forest theme nursery.

As promised (even though it took me almost three months), I am posting pictures of Isaiah’s forest-themed nursery. It’s not like I’ve been busy lately or anything…

I got the inspiration for this theme from the material used on the crib skirt, valance, and bench pad cover. I fell in love with it when I saw it at Joanne’s. We actually got the last of it, because they are no longer making it. My husband and I enjoy the outdoors, so this theme seemed perfect for us, plus it’s gender neutral so if we ever have a girl it will work for her as well.

We went with all espresso colored furniture. I think it really brings the forest theme together. The dresser is from wayfair.com and the glider and bench are from Target.

My sister made the awesome clock. We made the side table tree stump (found here!) and the lamp (post coming soon for that). And of course I had to decorate with my favorite book as a kid, “The Giving Tree”.

An up-close look at the painting I did, which has the bible verse responsible for our baby name choice.

A better view of the book shelf bench. The pad cover was made by my wonderful mother. The middle cubby has a few small toys in it. It will be so sweet to see Isaiah sitting on the bench reading his books one day.

I absolutely love this part of the nursery. The crib is from a second-hand furniture store (we are proud of that too – not ashamed of saving money) The crib skirt was made by a family friend. She is a master seamstress, so she did that and the valance for us. The yellow crib sheet (found at babies-r-us) matches the yellow bunny in the material (it’s difficult to see in the picture). The breathable mesh bumper pad was from Target and the owl musical mobile is from Wal-Mart. I made the wall hangings above the crib.

An up-close look at the name plate I made with materials all from Michael’s craft store. I bought the letters, painted them white, hot-glued them to the tree stump, hot-glued the owl to it, and attached a wall hanger on to the back (one of those claw-looking things).

A closer view of one of the picture “frames” I made (again, materials all found at Michael’s). To complete this project, I bought the tree stump and a package of tiny cloths pins. I painted them green to match the theme and add some color and hot-glued them to the stump. It doesn’t get much easier to change out pictures. Once we get some professional pictures of Isaiah done we will replace the maternity pictures with those.

One more view of this side of the room to show the shelf my husband made with the monitor and picture frame. The wicker hamper was a gift from my sister. It goes perfect with the theme of the room.

Just another look at the wall hangings.

The shelf was extremely easy to make. We bought another one of those tree stumps from Michael’s and two shelf holders from Lowe’s. I stained the holders with a dark stain to match the furniture. My husband then cut one of the sides so that it would sit flat against the wall. He nailed the holders to the stump and then attached it to the wall. I plan to switch the picture in the frame out eventually as well.

The final side of the room is the changing table. I ordered the tree wall decal off of Etsy. The dresser is from wayfair.com, the changing pad and cover from Target and the fox diaper holder was a gift that went too perfect in the room not to use!

One part of the room I didn’t show is just the closet door (boring), BUT on the wall beside the closet is where this beauty hangs. I love it so much, because the tree was painted by a family friend, but then at my baby showers, everyone placed their thumbprint and signatures on it to create the leaves. It turned out so great and it is something I will always cherish.

Hope you enjoyed seeing Isaiah’s forest-themed nursery as much as we enjoyed creating it!

forty weeks – Isaiah’s birth story.

HE’S HERE!! What a strange feeling knowing I’m a mom now. I still don’t think it’s fully sunk in!

We are so in love with this little guy and we are SO thankful to the Lord for allowing us to be his parents! He is such a joy and blessing in our lives. I would have been 40 weeks this week, but instead I have a six-day old!

My doctor ended up wanting me induced, because Isaiah was measuring small (according to the ultrasounds, which now we can tell how inaccurate they really are when it comes to weight and measurements with the baby) and they were afraid he wasn’t feeding well inside and thought it’d be best for him to come out and hopefully get to a healthy weight outside the womb.

We went into labor and delivery on March 19 at 6:30 AM. They started the pitocin at 7:30 AM and finally broke my water around 1 or 2 PM. I had about an hour of really intense and awful contractions before asking for the epidural. Can I just say how amazing that stuff is?! I felt like a completely different person after it kicked in. I didn’t even feel like I was in labor! About an hour later I was dilated to 8 cm and then another hour and a half later I was at 10 cm and ready to push! I pushed for about 25 minutes before our little bundle of joy made his entrance into the world at 6:09PM, weighing in at 7 lbs 1 oz and 20″ long.

It was so surreal to see him after having him in my belly for nine months. They laid him on my chest immediately after birth and all I could do was let out tears of joy and thank God for such a beautiful gift! A feeling I didn’t think would happen to me. I was not an emotional person before giving birth, but boy has that changed in the last week!

We are all doing great and healthy, thankfully. We had a great appointment at the pediatrician’s office this morning. He is eating well and his sleeping patterns have gotten a lot better in the last few days. I am sore and exhausted, but it is SO worth it. Just looking at him makes me forget about being tired. We are just so in love with him. I know I’m being a typical mom right now and going on and on about my baby, but I can’t help it!

thirty-nine weeks.

Sooo, I had a really hard time finding a jackfruit…I’ve never even seen one before now, but thanks to Photoshop it looks like I’m holding one. Could you tell? Of course not, right? 😉 And I’ll go ahead and tell you that for last week’s picture I had to photoshop a pumpkin in too, because where can you find a pumpkin in the middle of March? Um, nowhere. So, there you go. You know all my secrets now. I promise the others were real.

But on to why we’re really here…one more week til our due date! Unbelievable.

We are getting to the point where I don’t have much to report, because nothing is really happening and baby’s pretty much done growing (other than weight gain). I still just can’t believe how close we are to meeting our boy. Although I’m still having periodic contractions, there’s not really any sign of real labor yet. There are quite a few “old wives tales” that can get labor progressing and you better believe I’ve tried some of them. Walking, spicy foods, pineapple, etc. Some are pretty humorous, but who cares at this point?! I’ve decided he’s gonna come when he’s good and ready no matter what I do,.

At our appointment this week baby looked healthy, but measuring on the smaller side. Doctor seemed a bit concerned, but doesn’t seem to think anything internally would be wrong with him. He thinks it might just be a feeding issue. Fluids looked good. The non stress test showed baby’s heart rate looked good and fetal movement was perfect.

At any rate, soon enough we will be holding Isaiah and loving every minute of it!

thirty-eight weeks.

I have finally reached the point of “What can I do to help this baby along?” I didn’t think I’d get like this, but I am really starting to be uncomfortable and just plain ready for him to be here. This waiting patiently stuff is hard! Especially when everything’s ready for him and we’ve been told he could come at any point. Come on, Isaiah!! Momma’s ready to meet you.

As you can see from a previous post, we got our maternity pictures back. I LOVE THEM! She did such a good job and we are so happy with them. I can’t wait until Isaiah gets old enough and we can show him what it looked like when he was in my belly. Such great memories captured! 🙂

Update from our weekly appointment:
We went in yesterday and had an ultrasound to check fluid and everything looked great. We also had a non stress test done to track fetal movement and that went great as well. I am now between 2 and 3 cm dilated and about 75% effaced. So we did have some progression, but not a lot. It still could be any day now!

Now that he is pretty much fully developed, there isn’t much change going on with him. He is, however, shedding the skin-protecting vernix and lanugo, which we could see floating in the fluid on the ultrasound. He’s also producing more of this stuff called “surfactant”, which is a substance that prevents the air sacs in his lungs from sticking to one another once he starts to breathe. Pretty interesting stuff going on last-minute.

Maybe next week we’ll have our baby boy! Ya never know…

maternity pictures.

We got our maternity pictures back yesterday and we love them! We had so much fun taking them and I’m thankful we were able to capture such a precious memory! One of my best friend’s and her husband were in town when we took the pictures and they are also due with a boy a week before us, so we got a few fun shots together as well.

So, without further ado, here they are!

thirty-seven weeks.

We’re full term! Congrats to Isaiah for sticking it out in my womb for this long. He’s got to be getting uncomfortable.

We installed the car seat this week just in case he makes his debut a little early…which is somewhat likely according to my doctor.

I went in on Tuesday for my weekly appointment and was already almost 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. He ended up putting me on bed rest too, because the width of the baby’s abdomen is measuring in the 5th percentile, which he didn’t seem to think anything is majorly wrong with him, he just wants me to rest as much as possible (which wouldn’t happen working with preschoolers) before he comes out so that he gains as much weight as possible. A bit stressful, but glad to know it won’t be long before Isaiah is here!!

I’ve now packed most of my hospital bag. I have read so many lists of what I will and won’t need at the hospital and almost every list is different. I plan to write a post after the delivery with my experience of what I did and didn’t need to help out those first time mom’s that will be in the same boat as I have been. It’s hard to know for sure what will come in handy at the hospital and what won’t.

My aunt, cousin, and her daughter that live about an hour and a half from us came to visit over the weekend since they weren’t able to make it to my shower a few weeks ago due to a bad snow storm. They brought gifts for Isaiah and we went out to eat and had a nice time catching up. I’m so thankful we have such great families. They really have been so generous and supportive throughout this entire pregnancy. I know they will be throughout his life, too. 🙂

I’m amazed at how big my belly is getting. It seems like all of a sudden I am huge. Baby is continuing to practice skills such as inhaling, exhaling, sucking, gripping, and blinking. So cool that he is doing all of that in the womb. Won’t be long before he’s doing them outside!!

thirty-six weeks.

Isaiah has a new cousin! Wren was born on Feb. 23rd at about 2am and weighed in at 8 pounds, 3 ounces. They don’t live close to us, so we will have to wait a few months (until our big family vacation) to meet her. We can’t wait!

We had a great time visiting with our friends that stayed with us this past weekend. They are also expecting a little boy in a few weeks so we had a lot to talk about and it was so much fun catching up in person since we don’t see them all that often!

We also had our maternity pictures on Saturday. I’m so anxious to get them back. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun taking them!

We had an appointment this week and now we will start going every week for him to check my labor progression. So far, no signs of labor. That is A-okay with me! I don’t mind if he comes a few days or maybe even a week early, but four weeks…there’s still a lot of growing for him left to do. Speaking of growing, he is now almost SIX pounds. Hard to believe. Hopefully he will not gain an entire pound each week as I’ve heard happens sometimes (praying for 1/2 lb each week – haha) or that will not be a very fun situation.

We are almost full term which is also hard to believe. He really could make his debut at any time!

Just a little prayer request: Say a prayer for my anxiety. I keep getting extremely anxious when I think about labor and delivery. I try to imagine what it will be like, but as a first time mom, I have no idea what to expect. Every labor and delivery story I’ve heard have been so different so it is hard to get a good idea of what it will be like. I know the Lord will take care of us, but it’s hard not to worry. Pray that Isaiah and I would be healthy through it and it would all go smoothly when the time comes. Thank you!

thirty-five weeks.

It’s getting real around here, folks! We toured the labor, delivery, and recovery rooms at the hospital where we will deliver. It was so surreal to be in the rooms and hear the nurse talk about the specifics of how things are done at the hospital. I got butterflies in my stomach…or maybe that was just Isaiah kicking…

We have our maternity pictures on Saturday. I think we’ll have lots of fun taking the pictures and seeing how they turn out! A friend’s sister-in-law is doing them for us and she does really good work, so I am looking forward to it!

My best friend (who is also pregnant with a boy and due around the same time as me – so funny!) and her husband are coming to visit this weekend. I’m so excited to see and spend time with them before our boys get here.

Isaiah’s newest cousin should be here in the next few days. She (wren will be her name) was due Feb. 14, but is being a bit stubborn so hopefully we will meet her soon. I am excited for him to have a cousin so close in age. If only we lived closer to them!

Can’t believe we are getting so close to meeting our little man!

thirty-four weeks.

We had our second and last baby shower over the weekend and now we pretty much have everything we need for baby boy! We just need him to get here. Not too soon, though…in a month or so, really. I’m just so excited and the waiting game is no fun. The shower was thrown by my older sister and she did such a great job. Everything was so cute and creative and I could not be more thankful for her hard work and time she put into it. The theme of the shower was a forest theme since that is what our nursery will be. I will share pictures once she sends them to me.

Our 34 weeks appointment was the other day and we got to see him one last time. They said it’d be the last ultrasound we would have so that was a little sad, but I know that means I will get to see him in person soon! He is about five pounds now and they said he’s in the 90th percentile for weight and 20th for height…so I guess he’s short and fat as of right now. My doctor said you generally want it the other way around for the birth…well, duh! But I’ll take my little chunk.

Isaiah’s nervous system and lungs are almost completely mature now. And that brain of his is continuing to develop. Praying for a smart little boy! Let’s hope he at least gets his daddy’s math skills…

I’ve been having some Braxton Hicks contractions, but they aren’t terrible. They aren’t really painful, just uncomfortable more than anything. My belly gets really hard and a little deformed so it’s a little amusing when it happens. Thankfully they aren’t very often and don’t last all that long. I know it’s just my body preparing for labor. Scary!

We have a tour of the maternity ward and labor and delivery rooms next week. I’m eager to see everything at the hospital we’ll be delivering at!

thirty-three weeks.

If the movement in my womb is any indication as to what this baby will be like than he will be one heck of a soccer player. Or boxer. His punches and kicks have gotten so much more intense over the past week. I’ve even started to feel him get to my ribs. It’s a little painful at times to be honest, BUT I still love when I can feel him move, because it makes me thankful he’s healthy and active!

I did the first load of baby clothes laundry this week. Actually 3 loads! And that’s not even going through all of the boxes we have. I still just can’t get over how awesome it is that we have received so many hand-me-downs. With baby clothes, they wear them for such a short time that they all seem brand new! So thankful! I could barely handle the cuteness of all the clothes. I kept showing my husband just about every little onsie, sock, hat, and pair of pants we had, but I couldn’t help the excitement (and emotions that have come out of nowhere!).

The nursery is still coming along nicely. We did a few more projects and stocked the dressers with clothes, hung a few things and organized his closet a bit. I even started packing the hospital bag. So far it includes his coming home outfit, a robe for me, and travel sized shower items. Still more to pack, but it’s a start!

We have our 34 week appointment next Tuesday, so we will see how much he’s grown and get the whooping cough shot.

We have our second and final shower this weekend in my hometown thrown by my sister. I’m excited to see family and celebrate Isaiah again! It should be a good time.