The Nursery Tour

Alas, the nursery tour! The final details have just been finished before our little girl makes her big debut and I am so excited to share them with you here! While Jamie was busy preparing taxes this spring, I...well I was busy working my magic on this room. Three years ago when Jamie and I first looked at this house, which is a rental by the way, I remember very distinctly hoping to one day be able to turn this room into a nursery and thinking that the nook between the two closets would be a great place for a crib. It quickly became Jamie's office, musical equipment storage space, and general hoarding headquarters. I can't really blame him though, because the majority of his stuff wasn't allowed in the entertaining parts of the house, which is ALL other rooms.

Now that it is finished as baby girl's room, Jamie and I love spending time in here. We feel like it is a magical space. The lighting got replaced from a general fan light to track lighting and everything just sparkles...especially at night. It just has a soft warm glow.

Some Design Elements
The color scheme is very girly, but I also was very conscious about what items I would reuse for future children and made those items all black or gold. My philosophy has always been use paint as your accent color with pillows AND not furniture. Paint and pillows you can replace in a room for less than $100, but replacing major furniture pieces can add up to major bucks. If we ever have a boy, I would love to use rich emerald greens and golds with all of the major pieces from the room. The black and white striped drapes seem very parisian, but again could be used in a boys rooms in the future.

The crib is a Jenny Lind spindle crib in ebony that was gifted to us by my parents. I handmade the fitted gold chevron sheet for the mattress and couldn't help but place a little sparkly gold sequin pillow in there, though that will come out before she actually sleeps in there. Our plan is for her to sleep in a rock-n-play next to our bed for the first few weeks or months. The dust ruffle I handmade using really nice (and highly discounted) silk. It is also hiding boxes of diapers.

The feather artwork on either side of her crib, I drew myself and framed in (gasp) dollar store frames. Above and below the feathers are the following scriptures:

"Before I formed you in the
womb I knew you,
before you were born

I set you apart;
I appointed you
as a prophet to the nations.”
- Jeremiah 1 : 5

 “For you created
my inmost being;
you knit me together
in my mother's womb.”

-   Psalm 139 : 13

a    This room has wonderful storage for a nursery because it has two separate small closets. One will be used for her hanging clothes and the other houses lots of functional items like a diaper genie, her bouncer, her baby tub, etc.... 

I made these hanging clothing separators by size.

The rocking upholstered chair and ottoman was actually owned by my Grandma Jean and I had it reupholstered in a black herringbone velvet. Not only is it soft and cozy to sit in, but I figured black is gender neutral for all future babies AND if God forbid one of the kids ever gets a hole of markers and goes crazy, you won't see a thing.

Next to the chair is a gold bar cart. I know at first this may seem a bit impractical..."a bar cart for a baby? Really?"...but I figured this would be an item that could become like a mobile station for books, craft items, and toys. Down the road, I would love to move this piece into the living room or perhaps use it for occasional outside entertaining. For now it has a large black and white basket full of baby blankets and a bin for all of the amazing books that I was gifted with from my showers. Next to it is an adorable black and white rocking horse, which was given to us from my sister-in-law, Amy.

The IKEA dresser was a hand me down gift from my parents and I replaced the knobs in a gold to match the room. All of baby girls clothes are washed and organized by size in various drawers (newborn, 0-3, 3-6, etc...). I also have drawers dedicated for diapers, swaddlers, hair bows and hats, and much more.

The shelves over the dresser are simply inexpensive black shelves from Home Depot with a mix of gold, black and white accents. The pink rattan box houses all kinds of necessary baby items like diapers, diaper creams, wipes, etc...One of my favorite pieces is a graphic print I made that says "You Are Our Greatest Adventure" over a black and white image from my maternity photoshoot. 

Apothecary jars filled with clear baby pacifiers and baby grooming items rest on a gold lacquered tray.

The little piece of artwork was actually cut out of a card given to me by Stacy Wareham.

So...now we wait for her arrival! We feel so blessed to have such a magical space to bring her home to! We would love continued prayers for a healthy and safe arrival of Baby Girl Reynolds. I am 37 weeks pregnant, so now it is just a waiting game...though I have a feeling she is stubborn like her mom and probably will wait till the last minute! Thanks again for all your love, prayers, and support!

Mother's Day & Jumbled Emotions

Let me just start by saying this Mother's Day 2015 I have so much to be thankful for. In particular, I am extremely blessed to have a healthy pregnancy and be preparing for the arrival of our first daughter, due June 2nd. Yet, I have to be honest that this year I am having a lot of mixed emotions about this day.

Last year, I remember waking up, thinking I would be fine, going to church, and barely making it through the door before my heart felt like it was going to burst into a million pieces. After crying on a few friends shoulders, I put my sunglasses on and sat in the back row of the sanctuary. People were saying the sweetest things to me, knowing that it was a hard day, but it just made it harder for me to keep it together. At that point, I was pretty embarrassed because I IN NO WAY wanted my own struggle to take away from Moms who really needed and deserved to be honored. 10 minutes into service, I snuck out. I went home, set up my hammock in the yard, listened to music, prayed, cried, and made myself a safe zone where I could just acknowledge the heartache of infertility.

This year's Mother's Day is met by a different heartache for me, in that it lines up with my 36th week of pregnancy, which would have been the twins birthday. 36 weeks of pregnancy is considered full-term for mothers carrying twins. So in many ways, this day feels more like a remembrance of the miscarriage of Riley than a celebration of the life growing inside of me. I have had so many people tell us that we should really celebrate this first mother's day together, but something about that just doesn't sit right with me given our circumstances. In lots of ways, I feel more like a mom to Riley than I do to the baby girl I have not yet birthed into this world. Believe me I know that is strange. I also wonder about mom's who have children on this earth, but experienced a loss of a child or a miscarriage this year...does Mother's Day feel like a harder day to celebrate? Many mother's have never experienced a loss of a child, but have lost their own mom's and I am sure that is quite conflicting as well.

I don't want my first Mother's day to be filled with sadness. Soooooooo I am proclaiming that next year is going to be my First (celebrated) Mother's Day.

On a much lighter note...Can I also just tease about HOW NOT FAIR it is that just a few days or weeks after I go through hours and maybe days of labor, birth a human out of my lady parts, and am in the throws of major bodily recuperation ...probably wearing pads that, let's be honest, might as well be adult diapers that Jamie...yes Jamie... gets to celebrate HIS First Father's Day. Seriously? That is a joke right? I know that sounds selfish, but I am a little bitter. Thankfully, we laugh about it together and I think he recognizes the injustice of the situation. This is also why I told him that he better really plan something special for me next year! Being a planner, I will say that I did go ahead and buy all his Father's Day gifts in advance. A little something sentimental with a few things really practical that he needs.

Thanks for reading! Thanks for listening! Thanks for supporting us through some of the hard stuff, but also celebrating with us as we prepare for this new bundle of joy coming very soon!