Training the Cats

When my sister came over, I had her help me blow up some red latex balloons to put in the crib:

Now you might wonder why we did this. Here's the answer:

Our cats currently sleep on anything and everything they desire. And my husband and I have been of the idea that they should not be allowed to sleep in the baby's sleeping areas. At least for now. Orange and fluffy above especially loves to hug and groom things smaller than him, and while it's sweet, it worries us. Part of the reason we wanted to get the bassinet and crib set up so early was to train the cats to stay out of them.

I researched and researched and finally decided that latex balloons would be the best way to go. One, for whatever reason, my cats are scared of them. I brought them home once (the floaty kind) and they would not come anywhere near them. Two, if they were to try to jump into the crib, the balloons would either pop or hit them, neither of which they would enjoy. We learned the first night that we had the bassinet that the balloons were quite effective. In the middle of night, startling pops woke us up. Two balloons had burst, and while we don't know which cat was responsible, neither of them will go near the bassinet now. I've removed the balloons at this point from the bassinet, and so far, no cat sightings in the bassinet.

With the crib, you'll notice that there's now space for the cats to land and lay down should they desire. Our grand hope is that by the time the last balloon comes out, they won't have any desire to be in the crib at all.

DIY Project: Customizing a Bookcase

I have loved the idea of customizing a bookcase by wallpapering the backs of the bookcase with pretty paper or fabric. Honestly, though, I don't have the time or inclination right now to deal with glue and lining things up properly. We need shelving in the baby room, though, and I wanted to do something besides putting another utilitarian bookcase up in another room. So I thought a coat of paint would just be the perfect way to perk up a standard bookcase. I bought a quart of semi-gloss paint and an Ikea Billy bookcase and went to work.

Here's a before pic of the bookcase from the Ikea website:It's okay, but blah...just a regular old bookcase. I painted the back of the bookcase with a gorgeous aqua color (Olympic Premium in Caruso), and here is the result:

I will say that this project did come with a slight snafu. I had perused the Internet and found instructions on Domino that confirmed what I wanted to do: prime the back piece, then paint it. I primed the white laminated side of the backboard (the side that would normally show), and immediately had an idea that it wasn't going to work out because the primer was beading and not really sticking to the laminate. I painted two coats of primer (exactly the kind Domino had mentioned) and two coats of paint and it did in fact cover just fine. I let it dry overnight and when I went to put it into the Ikea bookcase...

Disaster.

Utter disaster.

When sliding it into place, the paint and primer scraped and peeled away from the original white laminated side. Honestly, if I were just going to hammer it into place (with nothing around that could possibly scrape at the paint), this paint job would have worked just fine. But the Ikea Billy has you sliding the backboard into these vertical slits and then hammering the thing along the horizontal supports. Perhaps if I were to sand it well before priming it would have worked better (but honestly no set of directions mentioned sanding), or if I had not used water-based primer and paint, but I'm pregnant and not about to subject myself to higher VOC products.

I actually was able to scrape all bits of paint and primer off the laminated side of the backboard that I had painted. I went to Plan B, which I had immediately thought of right after I started priming. I flipped the backboard over to the unlaminated, cardboard-looking side and primed and painted that. The paint stuck, no problem. And now, if we're ever tired of the aqua, we can always flip the backboard over and revert back to the original white.

Here's a pic of the bookcase with a bunch of baby stuff we've been storing up all around:

I absolutely love the result!

The Chair Dilemma

There's just one piece of major furniture left for us to get for the baby bedroom, and that's a chair. I was half hoping that the guest bed in there would serve double duty, but everyone who's been in the room has agreed with my assessment that there needs to be a chair of some sort in there. Unfortunately the room's not the biggest, and I don't want the room to start feeling cramped. Originally I had wanted to get this rocker combo from Babies R Us because eventually we may want to move the chair to another room in the house when the baby is done being a baby:
And who knows? We might yet still. I'm afraid, though, that the ottoman might stick out too much in the room, cutting all that nice open space we currently have in there. My friend suggested that we block the sliding glass door and just treat it like another wall, but I'm loathe to do that.

My sister and one of my best friends made mention that no matter what, it'd be really good to be able to put your feet up when you sit down. My sister suggested a recliner, which was what I was sort of debating. Best Chairs has a couple glider/recliners, and I could get it with the contrast piping if I wanted:
It would still rock and I'd still be able to put my feet up without having a bulky ottoman in the room. It seems like it would be the ideal choice except that it's a WAY pricier option that what I was originally thinking.

So then I was thinking, what if the chair either just rocked or just reclined? I mean, lots of people get just a standard rocking chair, something like this from Overstock:


And honestly, this Ikea recliner is pretty good looking and pretty darn comfortable, even if it doesn't rock:
(Ikea has a cheaper chair that rocks but unfortunately I couldn't get it to rock very much in store.)

Or I could just put a club chair or armchair of some sort in there and just call it a day. Who needs a chair to rock or recline anyway?

I see now why my friends had an office chair in their nursery.

The Look for Less: Baby Mod Olivia Crib v. Oeuf Classic Crib

So I was trolling my design blogs, as I often do early in the morning, when I happened upon a crib from Walmart called the Olivia Crib by Baby Mod:

This sort of reminded me of that show The Look for Less that Elizabeth Hasselbeck used to host before she went to The View (stick with fashion, Mrs. Hasselbeck, I loved you on The Look for Less...not so much on The View). Gosh I used to love that show. Anyway, this crib looked A LOT like the Oeuf Classic Crib:

There are obvious design differences, of course, but all cribs sold in the USA have to pass the same safety requirements, and for a third of the price, one can get a very very similar nursery look for a lot less. There's even a post on ohdeedoh on how to customize the crib feet.

Glucose Screening Test

At 27 weeks, I went in for a glucose screening test. I was told to go a week before my 28 week appointment so they would have the test results by my appointment. Needless to say, I was really freaked out over this whole ordeal. I mean, for one, since my 20 week appointment, I've been of the idea that I would in fact fail the glucose screening test, fail the glucose tolerance test, and then be diagnosed with gestational diabetes. This has been a great fear of mine because, really, there is nothing I fear more than not being able to have sugar.

Anyway, I had heard that for the glucose screening test, basically they give you orange syrup to suck down and then you have to sit there for an hour. To my surprise, I was given a glass bottle (10 oz) of orange soda (with 50g of dextrose) straight from a fridge to drink. No problem. I love my soda. Any kind of soda. There was a lady there who had failed the screen and was there for the 3-hour tolerance test. She kept saying dire things to me like, "You better hope you pass because the 3 hour test is horrible." But since it was just a 10 oz soda, I was feeling a little more confident that I wasn't going to fail the glucose screening test. Me and soda have always been great friends.

I did tell a couple people that I got soda to drink for the test, and they were surprised. More than one (my sister and others that work in the medical profession) said that the lab must care about their patients because that drink is more expensive than the syrup.

And yes, I passed the screening test, no problem. And the test showed that I'm not anemic, either, so double yay!

What a Croc!

So I love my OB. I have referred two of my pregnant friends to my doctor, and they love her, too. She has a way about her to check on things without overly concerning her patients. I mean, let's be honest, she mentioned at 20 weeks that there was some sugar in my urine and even though she dismissed it as the 32 ounces of juice I had right before coming to the doctor's office, I freaked out because I thought for sure that meant I was going to be diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I noted at my 28 week appointment that she ever so slyly felt up my ankles. I'm pretty sure she was checking for edema without mentioning it, but who knows, maybe she was just giving my ankles a reassuring squeeze. No edema yet, thank goodness.

I have noted that some of my flats have gotten a little tight, though. It's probably the extra 20 pounds I'm lugging around right now and the 8 extra gallons I seem to be drinking every day. To compound matters, my everyday shoes, a pair of Skechers, have died after a long and fruitful life. I have been hinting and hinting and hinting for quite some time (like since way before pregnancy) that I would like some Crocs, but my husband has been very non-responsive to this. In fact, he's been downright against it, saying flat out that they look ugly. They look ultra comfortable, though, and there are days in which I'm printing where I'm on my feet for over 6 or 7 hours.

I went to Nordstrom Rack with my sister and saw classic Crocs (Crocs Beach, I believe) for $10 less than MSRP, but to my disappointment the small size was too small in length and the medium size was too big. I say that with the caveat that both were way too wide for me to be comfortable.

Yesterday, my sister and I went to the mall, and we stopped by the Crocs kiosk. My sister pointed out to me the Crocs that she had (Crocs Malindi), which had a slimmer fit, more exact sizing, and were OH SO COMFORTABLE. I got them in Berry:


I also got a pair of Crocs Olivia in Brown:

Aren't they adorable? And so comfortable! I especially like the rhinestone charm detail. The kiosk had them in red, brown, black (though none in my size), and new gold. I was going to get them in red, because, well, red is my favorite color and honestly they're Crocs and should be bought in fun colors, but my sister convinced me that since I was already buying the magenta Crocs, I should get a more practical color that would go with more of my clothing. I showed them to my husband last night, who didn't realize Crocs came in different styles, and said that they looked cute and ultra comfortable. The funny part is that I told him about the red-brown debate, and he said I should have gotten the red ones. Sigh. I am very happy with my Croc purchase, though. I'm going to take one of these pairs out today on the town. I have every confidence they'll be as comfortable as they were when I tried them on. I'm going to try printing in them this week and we'll see how that goes (I'm bringing my Nikes, just in case, though).

Baby Bedroom Complete!

Today I am officially 28 weeks pregnant. This pregnancy seems to be going by so quickly! The last week of February was taken up by renovating a bedroom for baby. After attaining so much baby stuff and planning out what we wanted to do for the nursery, my husband and I decided to tackle the job before I got too unwieldy to help. We were using the small bedroom next to the master as my husband's office, guest room, and general catch-all room. It was a major project to clean out enough space in my own office for my husband's desk and office equipment, clean out all our extraneous stuff in the condo to create more space for the stuff that was in that room, and then renovate the room for baby.

Here's a before shot of the room after we removed all the furniture:

The room was a pink color, and you can't tell really from the picture, but there was acoustic popcorn on the ceiling that my husband and I scraped off. My husband took care of the ceiling, while I painted the walls. The crib was absurdly easy to put together -- it took us maybe 20 minutes all together to put it together. I am glad so far we chose the crib that we did. It is so so much sturdier than any of the ones we saw at Babies R Us, and I absolutely love the dark espresso color.

Here are some after shots after we were done scraping the ceilings, painting, and putting the furniture back in:

Romeo, my dog, is in the last picture. He and our cats love the new room -- they think that the animal theme should include them! We put in a couple different lamps from around our home in there for now. I love how our blue/green Disney lamp that is on the nightstand next to the bed and crib goes so well with the room's colors, so that will definitely stay in the bedroom. I also gave up my elephant humidifier to the cause -- it goes so well with the room's theme!

If I had to choose one single change I love the most (after the ceiling, which I am still so amazed at), I would have to say the curtains! They are so much softer looking than the vertical blinds, and they actually block out the same amount of light.

I just put the mobile together today, and it looks so adorable. My sister is staying in the room right now, and she even loves the new sheets and coverlet I got to coordinate with the room's new decor. We have yet to finish accessorizing the room (chair, shelving, wall art, lighting, knick knacks, etc.) and we're waiting for more baby items for the room (diaper pail, changing pad, etc.), but I absolutely love how the room has turned out!