Most of my mommy friends have been telling me I’m way ahead of the game when it comes to being ready for my baby girls arrival. They couldn’t believe we had her nursery ready before Thanksgiving. The walls were painted, her crib was set up, most of her linens were cleaned such as crib sheets and some blankets and her baby stuff was put away. Of course we still had plenty to do, but we definitely had accomplished a lot early on. We decided we didn’t want her entire nursery to be overtaken by a specific “theme” and my husband suggested doing a wall decal of something that resembled the both of us. I loved the idea so I immediately started poking around online at different ideas. Me being a singer and him being a cyclist; I proposed the idea of music notes and bicycles. I found a great musical tree wall decal on Etsy and emailed the seller to ask if we could customize it to the colors we wanted and add bicycles to it. After going back and forth for a few days he sent us a proof and it was perfect. It took my husband about two hours to hang the decal; a lot longer than it took him to put the crib together, but during the entire process he kept saying he enjoyed doing it. The decal came in so many pieces, and I could see how tedious the process was to hang it so I almost couldn’t watch in fear that one wrong move would screw it up. Once it was hung I was amazed and impressed at how awesome it came out. I have to hand it to my husband because I’m pretty sure it would not have come out so awesome if I had done it. I do not have the patience he does. My favorite color is purple and his is green so our colors are purple and green and our “theme” is music and bikes. We absolutely love how it came out and think it’s the perfect room for our little princess.
The wall decal – a bit difficult to see the bikes because of lighting, but in person it’s perfect.
In writing about how we chose the colors and a basic theme for her nursery brings me to how we chose her name. Before we even knew if we were having a boy or girl, my husband and I started discussing names. I found girl names to be much easier; there were so many girls names I liked. When looking at our list, we definitely had more girls names than boys names. We wanted something unique, but not too far out there. There are names for both genders I really liked when looking, but are on the “most popular” list and neither of us want her to be one of a several in school when she gets older. I found a girls name in my baby name book that I had heard before, but it wasn’t popular. In fact, I have never met anyone with this name, but I always really liked it. It’s different and it felt meaningful to me. I told my husband I was going to throw a name out to him, but that he probably wouldn’t like it. When I said it he literally shouted the name back to me and said, “I LOVE that name!” I thought wow! Awesome! Once we found out we were definitely having a girl (I had a feeling I was from the very beginning) we only focused on discussing girl names. I’ll be honest, there were definitely names my husband liked that I didn’t and vice versa. Although, I think some of the names he was throwing out there were him joking around and being a wise guy. Pretty sure he wouldn’t ever really name our kid Bertha! But, no matter how many names we came up with we kept going back to our original name. Finally, we just decided that was it, this was her name. It was the one name we both loved the most and was at the top of both our lists. We finally started telling family and close friends over the holidays what her full name is; however, I’m not posting it on social media yet. My only “hint” is that much like her nursery, it’s a perfect combination of my husband and I.
With only 44 days until my due date, that bring me to my next topic, nesting! I’m definitely feeling the pressure of getting everything 100% ready. While we had a lot done early on, I still had all her clothes, bibs, bottles etc to clean. Today I gathered up everything and started doing her first loads of laundry. At first I was worried that I might not have enough for her, but after the overflowing pile of laundry and going through everything, I almost feel overwhelmed with how much she has. So much so that I wonder if she’ll even use it all! From here on out my husband and I will be preparing for go time. Installing the car seat, washing baby bottles so they are clean when I start pumping, getting the bassinet ready. It seems crazy that I’m already in nesting mode, but she’ll be here before we know it. I sent a picture to my husband of a pile of her laundry and he wrote me back, “Times a tickin’!” It’s crazy to me that I could safely have her by 37 weeks which is really only three weeks away. Although I’m sure I’ll be like most women and go late, I feel the need to be completely ready now just in case.
Nothing quite like an overflowing pile of adorable girl baby clothes!
I have said all along that pregnancy is an interesting journey. Some days I love it while other days I hate it. I told my doctor last week that as much as I joke around about certain things, I really can’t complain because thus far I’ve had a really good pregnancy. I honestly think the worst part for me was the first three months when I felt like I had the flu 24/7. Even in my last trimester with six weeks left, I feel really good. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly have days here and there where I feel tired and like I need to take it easy, but for the most part I feel good. I’m still working out anywhere from four to six days a week, I’m still doing all my normal housewife chores like vacuuming, laundry, cooking, cleaning and basically just living life normally. I have no idea what the next few weeks will bring or what child birth will be like, but I am grateful for how well I’ve done thus far. While I’m definitely a worry wart and worry about her healthy and delivery, I really haven’t had any anxiety during pregnancy at all. After talking with some friends, I think my few worries and fears are all normal ones. My doctor told me not to stop doing any of the things I’ve been doing because I’ve done really well and he wants me to keep it up. He told me to keep up with my exercise routine and to take it easy on the days my body tells me I need to rest. My husband has been incredibly supportive and on the few days where I really don’t get much done and tell him I was lazy he always says, “You did a lot today, you’re growing a baby!” Sometimes I forget that my body is working overtime and that once in a while, it’s OK to have a lazy day and just relax.
So, here’s to the final countdown to welcoming our baby girl! Every day I get more and more excited to see her little face and finally know what she looks like!
~Sparke