Bella's bed

Here are the promised pictures of Bella's new bed that my mom has been working so hard on this week. She made the bed skirt, the bumpers, and even a matching sheet. My sister Rachael made the blanket.



My mom also made me some burp cloths. We went to buy diapers at Target and then she was going to stitch the fabric down the center, but we couldn't find ones we liked. So my mom just bought fabric and made the whole thing. They turned out so cute. She is going to make matching bibs too, but since I don't need those for a few months she is going to work on those at home and send them to me. And now for a few pictures of Anthony... He found his hat this morning and was trying to put it on, but was having a little bit of difficulty.

The baby room

The nursery is as ready as it's going to be for now. Anthony and Isabella will be sharing a room. I'm not sure how well this is going to work out, but since I don't have another bedroom upstairs and I'm not ready to let one of them be all alone downstairs, we're going to try it. I also was not wanting to have to repaint the room to make it more girly, so I had to work with the blue walls. My sister Rachael found some really cute fabric on ETSY and made me a very cute baby blanket. The baby blanket has enough blue in it to go with the room, but is still mainly pink. It's really perfect. (you can click on the picture to enlarge it and see the blanket better.) When my mom comes next week she is going to make a matching bumper and skirt to complete the crib bedding. This weekend my sisters Natalie and Rachael (the artistic one's in the family) made these very cute pictures to hang on the wall. They are made with pastel chalk, paper, ribbon, silk flowers, glass beads, modge podge and glaze. I love how they turned out, and they look so cute in the room. It's a shame the walls are so short in the bedroom, I'd like to hang them closer to the crib, but there isn't any wall space there.







Here is Anthony's side of the room. He got the new crib because it will turn into a toddler bed eventually when he is older. The pictures on the wall were painted by my sister Natalie.
And now for a couple cute pictures of my sweet boy...

The nursery is ready!

So they say you start nesting shortly before you go into labor, and get super productive and lots of things done in anticipation for the baby's arrival. I think this is referring to the mother though. But what does it mean if the father all of a sudden gets super productive and gets things done? Last night I had Todd hang a curtain rod and a book rack in the nursery and then he kept going. Next thing I knew he was putting together the baby bouncer and the baby swing. Today he planted the mums that I've been asking him to do for weeks.

I guess I've been pretty productive myself this week, but I tribute that more to the fact that my mom is here than that I am nesting. I have to get these things done while she's here if I want her help. I also have my sister Shannon coming for Thanksgiving, and I wanted the nursery done before she gets here. Last night I finished the nursery, there is nothing left to do, except wait.

Here are the nursery pictures I've been promising to post.

My sister Natalie painted the pictures on the wall. Here is the football field wall, and the toy boxes that are mostly empty now,

but I'm sure it will fill up quickly.

My mom made the curtains for me yesterday, they turned out great. I love them. I still haven't gotten my new chair I ordered, so the rocking chair will suffice for now. I love the little book bin on the wall too, it is full of baby books given to me at my showers.

I took this picture last night when it was dark out,

but you can see the curtains better in it.

The crib corner of the room.

The clothes hanging on the wall rack are the ones I'm trying

to decide between to pack for the hospital.

The crib up close.
A closet full of clothes, all washed and ready to wear.

I'm really glad to have such a big closet.

All those clothes are just for the first 3 months.

I hope he gets to wear all of them before he outgrows them.

Another Great Baby Shower

This past Sunday I had another great baby shower, put on by Todd's family. His family and friends circle is very large. There were tons of people there, okay probably more like 40, but it was a lot. I got so many great gifts for the baby, and even a few for myself. I am so thankful to have so many kind and generous people in my life. My baby is spoiled and he hasn't even been born yet. Although its getting very close.

Which reminds me of a dream I had last night. Very disturbing. I was in the hospital and woke up with a large incision across the middle of my stomach and no recollection of why. I asked the nurse what happened and she said I had had the baby but he was so big I had to have a C-section. He weighed 8 lbs 25 oz. (yes I know there is only 16 oz in a pound, but it's a dream) Then I wanted to know who did the C-section because I was not happy about the size of the incision nor how high on my stomach it was. Turns out it was some very old lady doctor who looked more like a grandma than a doctor. And that's all I remember about the dream. Weird huh?

Okay, back to reality...

Here are all my gifts that now need to be organized and put away. The crib is full of clothes too. This is going to be a BIG project. I may need some help from someone who is really good at organizing, I think my sister Francie might just be the perfect one for that. So if your not busy this weekend Francie, I have plans for you.

I just got these toy bins yesterday and had Todd put them together for me. I think I already have enough toys to fill them up. Oh and you can sort of see the football field wall, it's almost done, just needs some dirt painted on it for the finishing touches.

Here is a better picture of the wall. Todd asked me if I was using a college or pro football field because he didn't think it was done to scale properly. I'm hoping the baby doesn't notice that I didn't use a scale, I just made it up.

Here is the little rocking/reading/feeding nook in the room. But I have a problem. I bought the night stand, and the book bin you see on the floor (that still needs to be hung) and the toy bins from the same store and in the same stain, but when they arrived they are different colors of wood. So do I keep them since I like them all, or take something back? I now have 4 different pieces of furniture in the room of different colors of wood. The wooden rocking chair is going to be replaced soon (which will eliminate 1 wood) with a really comfortable chair that rocks, glides, swivels and reclines. I'm going to have to think about it for a few days. It's not that simple to return them either, I threw away my receipts and the boxes they were shipped in, so I'd have to drive to Chicago, where the closest store is, to return them which would be a real pain.

Basically I have a lot of work to do still, so as much as I want this baby to be born soon, I'm beginning to think I need the next 4 weeks to get everything ready. So as long as he doesn't weigh 8lbs 25oz. I guess I can wait another 4 weeks.