the nursery: walls and trim

I'm finally sitting down to blog about the nursery at almost 38 weeks pregnant.  I didn't want to start blogging about it until we actually finished it - which only happened last weekend.  When I started thinking about what our nursery would look like (before I was even pregnant) there were things I knew I wanted and some things I knew I definitely didn't want.  

I knew I didn't want anything gender specific when it came down to the "bones".  No ballerina pink walls, no baby blue walls.  Nothing frilly.  Nothing that screamed "a boy lives here".  A room that our child could grow up in and now grow out of.  

I knew I wanted something bold - like dark walls.  I considered black walls, or very, very dark charcoal grey or a rich navy blue.  I knew I wanted white furniture to contrast with the dark walls.  

Even though I like the look of most nurseries that have light colored walls with sheer curtains and white furniture, I knew that I wanted a room that felt cozy and warm and ideal for sleeping.  A room that could be dark in the middle of the day if needed for naps but still bright with the curtains open for play.   

So, here we go!  Here is the room before I laid my DIY, pregnant, impatient hands on it.

As you may recall, our friend Derek grew up in this room and it looks the same as it did when he was little.  And as much as I love my Kansas Jayhawks, I knew the wallpaper had to come down like the nets did in 2008.

When I painted the upstairs hallway (walls: BM in Stonington Grey, trim and doors: BM Advance in white) I went ahead and painted the nursery door and closet doors.

And while I had a primer-soaked paint roller, I painted over the blood-red walls.

After painting the doors, closet doors, and the walls below the chair rail, it was time to look at the border that surrounded the room.

As far as removing wallpaper?  I've never done it.  I of course perused the internet finding cheap and easy ways to remove it successfully.  I thought I would go the cheapest route: hot water.  I filled out an old spay bottle with near boiling water, got out a drywall scraper, an oven mitt so I didn't burn my hands, and a Wendy's plastic knife for scoring the soaked wallpaper. 

I sprayed down a good chunk of wallpaper and let it soak for about 10 minutes.

Then I scored the wallpaper with the plastic knife after it had soaked for a while.

Then I used the scraper (that we used for mudding our drywall) to scrape off the wallpaper.  I found that the longer I impatiently waited for the hot water to do its job, the easier the paper came off. 

It came off a lot faster and easier than I thought it would!

When it soaked longer, I could pull off huge chunks without using the scraper.

Ta-da!  No more wallpaper.

After all the wallpaper was removed I painted the trim from off-white/banged-up to bright white.  It's waaaay easier to cut in with wall paint than vice versa.  Plus, I could paint outside of the lines knowing I would cut in with the wall paint very soon.

And now for the wall color.  Drum roll, please!  HALE NAVY by Benjamin Moore.  It's a very rich, velvety navy blue and I love it.  It's very dark but I knew most of the furniture would end up being white and I am a sucker for that kind of contrast. 

Here it is after the second coat.

I changed up the order of painting for specific reasons.  The trim paint requires 16 hours between coats (Ahhh!  I'm too impatient for that).  However, the wall paint only requires 2-4 hours between coats.  I didn't want this project to drag out for too long, so here's how I did it:

1. paint 1st trim coat
2. paint 1st wall coat without overlapping wet trim paint that is on the wall
3. wait 2-4 hours (i.e. take a nap, stuff my prego face)
4. paint 2nd wall coat
5. paint 2nd trim coat early the next day
6. paint 1st and 2nd coats of cutting in with Hale Navy later in the day (not necessarily 16 hours later, more like 6)

There you have it, the walls have been prepped and painted.  Most people don't get too excited about painting walls but I sure do.  There is nothing like a fresh coat of paint - especially when going from red and white to a bold, navy blue.

Next up… refinishing a $50 Craigslist dresser.

baby bump: 37 weeks

How far along:  37 weeks.

Size of baby:  Watermelon.   

Maternity clothes:  Not only am I wearing Ehren's clothes, but now I have to pick and choose what I wear because some of his shirts are too short for me now and my belly hangs out.  

Weight gain:  Let's just say that the floors squeak more when I walk on them. 

Sleep:  The time change happened this weekend so there's that.  It's just making me stay up later yet still get up at the same time which makes me tired.  But I guess I can also attribute my fatigue to being 37 weeks pregnant. 

Exercise:  You can make fun of me all you want but I've been taking Cozy on walks… with the stroller.  I look ridiculous walking with an empty stroller but I'd rather practice with Cozy with it empty than with an 8 pound baby.  At first he was scared of walking next to the wheels but he caught on quite quickly.  

Best moment of the week:  Friday coming around.  Finally.  It was a long week with lots of contractions and headaches.  My doctor told me at my appointment on Friday that I was probably exhausted, needed to rest and do nothing this weekend, get pampered and get a massage.  Did I listen?  Yes.  Did I follow through with it?  No.  But it was still nice to be told to rest.

Also, WE FINISHED THE NURSERY!  So exciting.  Can't wait to blog about it. 

Movement:  Ehren finally got to feel her do a spin move.  This is where she suddenly flips or rolls over and it's a huge movement and always takes me by surprise.  She kind of has stage fright in the fact that whenever she's moving a lot, I tell Ehren to look or feel and then she stops.  It never fails.  But he just happened to have his hand on my belly when she did her spin move.  He was just as surprised as I was. 

Cravings:  I don't really feel like I have cravings anymore.  I feel like I'm just eating normal.  I try to keep my meals as balanced as possible with fruit, veggies, good protein and carbs of course.  

Belly button in or out:  Well, it's definitely not in!

Wedding ring on or off:   On. 

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Nope. 

What I miss:  Walking without getting contractions.  Getting my heart rate above 100 bpm with exercise.  Not feeling like a beached whale when I get out of bed. 

What I am looking forward to:  Getting this baby out of me!  

What I am not looking forward to:  The means by which a baby comes out.  

Labor signs:  Lots of contractions this week.  Friday I thought I was going into labor because they were painful and frequent.  However, they were mostly with activity and it was a long week so I didn't really think I was going into labor.  

Symptoms:  Headaches.  Contractions.       

Nursery:  Done.  Finally!

Emotions:  I had a complete break down on Friday night.  I was exhausted from the week… just beyond tired.  Thank goodness I already had dinner in the crock pot (beef stroganoff) and all I had to do was cook noodles because I could not do anything more than that.  I was just kind of irritable (which has not been normal for me during this pregnancy, surprisingly) and what sent me over the edge was bay leaves falling out of the cabinet and spilling everywhere.  I left the scene, walked to the couch, and just started bawling.  Like ugly cry, bawling.  It felt so good to cry.  I just kept saying "I'm… so… tired!" between sobs and I felt like all I could do was lie limp on the couch and let it all out.  Ehren was of course by my side and encouraging me to not lift a finger the rest of the night.  (Except for my fingers to my face to feed me and the baby.)  After my melt down, I felt so much better and I almost think I had more energy!  I'm thankful for a wonderful husband (who silently picked up the bay leaves) who doesn't make me feel crazy.  I love him. 

Week in review:

Monday morning started off great.  Sike!  I slipped on ice in the parking lot walking into work.  I did not fall but I caught myself pretty hard to prevent falling.  I was told to call the doctor if anything like this happened.  I didn't think anything was wrong but I thought it's better to be safe than sorry.  The nurse called me back and said the doctor wanted me to go up to labor and delivery to get monitored.  Of course, the first thing that came to my mind was, "but I've got patients to see!".  I followed orders and headed up to L&D.  

Ehren wanted pictures and videos of her heartbeat.  It was actually very nice to lie down, watch Food Network, and listen to our baby's heartbeat for an hour and a half.  There were no concerns and now we have proof of how active she is. 

Nothing like walking with an empty stroller and my dog.  

Cozy thinks that any of the baby's stuff that is "stuffed" is something he needs to play with.  Take the infant car seat insert, for example… he took it right out of the box!

Is he trying to tell me he wants a bed with a little more head/neck support?

Who needs head and neck support when you have a dad who loves to cuddle?  He just melts when Ehren holds him.

Cozy and Marbles, sleeping in the same position.

Cozy always likes to have two toys in his mouth. 

I hope our daughter's butt is as cute as Cozy's.

Please, mom?  

You don't really need a magnifying glass to see that my belly button is sticking out or that my stomach is larger but Ehren just wanted to confirm what he saw with his naked eye. 

We got a new toilet this weekend!  It's almost as exciting as finishing the nursery… or having a baby!  Okay, maybe not, but we are still pretty pumped about it.  We also found some fabulous wallpaper behind the old toilet.  Beautiful, huh?

Much like we are training/preparing Cozy for walking with a stroller, we thought we would throw the carseat in the car and see how Cozy does with that.  This video explains it.  The timing couldn't be more perfect.

We went grocery shopping and all of my maternity shirts were in the laundry so I had to go with one of Ehren's t-shirts.  When I raised my arms above my head to reach food, my belly totally hung out.  We found it funny.  And I made Ehren reach the high stuff the rest of the time.

I'm officially full term and that is a great feeling!  Obviously I would love for her to cook until 40 weeks but a little early wouldn't be too bad either.

baby bump: 36 weeks

How far along:  36 weeks.

Size of baby:  Honeydew.   

Maternity clothes:   I feel like all I do is Ehren's laundry because I only wear his clothes when I'm lounging.  I hope he doesn't think he's getting them back after I deliver.  

Weight gain:  Yes, and right on track.  I never thought I would weigh this much but that's okay.  It's only temporary.  Right?

Sleep:  Sleep is a wonderful thing.  Rolling over in bed makes me short of breath and my hips get a little sore from always sleeping on my side.  Other than that, the nights are pretty restful.  

Exercise:  There's no energy left over from the day for any formal exercise.  However, Cozy did bully us into taking him for a walk.  We taught him to say "please" when he wants something; he does this by going into the downward dog pose or like he's bowing.  Lately he's been going to the closet where we keep his food and says "please".  The other morning, he acted like he wanted to tell me something, so I told him to show me.  He walked to the front door and said "please".  He has never done this.  At the same time, Ehren was just getting out of bed.  I told him, "get some layers on, we're going for a walk!".  It was bitterly cold but made for a great start to the day.  How can you tell your furchild "no, we are not exercising today!"

Best moment of the week:  The week overall was very busy at work and exhausting.  However, I can always rely on patients to say funny things to make it better.  I had a patient I had been working with for over a week; he was very sick and has Parkinson's.  People with Parkinson's tend to have a flat affect, meaning they could tell a joke or be upset about something but you could never tell by the expression on their face or the tone of their voice.  Usually when I walked in the room to work with him, he was groggy, asleep, or flat out not looking too whoopee.  I came and he was sitting up in a chair, bright-eyed and alert.  I said to him, with enthusiasm, "Wow!  You look perky!" and he said (with no expression on his face) "You look……. big".  His wife quickly corrected him and told him I looked pregnant, not big.  I should start a blog or tumblr called "patients say the darndest things". 

Movement:  She likes to throw 'bows and kick me.  I can feel her little feet and it's hard to believe they are less than an inch away from being visible.  I can't believe there is a baby in there.  If it weren't for the two ultrasounds that I've had (one medical, one 3D) I still wouldn't believe there's a baby in there.  It's absolutely mind boggling.    

Cravings:  Anything with lots of flavor - spicy Asian or Mexican.  Big salads and lots of fruit.  I'm getting excited for all the meals that I've frozen.  I looked in our new deep freeze to see how much food we've hoarded made and I counted 30 meals with 4-8 servings each.  Meaning, at MINIMUM, we have 60 consecutive days worth of dinners.  That's a really good feeling. 

Belly button in or out:  I wish it were really like a turkey thermometer - then she would be "done"!

Wedding ring on or off:   On. 

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Nope. 

What I miss:  Laying on my stomach.  There's something so comforting about it.  That and being able to shave my legs.  (Not that I did that very regularly in the first place)

What I am looking forward to:  A hopefully very relaxing month of March.  

What I am not looking forward to:  The last 4-ish weeks dragging along.  

Labor signs:  Contractions quite frequently when I'm at work.  I started counting contractions per hour and I'm having 2-4 an hour throughout the day.  Nothing that takes my breath away but it does slow me down a little bit.  Plus, I can feel when she nestles her little head way down in my pelvis.  It feels like she's trying to claw her way out.  Ouch!

Symptoms:  See above.     

Nursery:  Lots of the fine details have been wrapped up.  Still can't call it done though.  I hope to start blogging about the nursery soon. 

Emotions:  I just can't believe she's going to be here in a matter of weeks.  I'm starting to get nervous about everything - the wait, the labor, the delivery, the dramatic change to our lives, the responsibility, everything.  However, I trust God has equipped me with everything I will need to be successful at this whole parenting thing - of course with many failures along the way.  At least I've got my main man by my side.  And my dog, too, of course. 

Week in review:

Cozy is enjoying his time as an only child with lots of belly rubs and kisses.  Poor little guy's life is going to change.  Good thing I have endless love to give!

Here, Cozy pretty much fell asleep and melted into a little puppy fur puddle.

Possible "coming home" outfit for the little miss?  Win or lose during tournament time, she will still rock out with her hawk out. 

Nothing better than coming home and seeing the new stroller and new blender on the front porch!  I love ordering things online.

On our first "free" weekend in a long time, we ran errands, did some shopping, went to the dentist and then stopped by Free State Brewery for lunch.  It's so busy and loud there all the time, we could bring our screaming newborn and no one would notice!  Score.

I like to plan meals based on the weather forecast.  Hot?  A light fish with veggies and white wine.  Burgers on the grill with roasted potatoes and watermelon on the side.  Cold and a chance of snow?  Clam chowder and crusty bread.  Roasted tomato soup with grilled cheese.  

This Sunday, there was a chance of snow so I decided to make loaded baked potato soup in the crock pot out from this cookbook (the slow cooker version of my all time favorite cookbook.)  It was delicious and I had an excuse to use my late grandma's kitchen scale to measure out the potatoes.  Who knows how old this scale is. 

I know pictures of food can be annoying but I don't care.

Part of our blender, which we use everyday, started breaking recently.  Ehren got excited because that meant it was time to shop for one with a little more power.  We ordered this Ninja blender online.  It's expensive but for something we use everyday, it was worth it to us.  We make smoothies every morning for breakfast before work and they do a great job of keeping us full all morning - partly because of the fiber from the fruit and the protein from the Greek yogurt.  We haven't gotten sick of them yet!

  Here's the recipe:

• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of cranberry pomegranate juice (100% juice)
• 2 cups of mixed berries (we buy 2 bags of frozen raspberries, 1 bag of blueberries, and 1 bag of blackberries and mix them all together in a large zip lock bag which equates to about 10 cups)
• 1 single serving container of plain Greek yogurt
• (sometimes we add a banana if we're feeling crazy or if they are getting too ripe)

My dad is very witty.  He always has a plan or reason for giving gifts, usually requiring us to figure out a riddle.  He gave Ehren and me and a gift, the handwriting on the wrapping paper was horrible and in no way resembled his.  It looked as if he wrote it with his left hand.  I opened it up and it was a Dr. Spock book.  Random.

Of course my dad just sits there smiling at me like I'm supposed to "get it".  I opened up the front cover and saw this:

I finally realized what he was getting at.  The very strange but very funny movie "Raising Arizona".  In the movie, H.I. McDonnaugh (played by Nicolas Cage) kidnaps a baby (Nathan Arizona) from a very wealthy man and while he's fleeing the nursery with his new bundle of joy, he grabs Dr. Spock's book.  And inside this version of Dr. Spock's book was some baby money we have already put to use!  Thanks dad! 

baby bump: 35 weeks

How far along:  35 weeks.

Size of baby:  Coconut.   

Maternity clothes:  There's just no other option. 

Weight gain:  Probably more than last week with all the awesome food at the baby shower.

Sleep:  I need more of this.  I feel like I'm getting less sleep on the weekends than during the week!

Exercise:  This question is annoying. 

Best moment of the week:  Baby shower with family and family friends!  My grandma, great aunts, aunts and cousins were able to come which made it really special.  Once again, I'm amazed at the love and support our new family has.  It's awesome and humbling at the same time. 

Of course I need to include funny comments from people and patients.  We were eating lunch at Jason's Deli and I got up to go to the bathroom; when I came back Ehren was laughing.  He said that a woman, around 50-60 years old, came up to him after I got up to the bathroom and asked, "do you know if you're having a boy or a girl?"  He told her girl and she said, "well, I hope she looks like you."  And then she left.  How funny and random is that.  And, should I be offended?  I agree with the lady though, I hope she looks like Ehren.

Movement:  When isn't she active?  Sometimes the movement is so sudden or big that it scares me.  I can tell where all her little body parts are. 

Cravings:  I'll eat anything. 

Belly button in or out:  Out like no other. 

Wedding ring on or off:   On. 

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Nope. 

What I miss:  Going an hour without having to pee.  We are seriously going through a lot of toilet paper here at the Feldmeyer residence. 

What I am looking forward to:  Putting all these wonderful gifts to use! 

What I am not looking forward to:  Lack of sleep.  I really enjoy my restful nights.  I hear I'm never going to sleep again.  Ever.  

Labor signs:  Still having a lot of contractions when I'm up and moving around.  Also having more lightening. 

Symptoms:  Fatigue from another busy weekend.  Contractions.  Body aches from being on my feet too much.  Fatigue.  Did I mention that already?  

Nursery:  Still have touch ups to complete but otherwise, it's a functional nursery ready for a tiny little human who will probably not use it for the first couple of months. 

Emotions:  It's feeling very close now and I know I say this every week.  I'm getting more mentally ready.  I really can't believe that I could deliver her right now and she could be a fully functioning infant that we could take home in a matter of days.  Truly amazing.  

Week in review: 

When we ask Cozy where his sister is, this is what he does.  Is it not the cutest thing you've ever seen?  We'll have to find a gentler way to do this when she's here. 

This is how Cozy and Ava feel about being in a closed room… not excited.  Ava came up with Ehren's parents for the baby shower.

This is my Aunt Kathy (my dad's sister) and my mom.  They are basically the same person which I think is why I've always felt so close to my Aunt Kathy.  Aren't they adorable?  And tiny?

My niece Ellie and I were rockin' similar outfits at the shower.

Once again, awesome food and decorations for the shower thanks to my mom and sister.

 My mother in law, Goudy, was placing her vote for what our daughter will look like.  Looks like she's going for Ehren's skin and hair color and my eye color.  I'll take it.

My cousins and aunt had these on top of some of the gifts - cute idea huh?

Cozy loved being surrounded by gifts.  So much new stuff to sniff!

Thirty-five weeks in the book, not too much longer to go!  Crap.