Ready and Waiting

While most people are getting ready for holiday parties, here at the house we are getting ready for a baby.

If all things go according to plan, we’ll be growing our family a bit in the next few weeks and we figured it would be a good idea to have a place to put the new one.

We just put the finishing touches on the room last week and it turned out really cute so I thought I would share some photos of the room along with some of the strategies and advice we took.

The first thing we learned about preparing a nursery is there is no shortage of advice on how to prepare a nursery. Here are two little tidbits that we heard more than once:

Nursery Advice #1: Don’t spend much time or money on it. The baby doesn’t know and just needs a place to sleep. Spend your resources elsewhere.

Nursery Advice #2: Make the nursery a sanctuary for you and your baby! You’ll be spending stressful nights in there so you want it to be as comfortable  and soothing as possible.

We tried very hard to strike a middle ground with our nursery. I think we succeeded!

The Business Table

Besides a crib, we figured having some sort of central command for baby changing was important. Rather than buy a whole separate area for it though, we just setup the top of a large dresser for baby changing needs.

The dresser was a bit pricy (from Ikea) but other than that this section was pretty limited. The shelving was free (got it from a friend), the streamer things were literally $1 and are just kind of fun.

We do have an entire drawer of little wipes and swaddles.

I can’t wait to make baby burritos.

And then we have a little drawer which Betsy smartly divided into little bins for what I believe is the smallest clothing I’ve ever seen.

It’s amazing to me that we are about to have a child that can fit in these little things.

We don’t have much clothing yet I think, in part, because we don’t know the sex. I expect we will get a surge of dresses and/or cowboy boots once we know the deal there.

Bets found this cute little screen print that fits nicely on the dresser also.

Command Headquarters

Next to the crib we also have a tall bookcase with some toys and books and stuff. It is also command central for various supplies including:

A Humidifier. Our house gets pretty dry in the winter so this will be good.

A Video Monitor. I went back and forth on whether or not we needed this and I think the short answer is NO. We don’t. Our house is small enough that if a baby cries, you can hear it anywhere in the house. But I like technology so I’ll be damned if I can’t watch my new baby nap in color.

White Noise Machine. Our house isn’t exactly quiet. We figured a white noise setup might be good.

Where we Saved Money

We tried to strike a balance here and actually found some great ways to save money in this room. Here’s a rundown of some of the tricks we used:

Toy Chest – I stole my old toy chest from my mom. I just painted it a bright color and it looks as good as new! We also got a bunch of old toys like these dolls. The lamb and the bear I’ve had since I was a kid and the corduroy lion was too cute to not buy.

Rocking Chair – We snagged an old rocking chair from my family and just gave it a little TLC. My mom made comfy pillows for it and I think it will work for rocking the baby. If it’s not comfortable, we might upgrade to a more plush glider chair, but we are going to try it since the price was right!

White Noise Machine – Instead of buying a new white noise machine, I rigged up an old iphone (an iphone 2 which somehow still runs) and a cheap speaker system. I just put one 10 minute white noise track on the phone and had it loop. When you turn it on it just plays that one track. Free white noise!

Used Books – We wanted a lot of books so if people said that they wanted to get us some books, we pointed them toward the used section on Amazon. You can find lots of used books there for cheap.

Where We Splurged

While we tried to be realistic, we also splurged on some areas… not all of which were necessary. It’s okay if you acknowledge it, right?!

Bedding – We didn’t buy the most expensive crib in the world, but we bought a nice one that had no toxins or fire retardants and was made with real wood. We also splurged on a few nice organic cotton sheet sets. Baby is gonna be sleeping plush.

Rug – My favorite part of the room is the rug. Was it expensive? Yes. Was it unnecessary? Yes. Do I love it? Yes.

Hopefully we will be able to use both the bed/crib and the rug for many years!

Artwork – It turns out your baby really doesn’t care if you have crap on the walls. This is what I hear anyway. So really the artwork is for the parents I guess.

I can just see it now: It’s the middle of the night and I’m trying to soothe a baby by learning shapes and letters! The baby will most likely respond via projectile vomit.

It’s Cozy

The thing I learned from piecing together the nursery is to listen to advice from parents. But, at the same time, you have to make it fit your lifestyle.

For us, that was making sure that the baby (and us) have a cozy room to chill in without completely exhausting the baby’s future college fund. (Sorry kid, no college for you… but you do have this Louis Vuitton diaper dispenser!)

The room has immediately passed the cozy test. Porter naps there for a few hours a day now.

I’m not sure if he thinks it’s his room or if he’s just waiting for his new best friend.

Now all that’s left is the waiting…