Monday, February 20, 2012

Project Nursery

I am a planner. Since I got pregnant, I knew I wanted to have the nursery finished by the third trimester so I can relax in the last few months.  I did what any good project manager does and created a timeline and recruited the best to execute my plan.  For the last few months we've been tackling the action items and now I am SO happy to say that the nursery is over 90% complete with 2 weeks until the third trimester starts!

Before: The junk room.

Phase 1: Prep work
I decided on a green jungle theme before we even knew if we were having a boy or a girl. I want the nursery to be gender neutral so it can be used for this baby and our next. I've tried to learn from friends mistakes in going overboard with pink or blue only to have a second child a different gender than the first.

Phase 1 of Project Nursery was paint. I found a a nursery color scheme on pinterest that I liked and copied it pretty closely. It's a two tone green with a white chair rail. Mom and Aunt Shirley volunteered to come over and paint the green base a few weeks ago. They did a super job and all I had to do was supervise and provide food :)

This weekend was Phase 2. I had a million things that needed to be done so I called in the proverbial village.  My mom and dad, my sister and brother-in-law, and Ward's sister and brother-in-law joined us for a weekend long project extravaganza! 

We broke into project "teams" and each team got a list of action items to complete. Yes, I'm "that" person!  But, I really wanted to make sure everything got done while we had the help. I'm sick that I didn't get any pictures of Ward's sister and brother-in-law, but they came over in the middle of the chaos and I was distracted.

The guys worked on the chair rail while the girls worked on the decorations.
Future Grandpa in a rare moment of not cursing the chair rail

Future Uncle Ryan working hard on his action items
Future Aunt Loni getting crafty
And we pretty much finsihed EVERYTHING!  I'm over the moon with how everything turned out and very grateful to everyone who helped. It would have taken Ward and I 10 weekends and lots of marital drama to get all this done. Not to mention the fact that I am not crafty at all and really needed the decoration assistance.

And now......drum roll please......THE NURSERY!

***If you click on the picture it will get bigger.
View from the door
Adorable Jungle Animals

I plan on spending many hours rocking my baby in this chair
My favorite decoration. A present from Aunt Loni and Uncle Ryan.

In case you missed it in the first picture, we decided on a name. His name is Colin Edward Boswell.  Colin because we liked the name and Edward after Ward (a lot of people don't realize that Ward is short for Edward).


I LOVE the way the letters turned out.


Now we just have to do the mental preperations and acquire all the clothes, diapers, wipes, bottles, and etc... that babies need. We start baby classes at the hospital next month and Ward bought 4 baby books to read. I'm 26 weeks now and couting down until the third trimester starts!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

24 Weeks


How far along: 24 Weeks


Total weight gain: 11.5 pounds total


Food craving: Anything! Seriously, I'm just hungry all the time.
 

Cankles, Stretch Marks, Waddling: Luckily no.  I changed this from Maternity Clothes because it's a little obvious at this point!

What I’m looking forward to: Finishing the nursery and entering the 3rd trimester. Just a few more weeks! We finished painting last week thanks to my mom and aunt. The furniture gets delivered today and then we will have a decorating party in 2 weeks! I can't wait to see it all put together.
Milestones: We've reached the point of viability!  Most hospitals won't give the baby any chance of survival if it's born prior to 24 weeks. The odds vary greatly by source, but at least at this point if Ward Jr were to be born he would have a chance. Every week he stays in my belly increase the odds.

Best moment this week: Feeling Ward Jr kick!  He's getting strong and Friday morning he kicked so much that he moved my tea cup that I was resting on by belly.