induction on thursday

I went in for my weekly appointment with Dr. Cole, my OBGYN on Monday, January 24th after getting off of work.  She was worried as my blood pressure was slightly elevated (it was always very normal and within range before), and my feet were extremely swollen still (I hesitated to tell her how little rest I was getting as I was so busy trying to get the nursery finished).  She had me get some blood tests and then told me that most likely she wanted me to come in on Thursday, January 28th for an induction.  She would be working that day and she really wanted to be there for Landon's birth.  This was not something I expected to hear at this appointment and honestly made me sad.  I really wanted Landon to be born in February for several reasons:  1) Because that is what I always imagined he would be born in since the first due date I had was February 9th, but after the ultrasounds it changed to February 1st.  2) I had planned on finishing up my last week at work which would have been Friday the 28th (she wanted me to rest at home until I came in for the induction).  3) I wanted my baby to come when he was ready to be born, I didn't like "choosing" his date of birth (even though I didn't choose it, my Dr. did) and 4) I had never had an induction before and I was a little afraid of the unknown.  When the bloodtests came through and they called me later that afternoon they said that the bloodtests showed that I'm at some risk for preeclampsia and they scheduled me to come in on Thursday, January 27th at 9am for an induction.
The positive, of course, was that we could take care of childcare easily for Jaden and Bryson and not worry about what we would do if we had to leave in the middle of the night (although our family is very close so that wasn't a huge worry for us).  My doctor didn't want me to work for the rest of the week and instead rest until I came in for my induction so I called my boss and let her know.  I felt bad not really getting to say goodbye to my class but knew I would see them after Landon was born. 

We had to capture a few last belly shots before Landon arrived.


I cannot wait to rock my sweet little baby soon!

Art for the Nursery

So it took several months to work on Bryson's new room, but I was determined to finish the nursery in less than 2 weeks!  My due date was February 1st so I didn't have much time, luckily I wasn't dilated yet but my feet were increasingly VERY swollen (something that never happened with either Jaden or Bryson).  Luckily the nursery already had white beadboard wainscoting that we installed before Bryson was born , but I wanted to change the top part of the wall color to aqua (instead of yellow) and re-paint the ceiling white (plus I had BIG plans for the ceiling).  After finishing Bryson's room, I quickly chose some aqua paint that matched the bedding that I bought for him.  Painted the walls and Todd re-painted the ceiling white (it was previously a very light blue with clouds that I painted on). 

I also bought a dresser at Ikea that was the perfect size and shape, but unfortunately only came in black.  A black dresser was not going to work for the light and bright nursery that I wanted so I primed it and painted it a bright yellow.  I had to do several coats on it as the black still showed through (I think I did 2 coats of primer and 3-4 coats of yellow).  I repainted a shelf that a friend gave me a few years ago to a bright white (it was a dirty white before) and I also touched up the changing table and crib with the white paint.  I did all of this in about a week after working half days teaching I would come home and work on the nursery and also stay up late after the boys were in bed.

The next weekend I started to work on Landon's nursery art.  His "theme" was going to be the Alphabet, so I had been collecting letters for months, plus I bought these vinyl letters that matched his bedding perfectly on Amazon.

I had bought a bunch of Ikea frames and I painted and embellished them with scrapbook paper, buttons, etc.

I put this little lion in this shadowbox frame from Ikea.
I reused some old frames that used to hang in my childhood bedroom too.  I loved the color of the frame but I wanted to update the picture and mat so it would look cute in the nursery.
Since it had a double mat, I just took out the pink mat and kept the white one.

Then I printed up a silhoette of a giraffe and cut it out of teal scrapbook paper.

I thought this yellow textured scrapbook paper would work well so I used that as the backing behind the mat.

And I glued my teal giraffe onto the yellow paper.
The completed product!
I did an elephant too.
Trying to reuse another frame.
I started to hang up some of my alphabet letters on the nursery wall (all of these pictures were taken at night so they aren't the best quality).
I used a lot of these Command strips to lesson the damage to the walls, but I also used nails for most of the frames.

This is how I started figuring out how I would place the letters on the wall.  I did lay it out on the floor first, but it was kind of hard to figure out exactly how it would look on the wall and I didn't have a lot of time to really spend figuring this out perfectly.  I was starting to get mild braxton hicks contractions and I was very worried that Landon would come out before this nursery was finished!  So I placed the first few and last few letters on the wall to figure out how I would place the other letters in-between.
The other side of the room with some of the frames that I worked on and a shelf that was already in the room.  I actually would like to someday replace this shelf and brackets and get something a little chunkier and wider in it's place.  But for now it will do. 
I ordered these alphabet cards and put them above the changing table so that Landon has something fun to look at while he's getting his diaper changed.
The almost finished project!  I'll be back to show the finished nursery soon!

Bryson's finished room--finally!

Prepare for a lot of pictures!  We finally finished Bryson's new room!  I am so proud of this space, I have been envisioning how I wanted it to look and dreaming up plans for it for over a year (before I even got pregnant). 
Of course, when I say "finished" there are still a few things that need to be done.  I want to buy wood blinds for the windows (which needs to happen soon as he has no curtains either for privacy), I want to have someone make a cushion for the window seat and the new built-ins need hardware on the drawers and cabinets. 
I always wanted a window seat in this room, Todd thought window seats were "girly" but I knew they could be for either gender!  He has so much storage now in his new built-ins and under the window seat.
I have collected nautical stuff for years, ever since I was in high school and did a knock-off of an Edward Hopper painting people started gifting me lighthouses.  Then when I had Jaden I chose a nautical Pottery Barn crib set and continued my nautical obsession!

I love how the wall behind his bed turned out, I copied the idea from a Pottery Barn Kids catalogue only it was navy blue.  I thought Navy would be too much with the Navy stripes and had a hard time deciding on a color and I am so glad I chose this blue!  It wa on the same paint swatch as the Navy I used and matches the blue in his duvet perfectly!  I love the shelf above his bed as well.  I imagine as he gets older that it will hold trophies of his.
Here is a view of the other side of the room, the door to the left leads to the hall and the door on the right is his (small) walk-in closet.
His Pottery Barn life preserver that I bought on sale.
A view standing over by his closet.  The sailboat on his dresser was a gift to him from my dad, it matched perfectly!
I really enjoyed styling all of his shelves.  I had Todd drill a large hole in the back of each shelf so that I could have lamps and my many lighthouses on the shelves.  Love how it glows at night when they are all on.



In the above pictures I didn't have his picture-hanger ready (some of the clothespins needed to be glued back on).  I made this for Jaden's nursery when I was pregnant with him, it hung above the changing table for both boys.  It has some of my favorite pictures of Bryson on it.  Below it I would eventually like to make a wall book display/holder.

Love. that. window. seat.  I also bought some nautical light fixtures that I hope to someday hang above his window seat (they need to be rewired though as they are hardwired currently).



We bought his boat bed, nightstand and dresser off of Craigslist.  It looked brand-new and we got it for an awesome deal!  He LOVES it.  The bedding is from The Land of Nod.
Here are two of my helpers spackling all the nail holes before I painted the board and batten.
My dad graciously came over and helped to paint the cabinets.  I was really afraid that I would go into labor before finishing Bryson's room and before even starting on Landon's room!  Luckily that didn't happen.