Making a Space for Moon

Now that the little guy is here, and everyone can know he's a boy, I can (finally) show off some of the more gender-revealing stuff (and other miscellaneous details) that we put together to get ready for him.

When we moved in here, we kept a room aside for the baby that we were hoping would come before too long. Impressively, we even managed to keep the room mostly empty while we waited. Then, once we were finally expecting the little one, we just had to give the room some character to get it ready!

Here it is before:

It was kind of funny, but with Townshend, I had all these great ideas for how to decorate early on. This time around, I felt stumped and had great trouble coming up with ideas.

So, to try to get things going, I started with the basics: room color. Since this baby was due in January, I knew the room would have to be painted while the weather was still warm enough to open windows. That meant that we picked the room color before we knew the gender. But gender is a silly way to pick a room color anyway; we went with another equally infallible supposition: Second kids are always more intense, more spirited, etc. So, we went with a nicely mellow blue.

It was amazing what a change of color did for the room; it felt like a space for living now rather than a room that was waiting. Also, with the color of the room, ideas for a general theme finally started coming in. If it was a girl baby, then I could add accents with birds and things like that. If it was a boy baby, I could use stars. As it happened, it was to be a boy baby, so stars it was!

First, a thrifted lamp:

It wasn't terrible to start, but it lacked the flavor I was going for. A little spray paint and some stamped-on stars later, it was much more interesting:

Next up, the closet. I failed to get a real Before picture (before I ripped out the lone wire shelf), but just imagine it was something mostly useless, very much like this one:

And, here it is post-demolition, pre-patching:

And finally, completed (with functionality):

Then I assembled a little night stand. In keeping with the color theme, we went with a white one but, of course, it needed some dressing up. So I switched out the knob for a cuter one and added some patterned contact paper.

Then, as with Townshend, I created a painting for the new little guy.  I still really like the thick texture of paint on canvas, so I used a palette knife to layer it on and swirl it around. Since stars was the theme, I used several different shades of blue (for space) and then topped it all off with stenciled stars of various sizes.

Here it is, waiting to dry:

Finally, Hubby (and my brother) assembled a big shelf from IKEA (this was the second go-round; turns out, when the instructions say two people needed, they really mean it!)

Now, after that little preview of the bits and pieces, here's a glimpse of the room all rightly assembled:

(Getting Ready for) Introducing Moon

So, our first baby was given the online code name of "Townshend" - as in the great Pete Townshend (you can see the whole story over here). And we even made a little shirt for him to come home in:

It has worked out so well for the last few years, that we're keeping with our plan of using the members of The Who for the code names. So, our newest little one will be known online as "Moon" - for the fabulous Keith Moon.

With the Townshend shirt, I was able to find a picture online that worked pretty much as a straight transfer to the shirt (just had to make it into a silhouette). Turns out the Moon shirt was a little more complicated; I couldn't quite find the perfect shot that matched what I had in my head. Instead, I gathered a few different images as inspiration and came up with this sketch:

Here is the finished beauty:

Since the due date is mid January, I opted for a long sleeve this time. And, oh my, tiny baby clothes are so cute! Can't wait for our Moon to be here already!

Baby Room Prep

So, since Hubby and I are being stinkers and not sharing the gender of our baby just yet, there's been a limit to how much of the baby-room prep that I'm able to safely share. However, that does not mean that things haven't been busy behind the scenes!

First, we painted the baby room and closet ('cuz closets should always have some color!). We painted during the summer, before we knew the gender, but going on the assumption that 2nd babies are more high spirited and stuff, we went with a nice chill blue; that's a great color that can be decorated to fit any little girl or boy. Then the closet is a fabulous creamsicle orange/yellow.

Next, we scored a nice crib off the local, online exchange group, so we wrapped it in blankets, crammed it into our little car and drug it home. Hooray for hatchbacks!

With a little assistance from my ever-ready helper, the crib was assembled.

Then, I got some adorable nursery artwork and fixed up some frames for them:

I love this method of upcycling old things.. start out with some old frames from the thrift store, pick out a few sheets of scrapbooking paper and boom! Customized frames perfect for the baby room!

And finally, since this little one is due to be born in the middle of January, I'm thinking that warm blankets will be something we use fairly regularly. So, in anticipation, I've sewed a couple really simple blankets (two sheets of fleece and boom, cozy blanket!). Here's one that's safely unisex; all kids like the zoo!

There's still a ways to go until we are ready to welcome home our bundle of joy, but it feels good (amid all the restless waiting) to be making progress!

Moving Right Along

Nine months can feel like FOREVER. Turns out, I'm not a super patient person with high tolerance for waiting. I'm also not a big fan of being pregnant; I'd rather be done with this pregnancy nonsense and get on with the getting to know the baby. However, I also would like a fully-baked baby, so... we wait.

23 weeks

Happily, there are little milestones that come along with some regularity, so that the waiting seems less interminable. Like, check-ups that finish with my taking a picture home. Those are pretty fun. We went in for the 20wk ultrasound a while back but, as it happens, Moon was feeling uncooperative that day and the technician wasn't able to verify that there were, for sure, two arms in there. So, back I went, just to be sure.

This time around Moon was feeling more accommodating and now we know there are, indeed, two arms in there. However, this time around, the baby didn't feel like turning a profile. So, while I did get to see an entertaining amount of wiggling, I didn't get to bring home any cute pictures as a consolation prize. Still, only four more months of waiting.. better than nine, yes? Moving right along.