The Nursery

We are almost completely finished with the nursery so I thought I'd give you a little tour.

A sorta-pano of the room - it's pretty small so it's hard to photograph the whole thing! The wall to the left (behind the door, so you can't see it) is the closet. We've since moved the mobile down a little bit, which you'll see in one of the photos below.

The crib, like the dresser and bookshelf, is from Ikea. My friend Nicoal made the blanket hanging on the front rail (the reverse is minky) and my grandma cross-stitched the blanket on the side. Extra sheets and mattress pads are in the drawers underneath, and the diaper pail is on the right with a basket on top that I've been using as a laundry basket but will be out of there once we start using the nursery.

The crib and bookshelf. So many cute little stuffed animals and art, some made by family members or friends. And you can see we moved the mobile down. It'll stay there until she can move around in her crib and then we'll remove it so she's not tempted to grab it.

The sunny day was blowing out my photo of the dresser/changing table, so I waited until dusk to take one. Based on several forum posts I read, I removed the straps from the changing pad, put a non-skid rug mat underneath it, and put a king-sized pillowcase on top. It's not contoured like the pad itself but it was much cheaper and works just fine. I have two, so that I can switch them out when needed. Dexter (our cat) had been sleeping on it (I don't blame him, a nice high vantage point right by the window) so lately usually either the pillowcase is off or I have things sitting on top of it so that he doesn't leave his hair all over the place.

And my favorite part of the whole room! The trees are vinyl clings that my mom found at Joss & Main. They were actually a huge pain because the wall is just textured enough that the vinyl really doesn't want to stick very well. It took several hours to put the trunks up, and in the morning one of them had fallen. I went in there and used a roller on them every day for a week, just to be sure they'd stick. The branches were much easier (though we thought they'd fall because they were so much thinner than the trunks, so less sticky surface area), and the little animals were part of the decor at one of my showers. The branch on the top left is begging for a little vinyl bird, which I will someday find on Etsy. And the stars are from one of my showers as well - when the ceiling fan is on they flutter a little, which will be interesting for Ivy to look at from her crib or the glider once she can see that far away.

The glider was a gift from a friend. It has really nice back support. The blanket was made by my cousin. The bunny light is mostly so that I don't trip over anything at night; it'll have to be moved once Ivy is old enough to play with the cord/outlets. The picture is actually a gorgeous paper cut - The woman in the middle is telling stories to her kids and the stories are in the vines around her - Bremen Town Musicians, Alice in Wonderland, etc.

The little book cart is really nice - it has tons of space for the plentiful books Ivy has, some cubbies for toys, shallow drawers, a little ledge in the back for pens (so she can pin paper up on the back and draw on it), and cloth pockets on each end. Right now the pockets on the chair side hold nursing pads and lanolin, and will probably hold a few other breastfeeding-related items the more time I spend in there.

On the back of the door, which I didn't take a picture of, are three baby carriers - one for when she's super tiny and two for when she's 15+ pounds. The front of the door has a huge blue and green styrofoam "I" that we brought back from Texas - it was part of the giant "REGISTRATION" sign that was on the back wall at Conference. It's probably three feet tall.

We have a few diapers left to get (they're on their way), and then we're pretty much done buying stuff! Of course, that doesn't mean it's not super tempting to wander around in Target, looking at everything, but I was proud that I managed to come away from there yesterday with only a package of muslin swaddlers (since it'll be so warm when she needs to be swaddled). It feels good to be pretty much done - now pretty much all that's left for us to do is wait.