The Great Reveal: Before & After

I'm so excited! It's time for the big reveal of LO's new room... just 3 months in the making! For those of you who have been following my blog for a while, I'm sure you're excited to see this room transformation finally taking place if for no other reason than I'll finally stop blogging about all of the exciting details and unexpected frustrations that finally got us here! Haha! And just a warning... this is a long post with tons of pictures and a video as well. But enough chit chat... let's get on with it!

So here are the before pics. Here's looking into her room from the doorway.

One step into her bedroom and this is what you'd see.

To the left is her closet and a randomly placed light fixture from the play area left over from a mommy/daughter girls night about 3 or 4 months ago. And a yellow trash can that didn't match anything and certainly didn't belong in that corner.

Right inside the doorway was an empty wall next to another empty wall. Boring.

Then you have her bed. Plain, prison-style slats on the headboard and footboard. It served us well as a crib (and will do so again when baby boy arrives next month), but it certainly isn't the most girly of beds.

The ever-so-embarrassing blanket hung up over the window blinds for room darkening purposes. You'll recall we had the same lameness happening in Chase's room before his room transformation. It was a quick, cheap, easy fix that was apparently easy to ignore for the past year. And next to the window is an inexpensive ClosetMaid Cubeicals storage unit from Target that was utilized as a bookcase for our avid reader daughter.

Across from LO's bed was her dresser. A tall 4-drawer chest of drawers. Again, not very girly, but it has served it's purpose and will rock out once more as baby boy's dresser.

Such a sad little dresser, quite impractical for all the "stuff" we had loaded up on that thing.

Friday morning we emptied and cleaned the room and prepared for paint!

Two coats and several hours later, our pink Ballerina Gown by BEHR bedroom was painted and ready for Phase 2 to begin Saturday morning.

And now for the big AFTER reveal! Here's the first glimpse of her new horse room!

This wall has her old Teddy lovey from when she was little that I put into a shadowbox along with a little coat rack I painted with accents to match her room. I figure her purses, hoodies, and scarves will end up here.

Her new bed! I cannot tell you how much I love her new bedding from Pottery Barn and the cute accent pillow I made with the horse appliqué. It even has a zipper on the side that I'm super proud of as it was my first time sewing in a zipper!

A little bit of pink... a little bit of purple... a lot of girly cuteness! And oh, the gorgeous chandelier!

Some running horses over her closet door!

Sweet Teddy and the coat rack.

Loving how everything perfectly matched my vision! ;) And can I just say that one of my most favorite things about this room is her box spring?! Weird, right? I found the fantastic idea online to put a fitted sheet over the box spring so it doesn't stand out and look crazy awful, and it looks perfect! I don't know why I didn't do this sooner. It worked out great because the kids' beds aren't conducive to bed skirts because of how the slats are screwed in under the box spring. So what a perfect win-win, right??

Love the horses!

Her new dresser with arched mirror! Also the tray I hand painted, the runner I sewed and some accent pieces from Hobby Lobby.

Really inexpensively created wall art. I reused the frames from some art that was in her old nursery and used some clip art from the interwebs. The only thing missing here is the nice white bookcase that will be placed below the artwork. We didn't quite get the trim on the bookcase the way I wanted so it'll be part of the Phase 2 rollout. ;)

Love the little circle star over her doorway. And one of my favorite things... the fabric-covered Mod-Podged light switch cover plate that matches the runner on her dresser.

See? Isn't it cute? So easy, too! I can't wait to do this to lots of other light switch plate covers in the house!

And just for effect, here are a few "Before & After" side-by-sides...

Here she is finally seeing her room for the first time... She was surprised!

There was so much to take in! Yay!!!

And finally... here's the big reveal of LO's new room! She had just returned from a sleepover at Gramma and PaPa's, which included lots of swimming and lots of fun, so she was pretty tired when she got home. Apparently she even napped in the car on the drive over so she was slightly less energetic than I expected, but it's all good! I'm sure we'll have fun as she discovers all of the fun things in her new room over the next few days. Oh, and please forgive all the photo snapping throughout the video and the commentary from mommy. ;)

Making Progress

Yesterday we were finally able to begin on a very special project that's been about 3 months in the making: LO's new room! I was so excited to FINALLY be able to get this done for so many reasons. I honestly had wanted to do LO's room before we did Chase's room, but it just didn't work out. I'm also excited to get her room completed so we can finally get the baby's nursery ready! The countdown is sitting at just over 5 weeks before his arrival, which is cutting it close in my opinion. ;)

So all we did yesterday was clear out her room and paint. Since we had all day Friday as well as Saturday until around 6pm, I wasn't in a huge hurry and it was nice to just get things done without stressing out.

Here's her room before paint:

And after:

I'm so thankful I chose the color I did. I tried 3 different paint samples and this one was the lightest by far. See? It's the one in the middle.

I was a bit concerned it wouldn't be pink enough, but I would MUCH prefer the walls to be "under-pink" than look like Pepto-Bismol or a Barbie explosion. I knew that while the sample looked very pale, once it was up on all 4 walls it would be much "louder" and I was right! But thankfully it's just pink enough without being too pink. I think it'll give a nice contrast with the white furniture and accents I have for the space.

Today we plan to get her new furniture moved in and assembled, wall hangings up, ceiling fan replaced with the chandelier, bed made, accents in and -- a most exciting bonus detail that she'll adore -- tiny stars up on the ceiling. We have plenty of time and there is zero stress with this project, which makes me crazy happy. I can't wait to share the official before & after pics soon! Wish us luck! ;)

Randomness with a Side of Panic

So it's been a few days about 2 weeks, since I've blogged, and it was such an unfortunate post to share about LO's new furniture. Ugh. Even now if I stop and dwell on it I just get mad all over again. Some of you have wondered what our final decision was, and I'll tell you that we have chosen to ((gulp)) keep the furniture. I know, I know... Most of me was against this idea from the moment we unboxed it, and to be honest, I REALLY REALLY REALLY don't feel like we got our money's worth on this purchase, even after they refunded a paltry amount in an attempt to appease us. But it's done now, and I'm choosing to move forward. We have requested they replace the arched mirror in its entirety, and are awaiting its arrival, so at least we can assume that one will be in better condition (hopefully, anyway). Hubs spent some time caulking all of the trim on the headboard and footboard, and I have to say it looks simply amazing. Exactly like what I would've expected it to look like brand new, straight out of the box. All that's left now is for him to caulk the trim around the individual drawers on the double dresser, and I anticipate that will look just as awesome. So really, at the end of the day, this is the lesser of two evils, especially considering I didn't have a Plan B of alternative furniture that I was set on.

Some exciting news? The big room makeover is taking place in T-Minus 2 days!! Actually, less than that! I'll be getting started after LO heads to school Friday morning, and we'll have all day Friday and Saturday until early evening to get it all done. I couldn't be more excited! I am SO ready for this and I cannot wait to see LO's shock & awe response when she sees it all for the first time. She has no idea this is happening (nor that she'll have a fun sleepover with the grandparents while it takes place!), which makes it that much more fun for me! Be prepared, because I'm pretty sure I'll have the amazing Before & After post ready to share on Sunday (or Monday at the latest). WOO-HOO!!!

Oh, and after 3 different paint samples, I've finally settled on Ballerina Gown by Behr. It's a very pale pink, so hopefully once all the walls are done it won't look like Pepto-Bismol threw up everywhere. I'm finding that the online sample has some weird purplish hue to it, but I can promise you it's really just a very very pale pink.

Another random piece of excitement? I needed a new breast pump for baby #3 because we sold the one I used with LO and Chase on craigslist back in 2010. That's pretty exciting news, right?? No? Oh, well let me continue... I've shopped around and the Medela Pump in Style that I want runs around $299.99. Ouch! So I've been trolling eBay recently to see if I could land an amazing deal on a NEW, UNUSED, UNOPENED, SEALED pump (as I'm totally not willing to purchase one that's been opened or -- heaven forbid, used -- from a stranger off the interwebs). There have been a few I've watched come and go and they typically land around $190 or so at best. Well, friends, let me just tell you that I am pleased to announce I just landed said $299.99 breast pump for... wait for it... $152.50!!! Seriously. I am beyond thrilled!!! I can't wait for it to arrive so I can investigate and verify it truly is still factory sealed and unused so I can be super happy with my score. Woot!

On a less than happy note... last Saturday hubs and I went to a wedding and ran some errands while my mom stayed with the kiddos. We were on our way home when I got a call from my mom, saying, "Don't be surprised if you see fire trucks in front of the house when you get here."

{{INSERT CRAZY PANIC HERE}}

My first question was whether or not the kids were okay. Of course I was super freaked out that something happened to Chase. She assured me she and the kids were fine, but that there was a FIRE IN OUR BACKYARD.

What the huh?!

Luckily we were less than 2 minutes from home when she called, and we actually saw the fire truck pull into our subdivision as we were about to turn in. We found my mom with the kids in the front yard while half our neighborhood was in the backyard, apparently having just put out a brush fire with a dozen or so garden hoses from neighboring homes. There wasn't much for the firefighters to do but assess the area and be sure the fire was fully out. Whoa.

Turns out our neighbor had a fire pit and a small stick got caught up in the wind of the crazy windy night we had on Saturday and landed in the dormant, dry sodded grass of their backyard and instantly went ablaze. They tried to stomp it out and smother it, but apparently in a matter of about 8 minutes, half of their yard, half of ours, and a section of our next neighbor's yard was up in waist-high flames. My mom said LO was yelling at her to "Call 911! Call 911!" What a great girl! My mom couldn't figure out how hubs has our back door rigged (let's just say you have to use an actual key to open the door... from the inside), so she took the kids out front and called 911. It's good that she got through because apparently one of the neighbors tried calling and was put on hold with 911! Lovely. So at the end of the day, it wasn't a big deal -- just a bunch of drama -- but it did result in half of our fully-sodded backyard turning into charcoal. ((sigh)) One of the main reasons we chose to build with Ryan was for the fully-sodded yard, and we were looking forward to seeing what the spring/summer would bring now that it's been just over a year for it to take. It just looks so sad right now...

I just took these pics this morning so it's had a good 4 days of improvement from what we originally saw Sunday morning once the smoke cleared. ;) Hubs tells me some people purposefully burn up their grass to help it grow in better. So yay, apparently this isn't horribly detrimental to the grass. My biggest issue is that whether the grass grows in better or worse in the burnt area, it's going to grow in differently than the rest of the yard. Those of you who know me well know that I'm OCD about things like this and enjoy consistency. So I'm super crazy bummed that the fully-sodded yard we paid good money for will most likely grow in completely different in the two areas. Grrrrrr! But it doesn't sound like there's much we can do about it, so whatevs. I've chosen to keep my window blinds in the morning room closed so I don't have to look at it because honestly, it looks horrible in person and when I see it, it just makes me crazy disappointed. So I'm choosing to ignore it for the next 2-4 months until the dormant season is over and we can see what kind of growth we will end up with. I'm not looking forward to this, but will keep my fingers crossed that it's not horribly obvious. Ultimately I'm just so thankful that all that was damaged was the grass... no one in the neighborhood was hurt and none of the homes were damaged. It could've been MUCH worse... it was crazy windy that night. But thanks to the quick actions of the neighbors and plenty of lengthy garden hoses, all is well. What a blessing!

My last random note... I'm 33 weeks pregnant people. THIRTY-THREE. And at our appointment on Monday morning, my Perinatologist wrote orders for an induction at 39 weeks. That means, if my math is correct, we're talking SIX WEEKS until baby boy's arrival. SIX WEEKS!!! As in the last week of April, which is NEXT MONTH! Can you tell I'm in a slight state of shock & awe?? There is SO. MUCH. TO. BE. DONE. between now and then! I'm happy we're knocking out LO's room this weekend, because that means we'll FINALLY have her furniture to put together in the baby's room to set up his nursery. I'm not painting his room or doing anything drastic, so getting the nursery ready should be relatively painless. But I have yet to wash the first thing for him, haven't even gathered up Chase's old baby stuff that we'll plan to use, don't have any of the big stuff (like the car seat, stroller, etc.) pulled out of the attic yet, haven't even located some things like the baby bath tub or bouncy seat, and I'm not even sure if we have all the pieces of the Pack n' Play to put it together in our room for the first little while when he'll stay in our room with us. And don't even ask about hospital bags because I haven't even so much as started the list of what I'll need/want to bring, much less started packing any of it! I still can't believe the count down is just under SIX WEEKS for sweet boy's arrival. This is insane. I haven't even set up my time off from work yet or submitted paperwork for my leave. Geez. There's gonna be a LOT to get done over the next few weeks around here!!! But at least I got a great deal on a new breast pump though, right?? ((sigh)) Whatever it takes to distract myself from the fact that I'm going to be pushing a person out of me in the very near future... YIKES!

Oh, and has anyone told you that Easter is only a week and a half away?? I've got to find the kids' Easter baskets and figure out what in the world I'm gonna put in them this year. Oh, and I'm also planning to MAKE (as in SEW) LO's Easter dress this year. Guess that'll have to happen next week, huh? Whoa!

Enough random for now. I'm overwhelmed and totally panicked now. Peace out! :)

The One I Didn't Want to Have to Write (about the furniture)

It's true. This is the post I didn't want to have to write. It's the one I never thought I'd have to write! But alas, I gotta keep it real here if for no other reason than for myself to look back on in 10 years and remember my utter disappointment.

Let's take a moment to recall the progression of events, shall we? Friday, December 21st, 2012, I introduced you all to the beginning planning stages for LO's new room, including a short list of likely suspects for her new furniture purchase. This of course included the winner we eventually selected!

Fast-forward to Monday, December 31st, 2012, when I was so very excited to write this post informing the world that we had finally selected AND PURCHASED the new bedroom furniture for LO's room. I recall being so very ecstatic and happy and blissfully ignorant at the time. It would only be 4 to 6 weeks until we could finally do LO's new room!

Now then, let's discuss Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013, when I about died writing about the infamous phone call that changed the 4 to 6 week delivery timeframe into a whopping, unexpected 10 to 12 weeks. This sucked on so many levels, mostly because it would delay doing LO's room, which in turn would delay getting the nursery ready for the baby. NOT a happy mama.

In mid-February, I hit the interwebs again searching for a back-up plan of furniture that could replace what we ordered since the production delay caused a significant impact on our schedule. I searched high and low and was unable to find anything I liked even half as much as what we had already selected. I had no other option but to wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

Then, it finally happened! Monday, February 25th, 2013, I got THE CALL informing me that our furniture had arrived! It was even a few weeks earlier than the delayed date we were given. How wonderful! I couldn't believe it. Now we could finally schedule LO's big room update. The only problem? Every single weekend for the next 4 weeks were already booked with work and other activities. This meant that even though the furniture was here, it would still be at least ANOTHER MONTH before we could knock it out.

{{insert crazy disappointment here}}

But it would be okay. I had enough other stuff to distract me and keep me busy and preoccupied until the big weekend arrived and we could finally surprise LO with the big girl room of her dreams! In the meantime, hubs and I went ahead and had the furniture delivered to the house and went about unboxing all of our treasures in preparation for the big event.

This is where the major disappointment/frustration/you-name-it happens.

As I mentioned on Monday, March 4th, 2013, we were shocked at what we saw as we unboxed our expensive, brand new furniture. It was terrible. There were no words for it. In fact, there still are no words for it. So in order to document this travesty, I took pictures.

Now, mind you, I'm certain many of my readers will see these pics and think, "So? And...? What's the big deal?" And that's cool. You're entitled to your opinion just as I am to mine. But let's just imagine you paid somewhere between $1,000 - $2,000 on this quality furniture, freshly unboxed, and tell me you wouldn't have some of the same frustrations as we do.

Let's start with the arched mirror. It actually arrived in pieces (not the mirror itself, but the mirror was completely detached from the frame). There were all sorts of scratches and chipped paint on the front trim. The mirror itself had two screw holes along the very edge of each side where they apparently tried to screw through the mirror when assembling it. Awesome.

Then let's talk about the dresser. I couldn't clearly document in photos that the drawers open unevenly (the drawer stops inside are obviously uneven), so we'll just leave that issue out of it. But let's check out the impressively destructed trim and paint job...

Moving on to the headboard. I for one would expect the use of a little bit of quality caulk to seal any noticeable gaps around the trim once the paint job is complete. Apparently I'm the only one.

The footboard had similar issues with gaps everywhere. I mean, really. It's obvious the trim was attached (possibly glued?) onto the footboard and then painted, but not caulked. Seriously?!

Now I do want to point out that yes, I am 31 weeks pregnant. And apparently along with the mood swings, weird cravings and weight gain, pregnancy also brings along with it's symptoms for me an overwhelming increase in pickiness and the apparent need for perfection in all things. So I get it. Perhaps my hormones have overtaken my logical thinking processes and have turned me into a whining crybaby, overly critical of this furniture and ridiculously unimpressed with its lack of quality.

But I'm also a human person with eyes that can see. And I'd like to think that other human people with eyes would see the same issues I've discussed here and be just as frustrated and disappointed as I.

{{sigh}}

This was supposed to be a wonderful, exciting process of updating LO's room and I know it will be. I've put so much time, money and creative energy into the other items and accents in her room that I know the big surprise unveiling will be everything I have dreamt up in my head and more! But oh how I hate the unexpected, unnecessary drama we're having to endure to get to that point. I'm just not a happy camper right now. I expected more. Maybe that's my own fault. Shame on me, I guess.

OhMyWow.

Well, as I mentioned last Monday, the furniture for LO's room finally came in and was ready for pick up or delivery. Can you just imagine my excitement?! YAY!!!

We chose to pay a chunky fee to have the furniture delivered, and it arrived at our home this past Friday night. Again, YAY!!! I couldn't wait to see it but everything arrived in the original shipping boxes, so there was no chance I'd be able to check it all out until after hubs was able to unbox it for me, which he couldn't really do with nosey LO around. Fast-forward to Saturday afternoon... hubs snuck into the baby's room (where we've stashed LO's furniture) and unboxed everything. This is where things were no longer "YAY!!!"

The first box he opened was the arched mirror that goes with the double dresser. The mirror panel was completely separated from the frame. This was quite unexpected. Especially once we noticed the mirror had two large chips out of both bottom edges (almost as if they had tried to screw through the mirror). Whoa. And the lovely wooden frame had large chips out of the bottom, front and center, where they would be completely exposed and visible once the mirror was placed on the dresser.

Insert shock n' awe here.

The fun continued when we started to unbox the dresser and headboard/footboard panels. Imagine a lovely white headboard, for example. Now add some lovely white wooden trim pieces to it for added decor. Pretty, right? Well, not if you don't caulk the seams. Yes, people, that's right. Basically everywhere you have added trim on the headboard, footboard and dresser you have these ugly shadowy seams where one would expect white caulk to be so as to hide such madness.

TERRIBLE.

I could NOT believe what I was seeing. And the drawers for the dresser? They pulled out unevenly and it was clear the drawer stops would need to be adjusted.

This is NOT what one would expect for quality, American-made, expensive furniture. And on top of that, how long could one expect said furniture to last if it requires so much maintenance and repair straight out of the box?!

I was pretty livid. Hubs was pretty calm. He said he could fix the mirror, caulk the trim/seams, etc... That's all well and good, and I have no doubt he'd be able to successfully complete these repairs. But my issue is that THESE ARE REPAIRS! ON BRAND NEW, EXPENSIVE FURNITURE!!!

And let me just mention that every single piece of furniture was clearly stamped, "MADE IN CHINA." Imagine my surprise when I contacted the manufacturer directly via Facebook and was told--and I quote--"the cribs are sourced from Vietnam and the rest is sourced from China."

{{gasp!}}

Wow. One of the bigger selling points that helped make our decision to purchase this set was that it was quality, American-made furniture. Apparently notsomuch.

So we went back to the reseller where we purchased the furniture this morning. We spoke with them about the issues we discovered and, surprisingly, they were willing to allow us to return all of the pieces for a full refund. They would even pick it up for no charge. Lovely. I asked specifically about the American-made aspect and was told all of the parts are in fact from China--but it's assembled in at their headquarters in High Point, North Carolina.

'Cause that's the same.

UGH. So now I cannot believe over 2 months have gone by since I first selected and ordered LO's new furniture and I'm BACK TO SQUARE ONE.

Do we keep the existing furniture? Is it okay that we have to do so many repairs straight out of the box? What is the likelihood this "quality" furniture will last until LO heads off to college?

Or do we find something else completely? And if so, how long will it take to find something we love and how long will it take to get here?

Not cool. This sucks. Knowing we weren't sure what our plans would be, I left the furniture reseller this morning and headed over to Rooms to Go Kids to shop around for a Plan B. Luckily I found two potential replacements, but with a huge caveat we'd have to consider.

The first is the Nicolette White Full Bedroom Collection:

It's rather similar to the set we already purchased, with a few downsides. First, I hate the drawer pulls on the dresser. But usually if I don't like it, sure enough LO will just so happen to LOVE it! She's funny that way. Plus I could always change out drawer pulls. No big. Secondly, since it's a platform bed, it only has one height for the side rails. It's designed for use with a trundle to be purchased separately (which we don't want), so the bed sits high and should be used with a mattress only or a bunky board underneath. This would render her existing box spring useless.

The second option I was actually kind of surprised to be drawn to. It's not quite what I've been looking at this entire time, but it's different in a good way. It's the Emily White Full Bedroom Collection:

I never really considered a metal scroll headboard/footboard option, but I really love the look of this one! And I still get my white double dresser and mirror, but with enough metal scroll accent to make the pieces look cohesive. I'm really kind of torn here! The other added benefit of this set is that you will be able to see the effort that is going into the accent wall behind the headboard in her room much better. It will be white beadboard with white chair rail, which you won't see much of with a white panel headboard there, but you'd see it much more with this one! And because this set is so ridiculously inexpensive, I'd even opt for a little canopy to hang on the ceiling above the headboard for added girly-ness, similar to this one at PBK (except probably with purple tulle):

But the biggest downside to ordering from Rooms to Go Kids is that they essentially have a NO REFUND policy. If for whatever reason we order one of these sets and didn't like it, we could only return it for store credit; not for a refund of the purchase price. I don't like the finality of that!

My plan is to mull things over for a bit and see where I land. It's gonna be a busy week with work and some other things going on but hopefully "THE" answer will hit me upside the head and I'll know what to do. It just seems like such a big decision to select furniture your child will use until they (hopefully) head off to college! So much pressure! And my goodness am I learning how incredibly picky I am these days! I had no idea! Maybe I can blame the pregnancy on that one... or not.

So does anyone have the perfect solution for our little dilemma? I'm all ears! Opinions welcome!!!

LO and the Author's Tea

Today was a special day for LO! She was selected by her Kindergarten class and teachers to attend her school's February Author's Tea. The Author's Tea is essentially a monthly gathering of selected students who read something they've written to the audience of other students and their parents. It's a special honor and we were overjoyed to attend this morning to see LO in her 30 seconds of glory! :)

 

Way to go, LO! We're so proud of you!! We loved your Valentine's Day story!

IT'S HERE!!! IT'S HERE!!!

OhMyGoodness I can hardly breathe! OhMyGoodness!!!

I just got my weekly Monday morning call from the furniture company. I was fully expecting (hoping/praying) for the typical "everything's on schedule... it'll be here by March 15th" phone call, but NO! Not today, my friends!

The new furniture for LO's new room is--get this!--HERE!!!!! It's here in town at the warehouse just waiting for us to either pick it up or arrange delivery! It's here! It's here! It's here!

Can you tell I'm excited?!?!?!?!

Seriously, I had to apologize to poor Eli (the furniture guy) for the excessive bawling and crying that immediately commenced when he informed me our furniture is H-E-R-E! I blamed my 30-week-pregnant hormones but I know it's so much more than that.

OhMyGoodness!!!

Now we just have to figure out WHEN we'll be able to ship LO off for a little weekend of fun with a grandparent or friend or what-have-you so we can have the time we need to get it all done while she's out of the house. I'm beyond thrilled!!! But the timing is still kind of "ugh" because I work this weekend and have other activities already scheduled for the next two weekends after that. But regardless, we WILL find the time and her room WILL get done ASAP!!! I'm so stinkin' excited!!!!!

WOOT!!!!!!

P.S. Thanks to all of you for your patience with my obnoxious self over the past 2 months... so many posts about furniture delays and room decor. Surely half of you stopped reading this ol' blog by now! But there should only be one more post on this particular subject... the BEFORE & AFTER pics!!!

LO's New Room: An Update

UPDATES: I forgot to mention the walls in LO's room will be painted a VERY pale pink (think the complete opposite of Pepto-Bismol) and we're doing beadboard with chair rail on the wall behind the headboard of her bed as an accent wall. I might paint the beadboard a VERY pale lavender and leave the chair rail white, but probably won't make that call until we start putting the room together. :)

Also, for the accents, I forgot to mention I bought oversized wooden initials for LO (about 2 feet tall) that I painted glossy white to hang on one of her walls. I'll probably incorporate some pink ribbon somehow with the letters, just to add to the "girliness" of her room.

---

So no news is good news, right? It's been a while since I've shared any update at all out here, but it's been even longer than that since I've discussed LO's new room! The good news is I have the furniture store we ordered her furniture from calling the manufacturer that is making the furniture every Monday to ensure everything is still on schedule, then the furniture store calls me to confirm. So far, for the past 3 weeks anyway, it's been on schedule. That means it should be here no later than March 15th. You know, like 6 weeks before THE BABY is due to arrive. ((sigh))

It's okay though because I've been finding ways to keep myself busy and less antsy during this time. Enter a TON of little artsy/sewing projects for her new room. I got to thinking about it and, really, the only "big" plan for her room was new furniture, lighting and paint. None of these things will really turn her room into the "horsey room" she's been asking for, so it was time to put my Martha Stewart skills to work and see what I could come up with. Let's see...

Lest anyone forget, this is the coveted furniture I'm waiting ever-so-patiently to receive ("Madison" by Legacy Classic Kids). We were told 3-6 weeks back when we ordered it IN DECEMBER, but were then told 12-14 weeks when the furniture company ordered it and found that the bed was still in production. Grrrr... She's a beaut, though, and hopefully worth the wait! We've looked into Every. Single. Other. Option. Under. The. Sun. and I never found anything that I loved even half as much as this furniture, so we really had (have) no choice but to wait.

Full Panel Bed:

Double Dresser with Arched Mirror:

And as another refresher, this is the Brigette Ruffle Quilt and Lucy Ringmaster Sheeting (both from Pottery Barn Kids) that I selected. Please note the cute gold star accent pillow... I really liked the idea of the accent pillow but the gold color and star theme had no place in her new room. More on that in a bit.

So back to my many projects that have been occupying my time while I impatiently wait for her new furniture to arrive.

((My apologies for the horrible photos. The lighting was bad and I'm way too lazy to run these through Photoshop. Not that y'all aren't worth the effort, 'cause you are. But you know. Pregnant = Lazy.))

I hand-painted this little coat rack and wooden accent pieces, then put it all together for her to have a place to hang her hoodies, purses, what-have-you. On the wall above the hooks will be a white shadowbox containing her precious Teddy, the lovey she used to have when she was a baby. I don't have that project complete yet, so no pics. ;) And yes, "S" stands for "LO."

One of her walls will sport this simple artwork I created with Photoshop from some basic clip art. I love that the frames are repurposed from her old nursery when she was a baby. They used to be pink but I painted them a gloss white instead. Love how cute and simple these turned out. They'll add a nice touch of "horsey" to her new room. ;)

This is the curtain rod that will go with her new curtains... once I make them. UGH. I tried SO HARD to find light lavender blackout curtains to NO AVAIL. So I ended up buying plain curtains that will require me to sew in blackout liner to them. It's gonna take some time and effort, but seems I don't have much else but time on my hands these days while I wait for the furniture. :)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this huge 2 ft. by 3 ft. poster board print I made to hang on the wall over her bed. I think it's gonna look great!

So while we ordered the "big stuff" from the furniture store, we nabbed a night stand from my good friends at Amazon. I replaced the drawer pulls with hand-painted horseshoe pulls instead. I love how cute this looks!

See the cuteness?? On a side note... should horseshoes be pointing up or down? I so don't know.

This is a little iron star that I painted a gloss white to hang over her doorway. Please pardon the photo on our gym floor... just wanted to be sure it stood out.

Again with the gym flooring... Anywho, this is a little metal guy that will hang over her closet door. I also painted it a gloss white.

If you follow me on Twitter/IG, you would've seen this lovely little runner I made for her dresser. I got to thinking that the white dresser is a LOT of white, and it'd need a nice splash of color. I love how it turned out!

Here's a little accent tray I hand-painted and stenciled to keep on her new dresser, too. I figure it can hold jewelry, hair bows, hair clips, etc.

I couldn't not pick up this resin cowgirl boot from Hobby Lobby, especially since it was 50% off! I haven't decided for sure yet, but this will either be a bank, a vase with some faux flowers, or whatever else my imagination can come up with. I also picked up a few accent candles in pink and lavender for her dresser and/or nightstand.

Remember that gold star accent pillow I mentioned above from PBK? Ya, so I loved the idea of an accent pillow but didn't have any place for a gold star in my girl's new horsey room. SO... I purchased a similar-sized pillow form and sewed a pillowcase--complete with a zipper on the side! My first zipper and it was way easier than I had expected. I knew I wanted something "horsey" on it, so I ordered this $10 sequin appliqué from some website, and it shipped from Hong Kong! Took about a month to get here but it was worth it. I personally think it's a bit flashy/ghetto, but honestly I think it's gonna be one of LO's favorite things about her new room! I wasn't sure how to attack an appliqué, so I used fabric glue (which worked wonderfully, I might add) and followed it up with stitching around the edges with transparent thread. It worked out perfectly and is very secure. I love it!   

So the only real "project" left for LO's room (that I can actually do before the furniture arrives), is to purchase this super simple bookcase from Home Depot and jazz it up a bit. I purchased beadboard paper that will go on the back wall of the bookcase that I *might* paint purple, and I'm also planning to add decorative moulding around the top and bottom of the bookcase. It's gonna be super cute!

Of course, I should also mention I ordered the new 5-light chandelier for her room from eBay. Check it!

I plan to add these cute little shades, too.

So there you have it. A little inventory of the fun little art projects I've been staying busy with while waiting for LO's furniture to arrive. I'm super excited about her new room! I'm more excited about putting her new room together than getting the baby's nursery done -- isn't that crazy?! I guess I know the baby will bunk in our room 'til he's a few months old, so there's no major rush. That's what I keep telling myself anyway, even though I really wish I could be washing his clothes, blankets, etc. and putting them away into his dresser that is currently in use in LO's room. ARGH for my lack of patience sometimes!!! Haha!!

It's a Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day!

And if you think about it, say a little prayer for us this afternoon as we head to an appointment at my Perinatologist for a fetal echo on the baby. Chase's cardiologist will be there to review the echo and we're praying that everything looks perfect. You may recall my earlier post from our 19-week scan that showed a healthy, four-chamber heart. Today's fetal echo is just a more in-depth look at the baby's heart and another level of assurance that everything is okay. We appreciate all happy thoughts and prayers sent our way this afternoon.

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UPDATE: We returned from our fetal echo this afternoon and Chase's cardiologist Dr. H confirmed our baby has a healthy, four-chamber heart! The appointment went very well! The baby measures 2 lb. 7 oz. and was very cooperative for us. We saw lots of great pics of his face, both in 2D and 3D! So cool!

We'll return in 4 weeks for another growth ultrasound. The doctor wants to watch my blood sugar weekly as well as the baby's growth. Even though I wasn't "officially" diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes, it sounds like they're going to treat me as such (no surprise).

So for your viewing pleasure... here's a little profile pic of our guy! :)

GD Woes

Hmph. This post is quite a bit overdue. Honestly it's been about a month now that I've spent wrapping my mind around this unexpected pregnancy complication: Gestational Diabetes. It's required quite a monumental shift in my lifestyle that I guess I haven't really been ready to talk about until now. The timing is a bit weird as this is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week and I really should be devoting my blog to more posts about CHDs, but at the same time I like to use my blog as a journal of sorts so I can look back on this 2 years from now and remember the details of things long forgotten. So without further ado, here's my lil' rant.

I have a family history of diabetes. Of course this means I have an increased likelihood of getting diabetes myself later in life, but it wasn't something I ever focused on. I'm more of a "here and now" kind of girl versus a "what if-er."

About a year ago, my primary physician decided to put me on a medication called Metformin, an antidiabetic drug of sorts that was prescribed almost as if it was going to prevent me developing diabetes. My doctor never asked me to monitor my blood sugar; I was just taking this medication daily as if it was my "cure" to diabetes. So I have no clue what range my blood sugar was in before I started the medication nor while I was taking the medication.

During our first OB appointment back in October 2012, I mentioned I was taking this drug and was told to continue it throughout the pregnancy. About 19 weeks in, I questioned taking this medication again and was told by one of the OBs that they usually have patients discontinue taking it at 14 weeks. SERIOUSLY?! You can only imagine how much I DISLIKE taking prescription medications while pregnant since we have NO indication of what caused Chase's congenital heart defect. Unhappy was putting it lightly when I was told this.

At my next appointment, Dr. B decided he wanted me to discontinue the Metformin and start monitoring my blood sugar four times per day, then he would review the numbers at my next appointment 3 weeks later. I didn't love the idea of taking a med while pregnant but I also didn't love the idea of stopping one, either. Ultimately I decided to follow his orders and discontinued the Metformin on Tuesday, January 15, 2013. I then monitored my blood sugar 4x/day.

The first few days, I decided I didn't want to change my diet at all because I wanted to see if the Metformin was truly doing anything to help my blood sugar or not. So I continued to eat all the junk food and bad stuff I've essentially been eating my whole life. I made an effort to eat "better" while pregnant, but I totally sucked at it. The first few days off Metformin, my numbers were still within the range the doctor provided. WOOT! However, after about 3 or 4 days, I started seeing numbers that made me quite nervous. They were getting to be way higher than the safe range.

After about a week off the medication, I called my OB and he told me that, based on the numbers, he wanted to put me on a diabetic medication safe for use during pregnancy to treat Type 2 diabetes called Glyburide. I was completely and fully adamant that I would NOT take another prescription drug during my pregnancy unless absolutely necessary. Luckily, I had the option to try to control my blood sugar with diet.

OMG.

Diet.

A four-letter-word.

It wasn't my favorite solution, but as far as I was concerned, it was the ONLY solution. So I immediately, like as in ONE DAY, completely modified my diet. I would safely say I had been eating at least 4,000 to 5,000 calories per day (Can you imagine?! Hello, American obesity epidemic!). I immediately slashed that to 2,000 (or sometimes a bit less, depending). I learned which foods would keep my blood sugar within range, and which foods (almost ALL of them) would cause huge spikes that weren't safe for the baby. It was insane how drastic my diet changed overnight.

But it would all be worth it if it kept my baby safe. Obviously! And I knew that after 3 weeks of monitoring, I would take the standard glucose tolerance test given to all pregnant women around 28 weeks with the hope that somehow I would pass the test and could discontinue all the finger poking and massive diet changes. It was my glimmer of hope.

Fast-forward 3 weeks into all of these changes, the DAY BEFORE my scheduled glucose tolerance test. I get a call from my OB's office informing me that they are NOT going to give me the glucose test, but that I do need to have some blood drawn before my 9:30 AM appointment.

I couldn't believe it.

It was my one shot!

It was my glimmer of hope that the major lifestyle changes wouldn't be forced to continue!

Basically the thought process was that they had already seen my blood sugar spikes since discontinuing the Metformin and it didn't make sense to them to give me a bunch of sugar when they were already pretty sure how my body would respond.

I was devastated. That doesn't even begin to describe it. I felt like I had lost the game without ever leaving the bench. I wasn't even given a chance. My body had failed me yet again and there was nothing in my power to fix it.

It was like when LO was a baby and I couldn't keep up my milk supply to provide for her and had to supplement with formula WAY earlier than I had hoped and anticipated.

It was like when we found out about Chase's heart diagnosis when I felt like my body had let me and my son down in a major way.

And now it's my body failing yet another child by causing this complication.

I'm a failure.

As a person. And as a mother.

No one understood what I was feeling. Most people were "excited" for me because I wouldn't have to drink that nasty orange-flavored drink. It was as if no one realized just how critical that test was... how it was supposed to be my saving grace that prevented me from having to keep up this radical change in lifestyle.

I had a dark few days where I felt so totally alone... even poor hubs couldn't figure out the "right" thing to say to help me feel better. He didn't quite "get it" either.

What all this meant was that I didn't get a chance to pass that glucose tolerance test. Instead, I get to continue checking my blood sugar 4x/day for the next 3 months. I get to continue eating about 1,800 calories a day for the next 3 months. I get to continue avoiding ALL of my favorite foods for the next 3 months.

Don't get me wrong: keeping my little guy safe and healthy is Priority #1 for me and I'll do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING in my power to be sure he has the best environment possible in which to grow and develop. But I can't hardly put into words the PRESSURE this has put on me. Each and every decision about every meal and every snack... everything has to be carefully and methodically selected to ensure I'm not going to harm my baby.

This is a BIG deal. At least it is to me.

So there you have it. My Gestational Diabetes rant. I fully realize this probably just sounded like a lot of complaining to most people, and I'll admit -- there were a lot of "woe is me" undertones in this post. But when it comes to being pregnant and doing the best for my children, EVERYTHING IS A BIG DEAL.

Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week!

Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week is February 7th through 14th. Won't you help raise awareness? Check out the two startling statistics below that I'm guessing most folks weren't aware of:

♥ Congenital heart defects are America’s #1 birth defect. Nearly one of every 100 babies is born with a CHD. Congenital heart defects are the #1 cause of birth defect related deaths.
♥ In the U.S., twice as many children die from congenital heart defects each year than from all forms of childhood cancer combined.

Did you have any idea? Pretty astounding, right? Please help spread the word about congenital heart defects!

Stay tuned for more CHD Awareness posts throughout this week! And can I just say THANK YOU to the amazing family, friends, church family, heart moms and online friends I haven't even met who have followed our journey with Chase's special heart and have supported us and prayed for us throughout the past several years. I'm very blessed by your love and support!

This is the face of CHDs. My son is 1 in 100.

Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Month

Welcome to February... also known as Congenital Heart Defect Awareness month! I'll be sharing several posts over the next 28 days regarding CHDs so please stay tuned!

Today I'm wearing RED for my favorite CHD warrior, my sweet 3-year-old son, Chase! If you don't know his heart story, check out my letter to new heart moms as it shares a little glimpse at how our world was turned upside-down when our unborn son was diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), a rare congenital heart defect that is fatal without surgical intervention. He is our Rock Star and inspiration... a living, breathing miracle and blessing!!!