Nesting

So I think my favourite "side effect" of pregnancy (other than you get a baby at the end) is the nesting. It's all this very motivating energy to do projects and clean things. It's kind of fun because a lot of it is stuff that I like doing anyway.

So first we made the baby room. It was the first room that we actually decorated in our house (every other room has stuff in it, but it's not exactly thoughtful at this point). There is no love between us and the previous owners, and this room was no exception to their "wall treatment". After we had removed the plethora of screws in the walls (metal fasteners used for everrrrryyything) the walls looked like Swiss Cheese.

Before:

Here you can see all the metal fasteners in the wall - they were holding a flimsy shelf but it was very very secured to the wall

David did a pretty phenomenal patch job using all sorts of tips and tricks to fill holes that were about a dime to a quarter in diameter. With the metal fasteners we couldn't pull them out of the wall so we had to hammer them through the wall. Unfortunately with plaster we were a bit concerned about filling the holes in a way that the wall could be used in the future for hanging things. Plaster is tricky weak, but hopefully we've got it worked out

 We decided to go sunny yellow and orange for the room. I love yellow and the room is south facing so it gets lots of sun throughout the day. Also we really only want to paint a baby room once, so this will work for boys and girls (depending on what we get).

Here's after 1 coat

And after a 2nd coat (we were grateful that they left behind this little stool, it sure helped). David was the one who cut in and Michelle and I rolled the walls. Of course everyone and their dog told me that I shouldn't be painting. I thoughtfully considered their advice and painted anyways. We used no VOC paint which was great because it didn't smell at all and I took lots of outside breaks so I felt that the risk to baby Bean was pretty minimal. Plus it was nice to be able to help work on her room.

Next David did a really phenomenal job of taping off the orange for the zig zag accent wall. I had all these pins of how to do it, but David just used his love of precision and artistic eye and nailed it. I am really glad he did it too because I would not have been able to get it so perfect. My job was instead to roll the orange.

Taped off

With the tap removed

We did have to do some freehand touch-ups of the zig zag as the paint leaked a little, but generally it worked out great.

Next it was time to put together the crib we got from my Grandma and Grandpa. David again took the lead on this, and I supervised/held tools. By this point it was getting pretty hard to bend over so I'm glad David was up for it.

And here is what her room looks like all done (pictures taken with a slightly dirty lens, oops)

Crib with quilt and matching rug

The side of her room all set up (David was so pleased that our zig zag wall matched the blanket zig zag style perfectly - a total fluke!)

And her play corner with her chair and toys and books. On this wall we're going to install a shelf and some gold mirrors to make it fancy and give more storage.

The final step in her room was to wash all the clothes she's received and sort them by size. Normally I am totally not the person to prewash and pre-fold things, but that's the miracle of nesting! It was actually fun to do laundry and wash all her tiny things (they are sooo small!). And then having everything organized by size hopefully means that she doesn't miss wearing any of her cute outfits because she's too big.

I went off work for mat leave on Feb 21 so that I would have 2 weeks for projects. So far that's meant that I've made a nursing cover (hopefully it's big enough!)

A car seat cover:

Sidenote: I have the carseat in the car just in case and I realized that someone might think that I've forgotten my baby in the backseat in -25C, so I've flipped it open so hopefully some helpful individual doesn't feel compelled to break my window to rescue my "baby"

And some blankets (well my mom did the majority of these but I finished them off). I also made some nursing pads, but I'm pretty sure you don't want/need pictures of those

Then this past week I've made enough freezer food for 20-25 meals for David to make so we should hopefully not starve and about 9 dozen lactation cookies (thanks to a great recipe and ingredients from my SIL, Jes). 

Hopefully this all means that I'm set for when Baby Bean arrives. Mostly it's helped me keep my mind off the fact that she's still not here yet! I know she's not due until Sunday but seriously I am ready for her debut. I want to see what her face looks like and see her doing all the things she does in the womb but on the outside (I'd like to see her headbutt/kick combo in action). I also can't wait to snuggle her and see David with her. Yes, the labour is still a bit freaky and I'm a bit nervous about how nursing will go (but I will be adequately covered!). I also can't wait to bend over and not be kicked in the ribs every time I slouch.

Here's me on Monday at 39 weeks and 1 day. The belly is so heavy!

Well I think that's it for nesting. Even this blog post is part of the nesting and documenting! This afternoon I'm going to puree some veggies for our recipes so it will continue until I bring this Bean into the world.