The Nursery

So what was I doing when my water broke Tuesday night? I was writing a blog entry about the nursery we had finished that afternoon. So while we eagerly await Julian's discharge papers, here are some pics his new "crib." This entry, by the way, has some funny lines in it given what happened only minutes later...
The key to getting a nursery done on the fly and with little funds? Have really generous friends and family. It's a bit laughable to me now how much I worried that this room would not come together before the baby came. In the end, we kept the paint color as it was. Grandpa M. helped us take down the Finding Nemo border, and we were left with a happy green that allowed me to work with a palette of bright pastels (is that an oxymoron?), browns, and whites. Here it is with almost everything in place. We still need to hang a quilt rack, but we are hoping to solicit Grandpa P.'s help with that this weekend. So here it is. All we need now is you, Baby.

The crib Ben's parents helped us buy, haul, and put together. The rug was in my office at the old house, and Sully has already claimed it as his spot in the room.

The glider is from my sister's house, and I made the curtains one Saturday afternoon. I'm ridiculously proud of these curtains. I didn't use a pattern, and I think they still are much cuter than anything I found at big box stores or online.

This was the quilt I started spring break 2010. Once I finished the top, it sat in my closet for nearly a year before I hired my friend Lois to quilt it. Beautiful, isn't it?

The bookshelf has been with me since at least my apartment in Virginia (maybe before, I can't remember). The whale Kleenex box was a gift made by our friend Matt and the elephant was knitted by our friend Gabrielle. Both are dear gifts with lots of meaning for me. One puppy is a miniature Sully; the other was an Easter gift  from Grandma P. The books were part of the loot we got at my Iowa friends' wonderful book shower as well as hand-me-downs from Baby's more grown-up cousins. Baby also has another shelf full of books in the living room - this is what you get when your mom is an English professor. And yes, our baby has his/her own iPod and dock. The iPod is a hand-me-down from Daddy. We are total yuppy parents, I know.

I got these great watercolor prints from Etsy seller Studio Tuesday. They remind me of the whale watching trip I went on with my friends Jim and Megan early in the pregnancy, which you can read about here.

The changing table is a dresser that was originally my sister's and was handed down to me at some point (probably junior high). It was still my dresser in the old house, but I handed it down to baby in hopes that it might get me to finally buy that grown-up bedroom set I've been wanting. We'll see. The white shelf and the matching one on the other side of the room are more of those things I've had forever (as well as the basket nestled inside it). The quilt rack, which was given to us by Ben's grandparents when we bought our North Liberty house, will go above here.

I cut out this mobile, and Grandma P. finished it for me. Noticing a pattern here?

Mindy gave this to me one Christmas or Birthday, and as I've said before, I think it's appropriate for this Baby.