Almost 37 weeks and getting anxious to meet little miss AJ. We thought last Friday we were going to get to meet her sooner than expected. Thursday night I was having more contractions than usual, and by Friday night I had lost count of how many times my app I use to keep track of contractions told me to go to the hospital. I finally gave in and decided to go get checked out since it is baby number two and who knows how quickly things will change, especially being an hour from the hospital! We got down to the hospital around 9:30 and around midnight the contractions just stopped. My girls loveeee putting me into false labor apparently. And AJ has great timing since I was supposed to photograph a wedding on Saturday. Thank the Lord for my amazing second shooter and having good friends in the industry to step in for me last minute. Community over competition is a must! So now I will just be taking it easy and hoping she stays in just a little bit longer and keeps getting stronger – even though my ribs think she’s strong enough judging by her kicks.
I absolutely love AJ’s nursery. Ever since we found out we were having another girl and I wrapped my head around it, I had a feeling she’s going to be my little girly-girl. So I went all out girly for her room. Simple, but girly. Light pinks, white, gray, and gold accents is the color palette I went with. My goal was also to keep her nursery as low cost as possible! So pretty much everything is from Ikea, Amazon, Hobby Lobby, and Target.
Furniture
Rocker– We were lucky enough for AJ’s room that my sister-in-law and step brother gave us their rocker now that their youngest has outgrown it. But, it just so happens it is the exact same rocker I have in SJ’s room!
Dresser, Crib, and Side Table– We got all of these from IKEA. If you can get past the crazy assembly (it took almost 3 nights to put her dresser together), the quality and aesthetics of their pieces are great for amazing prices. You can also find tons of IKEA furniture hacks on Pinterest. I kept it simple for these pieces and only had DJ spray paint the drawer knobs gold.
Changing Top– SJ’s changing pad slides all around her dresser and it drives me nuts! So I splurged a bit and found this changing top that screws into the back of the dresser on Amazon for $30.
Pouf Ottoman– It is so hard to find an affordable ottoman! I finally found this one from Target after the first one I found from Target sold out before I could buy it. I have a much bigger one in SJ’s room and it is just too much, so I wanted something smaller. Having something to put your feet up on makes it much easier to rock and more comfortable to nurse.
Decor
Pillows– I have a slight obsession with pillows…I just love how something so little can completely change the aesthetics of a room. I got all of her pillows from Target including the cute little unicorn throw pillow I plan on using for her weekly photos.
This is the one on the rocker which is perfect to help support during nursing sessions. This is the gray one with gold accents in her crib, and unfortunately I don’t believe they sell the gold and white bow one in her crib anymore.
Bins– There are so many little things that go along with babies – burp rags, nursing pads, diapering essentials, bows – you need little bins for everything. I got all of the ones in her room from Target, even the ones I took out of SJ’s room. Her hamper is also just a round bin from Target that matches the others.
“we should probably snuggle” sign– I actually got to make this! One of my good friends had a sign painting party at a local craft shop and this was one of the options. I figured it was the perfect personal touch to be able to put in her room.
Initials, Flowers, Mobile, and canvases above her dresser- All from Hobby Lobby. If you time it right and make a couple trips, they rotate when things are 50% off and you can get everything decently cheap! I got one of each different size of the foam flowers. The gold frame above her dresser is from Target, though, and eventually will have one of our maternity photos in it. Or probably one of her newborn photos by the time I actually get around to printing them.
Gray and Metallic Abstract Canvas
Rug– I had the hardest time finding a rug that I liked! I found this one a few different places, but Overstock.com was the cheapest place I found it!
Curtains– I like to do black out curtains in the kids rooms. SJ sleeps so much better with her black out curtains closed! I found these on Amazon, and they aren’t the best black out curtains, but they will work just fine for the price! And it was really hard finding the color I wanted, so I had to get what I could.
Letter Board– I love this letter board because it is reversible! One side is pink, and the other side is gray. It also came with a set of black letters and a set of white letters. It was difficult finding a letter board that wasn’t outrageously priced, so I was very excited when I found this one on Amazon.
Changing Pad Cover– I love this design! This is a Copper Pearl cover that I actually got on Amazon. You’ll notice it is the same design as SJ’s dress from our maternity photos that I got from Bailey’s Blossoms, and is the same as AJ’s swaddle and hat that is from Copper Pearl.
Cloth Diapers
Yup, you read that right. We cloth diaper and I love it! First because they are so cute, and two because it ends up saving us a lot of money! For the newborn size we use Blueberry Newborn Capri Covers and Flip Stay Dry Newborn Inserts. Once she gets bigger I have a mix of Flip
and Blueberry
One Size Covers as well as the Flip Stay-Dry One-Size Inserts
.
Our system is really easy, keep the diapers right there, cloth wipes soaked in a solution in a wipe warmer to keep them from drying out too fast, and a garbage can
with a reusable liner. Then we wash them every 2-3 days.
Maybe I’ll do a blog post all about our cloth diapers here soon!