The Nursery

Back in February, on Valentine's weekend, Alex surprised me with many wonderful things. One of those surprises involved the baby nursery. Prior to that weekend the only thing in the nursery was a crib and white walls. We had many conversations about the nursery and ideas of what we wanted to do but wanted to wait until after the baby shower to really do anything. My baby shower was held that Saturday. Alex and I were spending the weekend at the West Baden Springs Hotel (another surprise). So after the shower, Alex and Dustin had taken all of the gifts to our house while the rest of us went ahead to French Lick as we were all having dinner together. After dinner we toured the West Baden Hotel and then they all headed out. I was extremely exhausted and so was my family so they headed out semi-early. I had made plans with my family to go to Home Depot on Sunday to pick out paint for the nursery. I wanted their opinions since they were in town and I now had the crib bedding to match to. Alex was going to paint soon so I could start getting things organized. We decided to come back to our house first and eat pizza together and then while the guys were watching IU basketball the women would head into Jasper to Home Depot. Little did I know that Alex still had surprises for me. Someone had asked me what all I got at the shower, so I went to the nursery where all of the gifts were taken on Saturday. The door was closed and as I opened the door there was Dustin standing there with a camera. I thought he was taking pictures of some of the gifts and I didn't want to interrupt him so I closed the door back but not all of the way. As I looked back through the cracked door I noticed the walls were yellow. I couldn't beleive it. I was completely surprised!! Friday night of that weekend, Alex had made arrangements with my dad to come to our house and paint the walls 2 shades of yellow. He had worked with my sister Tammy to determine the best colors that would go with the bedding that I had picked out. Then on Saturday, while I was at my baby shower, the guys came to our house and hung the wall border. Little did I know that my family had left 'early' Saturday evening to head to our house to put my nursery together. They had worked for a couple of hours that evening, unpackaging everything I had gotten at the baby shower earlier that day, putting things together and organizing my nursery. It brought tears to my eyes to know how wonderful my husband was in organizing a surprise such as this. He did such a wonderful job!!! I was also quite relieved to know that a big chunk of my nursery was complete. Over the past month and a half, we have purchased a few more items, hung things on the wall, and washed all of the clothes, sheets, towels, and blankets. The final touch was going to be placed this past weekend but unfortunately it did not go as planned. My sister Melanie had given me an Uppercase Living saying for Christmas for the nursery to be hung on the wall above the crib. Needless to say, we had difficulties with the saying not coming off of the paper to put on the wall and were unable to hang it. Such a bummer! I will have to come up with another alternative for that wall. I am thinking about putting the babies name there once it is known. I am now happy to share with all of you pictures of our nursery. We are pleased with how it all turned out. Now we just wait for the arrival of the baby. Enjoy!!!


I was surprised!!


My family trying to add the final touch. An Uppercase Living saying 'A wee bit of heaven, drifted down from above, a handful of happiness, a heart full of love'


The crib with bedding and accessories


The bedding set - My First ABC by Kidsline


The mobile


The hamper from the My First ABC collection


The glider where I will spend lots of time feeding. The yellow afghan on the back of the glider was made by my Aunt Pam and the green one was made by Alex's Aunt Arline.


This shelf displays items we received during our difficult month of September 2006 when we lost our first child and I had open heart surgery.


We will display this afghan given to us by co-workers at Kimball Electronics to remember our daughter in heaven that we lost September 7, 2006.


Willow Tree Figurines given to me during this pregnancy. These are wonderful additions to my current Willow Tree collection.


The changing table and wall art that goes with the My First ABC collection.


The drawers are stocked with some neutral clothes to get me started since we don't know the sex of the baby.