting for me. 

So, confession: as soon as my 3rd trimester came, a few 'symptoms' magically appeared. So far, I haven't experienced any pregnancy 'symptoms' except a growing belly that I can see move. And fatigue. I always feel like I need a nap. But I digress. This was me last Thursday, February 12th. 

It's the only bathroom selfie I have EVER taken. I'm kind of ashamed but it was an exciting day. 

About those 'symptoms' that magically appeared. The first was my waddle. It became very noticeable to me that day. And nesting. The infamous 'symptom' of nesting. I all of a sudden had an urge to wash the 10 onesies I have, the bedding set I don't have, and organize the 20 random items I got from my first shower. Totally silly right?! I have nothing to nest about and yet I was doing it anyways.  

As I've said before, our nursery is small but the perfect size for a newborn. Well, J and I have been using it as a storage  room in addition to the nursery. So, my first task was to get anything that isn't for Gumdrop out. You guys saw the cube shelves I have for storage. There is no closet in the room. However, there is one just outside of it in the hallway. The only problem: nothing is in it. And by nothing, I mean nothing. No shelves, no rods, no light. 

My hubby decided to spend Valentine's Day building out the closet for me. He and my dad put in 3 shelves and 2 hanging rods. After fitting everything, J even painted all of the pieces so that it would match the walls and let Gumdrop's stuff be the focal point. Now, I have somewhere to put more things when I get them.  Look at the finished product. 

Isn't J the best?!?! There is just no light and now, no door. But I approve the no door decision. If you look closely, you can see the closet door hinges are on the side closest to the nursery. That was annoying. I was cleaning out the room while they were buding the closet out.  Every time I wanted to leave the nursery, the closet door was blocking the nursery doorway. So it had to go. We have an extendable plastic rod that we can use to hang some kind of curtain in front of the closet if we want. It depends on how cute and organized I can keep the closet. 

After completing the closet, J did one more thing for me. He hung my grey, white, and orange printables!! I finally decided where I wanted them to go. 

They are in the corner and will be above the glider, whenever or if I ever get one. I'm so excited to see them on the wall. 

I would say this was one of the best Valentine's Days ever for me. It was fun, productive, and full of love. Speaking of productive, I finally started painting the monogram letters for Gumdrop. 

And Monday, I decided the patterns I want on them. I've finished the R!! Post coming as soon as I finish the A and J. 

Elephants Everywhere!

I don't know if you remember this super cute toy hamper my mom bought Santa got us for Christmas.

I cried when I saw it because I'm hormonal I thought it was so cute!

On my birthday, my mom gave me shopping money to take the place of a Christmas gift she bought me. She had bought me the same pregnancy pillow J had. So, instead of having 2 pillows, she said I could buy more maternity clothes. So, on our trip to Marshall's, J and I found these 2 SUPER CUTE gray and white elephant items. Of course, I HAD to have them.

This one will be the hamper.

This one will go in the bottom of the closet and be extra storage in there...because what nursery doesn't need more storage.

When we took them home, my mom said "Do you know how many times I debated getting those for you at Christmas?!" So, it was meant to be. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. See, you got them for me anyways, Mom!

Something else I got for my birthday was for the nursery as well. This time, it was from my in-laws. They were so sweet to send me a present in the mail. This is what I found in the package:

Side 1

Side 2

How cute are those?!?!?! And of course, they are our colors too! And I love the chevron (who doesn't right now). I had seen the door hanger at Hobby Lobby before but not the burlap elephant! Such cute and precious additions to Gumdrop's nursery.

The last elephant addition arrived today in the mail. Our personalized Thank You cards. But I'm not going to show them on here. If you're getting one, I want you to see it then. BUT, I've become obsessed with Tiny Prints since I found these cards. I promise I'll show them on here once I've sent them out....maybe after Gumdrop comes. We'll see.....

Nursery Artwork

There are a few purchases that I have made for Gumdrop already. Well, mostly for the nursery. Some of them make me so happy that I can't help but get giddy about them. The first one is the pair of little orange shoes that we bought to make our announcement photo.

I was sooo excited when I found orange sneakers. It's hard to find gender neutral shoes for a picture, much less ones in orange. If you don't know, J and I graduated from Oklahoma State University. So, we love orange and consider it the most gender neutral color. =) Every time I look at these shoes, I get so happy. We even had them hanging on our fridge with the ultrasound pictures.

Another purchase I made was a set of printables for the wall. I found them on Pinterest. Who doesn't find stuff on Pinterest these days? Anyways, I thought they were perfect because they had white & gray backgrounds, verses, elephants, and orange text. I went to Etsy to buy the prints from igivelove's Etsy shop. These were the original set.

Of course, she was have an end-of-year sale so I could buy one more item and get another free. One of my choices was this print.

I love the verse and what it means to me. J & I have been together almost 9 years, 6.5 of that being married. We wanted to start our family earlier in our marriage but decided it wouldn't be the best idea, especially since I wanted to be a SAHM (stay at home mom). I really wanted to start a family but I desperately wanted to be a SAHM. So, we decided it would be best for us to wait until we were a little older, J finished grad school, and he got a job that could support my dream. And here we are! J will graduate from PTA (physical therapy assistant) school in May and our little Gumdrop plans on arriving in May. God's timing is more perfect than I could have ever thought. The desires of my heart are being answered...5 years later. I look back on it and realize that it would have been really hard to have a baby right out of college and to be a SAHM. I don't think was ready then either; but then again, who is ever really ready to have a baby & be responsible for another person's life?

Ok, back on topic here. The last print that I got from igivelove's Etsy shop was this one.

I love the quote, the polka dots, and that it went with the others. As you can tell, they don't match each other or my colors (except for the set. So, I messaged the shop owner and asked if I could get the 2 single prints to match the "Dream Big, little one" print in the set. She was so kind and changed them for me without any strings attached. Here is what they all look like together & in the frames I chose.

Now, I just need to decide where to hang them on the wall. I'm thinking where my weekly chalkboard is. It's the only wall space that is big enough for all 6. I'm leaving the space above the crib for the monogram letters I'm going to DIY later. 

The most recent artwork I have purchased is from an amazing shop called Scarlet & Gold. It was actually created by a childhood friend of mine. Her team creates amazing prints, canvas prints, and even phone cases, plus so much more. You have to check them out. I was buying prints for my mom & sister-in-law for Christmas on the shop and I got one for the nursery too. It is one that features Psalm 139:14. You can get it here. This is what it looks like in the frame I bought for it.

The last thing in Gumdrop's nursery is something I actually made myself. It was a craft night with the girls' project. We took 5 pieces of pine, stained them, screwed them together with braces - like this -

and then traced typed words onto the front and filled the words in with paint pins. Unfortunately the brackets we used on the back were too tall so I had to angle mine in odd places to make sure I got a screw into every board in both brackets. However, the front turned out great, if I say so myself. 

I love surrounding Gumdrop's room in Scripture. Every piece feels like a prayer surrounding him/her. I cannot wait to put more cute stuff into the space. I've put this on top of the tall cube shelving next to the crib. 

I hope to show you some more progress soon.

Gumdrop's Nursery...the start

We moved back in with my parents right before Christmas due to details of our future being uncertain right now. J will graduate after the baby's born due date (about 2 weeks later), Gumdrop will arrive at some point, J will start a job (no ideas on where yet or the financial situation that will put us in), and I will become a stay-at-home mommy (so we want to live close to J's job). So with all that in the air, my parents graciously offered their home to us again. This time, it's a little different since we are pregnant...oh, and my brother, his wife, and their 2 dogs are there as well. =)

The "bedroom" we will be using for the nursery is small. It is 8 feet by 11 feet with 2 windows on outside walls. The other 2 walls back up to our bedroom and our bathroom. Talk about hard to keep quiet! Someone buy us a sound machine from our registry please!! =)

Here are some pictures of how it looks now, with nothing we have registered for, only things we had or were given already. Hopefully, this will change as I find/get more things. I know that when I find things on Pinterest or blogs, I wish more bloggers said where they got the furniture, decor, or any little cute thing that I really want to steal for my room. So, my goal is to be as helpful in that area as possible. Hopefully, it will be helpful and not annoying. =)

This is the view when you walk into the room from the front door. As you can tell, we are still using this room as a little bit of storage. We need to get rid of the boxes and a few things you see stacked on the cube shelves. The cube shelves are from IKEA. I bought them when I was teaching in a public school to use for my classroom library. They were part of the EXPEDIT series; however, I just found out that the series has been renamed to KALLAX. What you see in this picture are two 2x2 cube shelving units. You can find it here on their website.

This is the crib we were given by a family friend, before we dressed it up with the bedding she gave us. It was given to her by someone else; so, I cannot tell you where it is from or any details about it. I have another crib in mind that I would LOVE to have. Unfortunately, it's just not in the financial cards for us to get everything we want. However, I feel so blessed that we even have someone who is willing to just give us a crib, no strings attached.

This is the view to the right of the entrance. You can see the Dr. Seuss bedding that we were given, stuffed duck animals from my brother's childhood, a sock monkey my in-laws bought Gumdrop for Christmas, and the gray elephant laundry/toy basket that my mom bought Gumdrop for Christmas. I'm pretty sure that was my favorite gift this Christmas. That or the OSU pacifiers my in-laws gave us.

This a view from the small window in the picture above, back towards the entrance. The main point of this picture is the wall space. Right now, my weekly chalkboard is hanging there courtesy of leftover nails from the room's previous use. I may ask for advice on what to hang there later.

This is what the crib and shelving unit look like from the big window you see from the entrance to the room. The shelving unit is similar to the 2x2 ones but it is one unit, 4x2 and stood up on one of the short ends. You can find it here at IKEA. The brown, tan, and blue baskets in both cube units were bought at Michael's when I turned the shelves from classroom bookshelves into my craft room storage. Now, the cube shelves will be used for our sweet Gumdrop. I am currently trying to find a link for you to purchase the baskets if you would like to do that.

We have registered for bedding, baskets, and curtains that match our color theme. We have also registered for a reclining glider. That is the only piece of furniture that will go into the room. It's just too small for anything else. It would go where the elephant basket is right now, in the corner. We will have to see how it will fit and we may have to move one of the 2x2 shelves under the chalkboard to give us the space. We will see!

More on decor for the walls to come soon. Happy Friday!