Baby B's Gender Neutral Nursery!

Hooray, the nursery is complete! I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Well, we're officially considered full term now that I'm 37 weeks pregnant but I don't anticipate going into labor anytime soon. The good news is we will definitely have a baby anytime between now and 4 weeks since my doctors induce at 41 weeks rather than 42 weeks. To document my 37th week of pregnancy my very talented friend and House of Representatives photographer was kind enough to take my picture on the Capitol steps, this will definitely be a neat picture to look back on!

Baby B's Bathroom!

We had Baby B's bathroom renovated late August and I can't believe that I am just now sharing the pictures. I did have the bathroom painted twice and the first vanity taken out and replaced by one I liked better but other than it was a very easy renovation...since we didn't do anything! Matthew and I aren't very handy when it comes to this stuff but most importantly we do not have the time for such projects, the contractors were able to finish the bathroom and nursery in just two weeks, pretty amazing!  I really wish I would have taken before pictures of the bathroom because it was a disaster but between my baby brain and the quickness in which the contractors worked I didn't even have a chance so you'll just have to use your imagination!

You may notice a little white chalkiness on the tile but that will go away as we start to use the bathroom. I think the contractors said it's called grout haze and shows up more depending on the type of tile you use.

We also had our ceilings renovated because we used to have that ugly popcorn finish! I love the new look of the tray ceiling with bead board and crown molding!

You can see more of the ceiling details here and the new built-in. The contractors discovered a bunch of unused space behind the bathtub and made us a built-in which I LOVE!

The shower curtain and bath towels are from Target and the pictures and glass jars are from Homegoods!

We had built-ins installed to hold all of those baby shampoo bottles!

Here's a closeup of them!

The vanity! For a while I thought we'd never find one since we needed such a weird size. I originally purchased an off white vanity with a granite top but it looked awful. The off white vanity didn't look very good against the tile and the granite counter top looked way too busy with all of the mosaic glass we added. I ended up with a dark wood vanity and a white marble top, its simplicity compliments all of the mosaic glass  much better!

The mirror above the vanity and mosaic tile accents!

Another view with a bit of the ceiling! {Can you tell how much I LOVE the ceiling?}

I'll be back with Baby B's nursery on the blog this week, he/she definitely has the nicest rooms in the whole house!

8 Months!

Today we hit the official 8 month mark and I can't believe that in just one month {give or take} we'll be holding our sweet little baby in our arms! I can't help but wonder if Baby B is a boy or a girl, if s/he'll have my chin or Daddy's nose...soon time will tell! My lack of activity on the blog is due to the fact that we've been so busy: we attended two very special baby showers for Baby B, we finished the baby's nursery, we had the baby's bathroom completely renovated, we attended all of the baby courses, we packed our hospital bags and so on! I promise I'll be back soon with pictures of the baby showers, bathroom and Baby B's nursery but until then I did snap the official 8 month bump picture to share with you now!

 

Baby B is getting bigger and bigger!

7 months!

Only two more months to go until we'll be welcoming our sweet baby boy or girl into the world! It's amazing how quickly my pregnancy has gone by and each day that passes really makes it feel more and more real. We're busy putting the finishing touches on the nursery, attending the baby classes and getting ready for our baby showers. Yes, showers with an "s", Baby B is already so spoiled with two baby showers, one hosted by my family in Annapolis and another hosted by my in laws in Philly! We are so grateful and really looking forward to sharing this special time with our family and friends as we get ready for the big day! 

Here's the official 7 month baby bump picture...this dress is getting shorter and shorter!

Over the weekend we celebrated the 7 month mark by attending Navy's home opener against Delaware. We had a great time watching Navy win and we're hoping to catch as many games as we can this season. It's crazy to think that Baby B will be here for the Army Navy game...although I will be watching that game from the comfort of my own home snuggled up with the baby!

I found an old picture in my phone of  last year's Navy home opener where I was sporting the exact same outfit, it just looks a little different now :)

I hope everyone is enjoying this nice fall weather, with just 9 more weeks to go I for one am very happy with these temperatures!

I like big bumps and I cannot lie!

Please forgive the Sir Mix-A-Lot reference, I just couldn't resist! I guess we can blame it on a busy summer or maybe even my pregnancy brain but I completely forgot to take my six month bump picture! I was counting my pregnancy in lunar months which is how my physician counts them (every 4 weeks=1 month making pregnancy a grand total of TEN  months) but I guess I'll just stick with regular ol' calender months now and go back to the 9 month schedule!

Below is my 6 month bump picture (or 7 months if you're counting in lunar months!) It's all so confusing when calculating what month you're in and I now understand why my physician prefers to keep track of the weeks not months!

 

Baby B is REALLY growing, weighing in at over 2 pounds now!! "I mean look at that bump, it's just so big. I can't believe it's just so round, it's like, out there" Okay, I'm done with the Sir Mix-A-Lot references, I promise! It's just so hard to believe I still have thirteen weeks left, I swear my bump has been getting bigger by the day! I bought this dress at Express pre baby on sale thinking it would be a fun way to document the growth but now I'm wishing I would have bought the medium, I don't know if it's going to fit next month!

I snapped this picture at the gym on Thursday because I feel like my bump looks different depending on what I'm wearing, too! One day I feel like I'm carrying high and the next day I feel like I'm carrying low, it's crazy how different outfits can do that!

Well that's all for now, I promise I'll be better about snapping next month's picture!

Life Lately...

As we approach the 25th week of pregnancy, bathroom renovations and nursery progress are underway! Our contractor arrives this weekend to completely gut and renovate baby's bathroom and hang the crown molding and bead board in the nursery! Making progress sure does feel good and gets us even more excited anxiously awaiting our sweet baby's arrival...only a few more months! 

Before we got down to business and started working on home improvements we enjoyed a long weekend getaway in Ocean City! We had such a wonderful time and the weather couldn't have been better, this has been quite a hot summer so it was extremely refreshing sitting on the beach with the cool waves blowing while the temperatures lingered in the 80s!

  Happy 23 weeks in OC!

Sunset on 94th Street!

 

We left Ocean City a little earlier than normal on a Sunday morning because we were anxious to get back home and visit the Home Depot. Wow, how times have changed! At Home Depot we were able to pick out tiles and a paint color for the baby's bathroom, after living in the house for over a year and not having a functioning guest bathroom this renovation is long overdue!

Sneak peek of our wall color and some mosaic tiles:

I mentioned earlier that my parents had given us my Nana's old dresser to use in the nursery and I'm happy to report that the dresser has been redone and is ready to go! It's amazing the transformation you can make with just a little paint and I think it will be the perfect pop of color in our grey and aqua nursery, I also love that a little piece of my Nana will be in our nursery!

                                      

            Here's the before & after:

I've also started working on the gallery wall in the nursery scoring six frames at Micheal's for only $50 thanks to their huge sale. I'm still waiting on one more print to ship from Etsy and then that project will be done and I will share it with you!

Oh, and true to my nature I have changed my mind yet again with the light fixture. I received lots of feedback from friends and family regarding the light fixture and it seems the two favorites were the Ikea and PBteen shells light fixture. However, after all of that  I'm not going with either and I promise there's a good reason! Currently, all of the bedrooms upstairs have ceiling fans with lights but they are getting older and will eventually need to be replaced. While Matthew was painting the nursery I would occasionally stop by to check out the progress even though he kept fussing at me to leave because of the fumes, such a good daddy-to-be already! Every time I went in there the room felt so hot and stuffy even though our air condition was on, I asked him if we had a problem with the ventilation system and he said "no, the ceiling fan is just off" Right then and there I knew we needed to go the practical route and buy a ceiling fan with lights. I picked out a simple white fan at the Home Depot and although it's not the fabulous blingy chandelier I pictured it will serve a much better purpose in keeping our baby comfy and cool all year long! I'm hoping since our ceiling will be very detailed covered in bead board the white fan won't look too blah.

I also registered for this mobile from Etsy so baby has something to look at while in the crib!

We have lots and lots more progress to share and I'll be back soon with the before after pictures of the bathroom!

Holy Indecisiveness: Light Fixture Dilemma!

Never in my life have I gone back and forth as much as I am now with decorating our sweet baby's nursery, in fact, I've always prided myself on being pretty darn decisive but not these days. Perhaps I'm struggling because sticking to colors that are strictly gender neutral is a bit tough or perhaps it's because a lot of the items I like are online and I just need to see them in person before deciding. Whatever the reason is I'm driving myself crazy with the second guessing and I'm reaching out to you for advice...I've asked the hubs but he's not the best when it comes to decorating and he insists everything I buy is "too girly."

The nursery has been painted a pale grey and the furniture, with the exception of the dresser, is white. I'd like the room to be soft and serene with mainly grey and white colors and just a pop of aqua here and there. Originally, I shared an aqua chandelier with you but I'm worried it may be too much color after all. I've found four light fixtures that I really like, three are at PBteen and one is at Ikea. Lucky for me I just received an email that PBteen is celebrating its grand opening at the Annapolis Mall this weekend so I'm really exited about being able to {hopefully} see three of the light fixtures this weekend. {Side note: when did my weekends become so lame?}

Here is the original light fixture and although I haven't completely scratched it yet I'm just not entirely sold:

Similar to the aqua light fixture is this one but I think I prefer it because it's all white:

Some of you may be aware of my love of bling which instantly drew me to this light fixture:

And finally, the last light fixture that I found is at Ikea:

 

It looks a tad funky by itself but I came across a picture of it in this room and I really loved it {also, that's the exact crib I have!}:

If I knew for sure Baby B was a girl then this would 100% be the light fixture but as you know we don't know if there's a girl or a boy on the way soooo it's not going to work out but I still had to share because I love it! Will someone with a baby girl on the way please, please buy it?

Thanks for helping a crazy indecisive preggo out!

20 Weeks on July 4th!

We celebrated the halfway point of pregnancy on America's birthday, I don't know if I'm more surprised that it's already July or that we're halfway through the pregnancy!

Happy Birthday America & Happy 20 Weeks!

I also took my monthly bump picture and some people have started to tell me that I'm starting to carry more like a girl than a boy {although according to my doctors how you carry is just another one of those old wives tales!} It's been so fun speculating as to what Baby B could be and I love hearing everyone's guesses, either way someone is right!

We devoted a good amount of our long weekend preparing for baby's arrival! I've been searching  high and low for a wooden highchair that I could paint and I finally found one on Craigslist for $25! 

The highchair is in excellent condition but I'll still be putting my touch on it by painting it a fun color!

 

I love the bright colors of the highchairs below but I'm also debating painting it an off white!

Hubby also started painting the nursery and it's really starting to shape up! We spent a good amount of time prepping the walls for paint because the previous owners hastily painted over everything and you could see so many imperfections. After patching a bunch of holes and sanding the walls smooth we were finally ready to paint! Matthew started painting the first coat on Saturday and then on Sunday my Dad joined in on the fun and they were able to finish the second coat. We still need to paint the closet doors and trim but then we're D-O-N-E until our handyman arrives early next month to hang the crown molding and bead board on the ceiling. We're making progress and it's feels great, I must have gone in there twenty times this weekend just to admire the wall color!

I'll share more nursery updates soon!

Baby B's Nursery

I am having a blast registering for Baby B already, especially when it comes to nursery stuff! At first I really struggled with a theme since we had to keep the colors gender neutral but thanks to good ol' Pinterest I was able to find a little inspiration. The nursery is going to be light gray, aqua and white and I've already found a few must have items that I registered for on Amazon and Pottery Barn Kids! My sweet parents have bought us the Jenny Lind Crib which apparently is the exact same crib I had when I was baby according to my Mom! I had no clue when registering, I just loved the clean lines of the crib and I couldn't beat the price tag, the wheels are removable thankfully {who puts wheels on a crib anyway?} Below are some of the items I'd love to have for Baby B's room!

The crib {already purchased by my parents!}

The dresser/changing table was given to us by my parents, as well. It was my Nana's dresser that we're going to update a little by painting it aqua. I'm so honored that we'll be able to use her dresser and I know my Nana is smiling down from Heaven happy to have a piece of her in the baby's room!  The picture below isn't the exact dresser but it gives you an idea of what it will look like:

The glider will come in handy during all of those late night feedings. I have to admit this was one of the most difficult finds because so many of the chairs I liked were $900 and up. There's no way I can justify a chair for the nursery with a price tag like that so I was happy when I found this glider on Amazon {by now you probably know my love for Amazon runs deep so of course I registered there!}

I plan on making the glider really pop with some fun aqua pillows and throws along with this adorable gray ottoman I found on Etsy!

Another important item on my list of must haves was a light fixture. Currently the nursery has that nasty popcorn ceiling and the original light fixture but that's all about to change! The ceiling will be replaced by bead board and then we'll add a fun light fixture. Originally, I wanted a white blingy chandelier but that will be much too girly if Baby B is a boy. After a long search I discovered this fun and aqua chandelier from PBTeen! It's so fun and I think it will accent our bead board ceiling really nicely while also giving us a little pop of color!

Last but not least: the wall color! I knew the walls were going to be painted gray but I had no idea exactly which shade. I ended up going with Benjamin Moore's Moonshine which is also the exact same color as our master bedroom. We had a can left over and I really love the color so I figured why not just use what we have since I already know what to expect.

 

That's all of the must have nursery items, I've picked out some wall decor and accent pieces that I'll share with you all soon! I was so good about sharing all of our home renovations and I'm trying to be better about sharing our adventures in pregnancy so stay tuned!