Changing Table/ Dresser

My original plan for the changing table was to find a decent sized dresser for really cheap from either the DI, Yard sale, or off of craigslist or KSL.  Most of the dressers that I found on KSL or Craigslist were hours away and we would have to make a specific trip just to get one... and I could never find one that I felt was worth the trip.... so for the past month or so I would go yard sale hopping in Price hoping to find what I was looking for.  A lot of the time I would just drive up to the yard sale and see if they even had anything remotely close to what I was looking for.  Even the Price DI wasn't giving me any luck.  I would go there once a week on Mondays (because thats when all the best stuff shows up).  Every once in a while I would find something that "would work" but I would have to put a lot of work into making it actually nice.  Then by chance I was driving home to have lunch and there was a yard sale along the way.  Just as I was driving by I saw it.  A beautiful solid wood changing table.  I checked it out and told myself that if it was still here after I got off work then I would buy it.  Sure enough.. 4 hours later as I drove home it was still there.

If you view my pinterest account and look at my nursery pins you will notice several Yellow dressers.  I was planning on painting whatever I found for a changing table a bright yellow because I assumed there was no way I could find something that matched my crib and rocking chair and be in my price range.  However, when I started looking at this changing table I noticed how beautiful the solid wood piece was and I thought it would be a shame to cover all that up with paint.

So I convinced myself to refinish it to match.

Here is the original piece.

 Matt is starting to strip the old finish off with 40 grit sand paper.  Luckily it was really soft wood and it came off very easily.

 Matt kinda looks like he has gray hair in this picture with all the sawdust in his hair.

 Finished sanding the top surface

 Matt got all the easy areas with our sander while I went and sanded by hand all of the tiny little spaces that he couldn't get.

 Drawers are all finished and sanded.  After seeing how pretty the original wood was I almost just wanted to put a finish on that instead of staining it, but the original idea was to get the changing table to match everything else.

 Final brush down with 150 grit sandpaper to get a smoother surface.

 Finished sanding!  It took forever but now we have a clean slate for staining.

 The stain sitting on the surface before being wiped down.  We went with a mahogany and it turned out to match really well the with the crib and rocker.

The Finished Product!!!  I painted on several layers of polyurethane (which is why its so glossy) this sealed the finish and makes it a lot easier for clean up (which is important on something you are going to be changing a lot of dirty diapers on).

Oh and don't worry... I made sure the place was well ventilated and I wore a mask during the whole process.

What do you think?  Did you like the other color better?  Preferred the unstained version?  I am love with our finished product and it really pulls all of our furniture together.  So excited to start changing dirty diapers on this thing!  

Obsessing a Little

I am guessing that this is a completely normal part of Pregnancy and a really good animal instinct that is kicking in.... but I've started to obsess over everything baby.  I want to learn everything and anything to do with my baby... what way I feel is best... what way others feel is best.  What is safe, what isn't safe, how warm to keep my baby room at night, what kind of diaper system to use, the list goes on and on.  Most recently I've decided to research the whole diaper situation.  I hadn't really given any thought to the whole thing until this weekend when my dad asked Matt and I if we were doing disposables or cloth diapers.  I immediately answered with disposables as I pictured the wrapped rags with safety pins when I thought of cloth diapers.  Well... Luckily as I was reading one of my favorite blogs younghouselove.com I came across their cloth diapering post found here.  It opened my eyes a little.

Before you know it I was all over the web looking up anything and everything about cloth diapers.  I even had to learn a few things along the way.  I heard all sorts of new acronyms and terminology.  Who knew that diapers could be so complicated?
AIO
Prefolds
Pockets
Fitted
Doublers
Soakers
OS
All of this is new to me... but that just made it more fun (and easier to obsess about).

Part of me is like "this is awesome" and the other part is "how am I going to get Matt to go along with this?"  and a even BIGGER part of me is thinking "Can I find a day care place willing to do these?"

I am SOLD on cloth diapers after a lot of research into them.  I am only hesitating because I haven't chosen a day care provider for my little boy yet (and probably won't for a while).  I feel like it is too soon to look into that... almost 4 months till the baby is due... plus 3 months of maternity leave... is more than half a year away from actually needing a daycare.  I had to research it anyways (I did say I was obsessing wasn't I?)  and I looked up the Utah regulations for cloth diapering in day care.  According to that regulation cloth diapers are FINE in day care as long as they are not "sprayed out" at the day care facility and are put into a "Wetbag" to go home with the baby.  whew!  At least I know they can't say its against state regulations when I ask, and as far as I can tell.. with the way the state regulations make it... its really no different than disposables anyway (If I buy the AIO's).

So... its been decided... though I'll probably wait a little longer before actually investing in them... I think Matt and I are going to be cloth diapering parents.  I personally don't think it will be that bad... its really just one extra step (putting the bowel movements in the toilet).  After all my research, though, I have decided to go the most expensive route with them.  I plan on buying some All in one- One size diapers and some Pocket- One size diapers.  These diapers range from 17 bucks per diaper to 25 bucks per diaper... a baby goes through around 6-8 diapers a day... which means I'm going to forking out a big up front investment with these guys.  However, I've found that these are the only ones that most day care places will be willing to use because they are the closest to disposables in ease of use.

In addition to the diapers I plan on getting some wetbags for dirty diaper storage for both at home and at daycare.  Along with that I am going to get a diaper sprayer that attaches to the toilet plumbing and makes it easier to spray out the fecal matter into the toilet.

I will be using disposables.  I have no clue how big my little boy is going to be when he is born and most of these "One size" diapers start at the 8-10 pound mark.  Which means... until my baby is 8 pounds at least (which could be at birth... or could be much later) we will be using disposables.  They do make infant size cloth diapers.... but thats another investment of at least 12 bucks a pop for diapers that we may or may not need... plus the Meconium will be a lot harder to spray off... so it will be best to wait anyways.

Now that I have bored you with my la-di-da about something you probably didn't care to read.  I am glad that I at least said something about my cloth diaper obsession.

Working on the Nursery

Matt and I have started to accumulate some baby items which have kinda ended up in the unfinished baby room.  When I brought home an awesome zebra rug for the baby room I quickly realized that we have to get the walls painted before we put anything else in there.

If you look at my pinterest account you will see that most of my "nursery" pins are Yellow/Gray with Safari Animals.  I was dead set on gray gray walls until we found out that we were having a boy... in which case I wanted more of a blueish-gray... but still mostly gray.  I picked out several paint swatches and taped them on the wall for a few days before deciding on this one.

Misty Travels... now it looks more blue than gray in the picture... and it looks more gray than blue in real life.. well.. the paint swatch does.  and I should have figured that it would turn out more blue than gray when it was actually painted on.  While painting, however, I had to convince myself that it was more gray than blue.. until it dried.  

It is pretty close to the original paint swatch.. but it is definitely more blue.  I thought I would be a little disappointed in the overall blueness of the walls... but very fortunately I am very satisfied and Love the color.  The blue adds that splash of color and calmness that I was looking for and well.. it says "Its a boy!" all over... which I was a little scared the room wouldn't have said if I had stuck with just Yellow and Gray.   

As you can see (with some of our random baby items arranged in the room).  The blue is a really calming color and kinda adds a bit more interest.  Oh and I just love how awesome that zebra rug looks with it.  Featured in this picture is our awesome rocking chair that Matt's Grandparents gifted to us (thanks again!)  I plan on reupholstering the little cushion in the middle with a Yellow fabric of some sort and adding a bit more cushioning.   

Before painting the walls blue-gray though I spent a weekend painting the closet a crisp white color.  Its still a work in progress.  We plan on putting another clothing rod next to the shelving insert that Matt built into it.  Oh and also featured in this picture is this awesome baby swing that we snagged at a garage sale a few weekends ago. 

Last but not least... the crib (still minus a mattress).  This was the first baby item Matt let me buy... and it satisfied my urge to get things for a while.  Its been sitting assembled for a few months now just waiting for our little squish to arrive.  

There is still a ton to get done (such as the changing table/dresser) and other assortment of decor to add to the "animal safari" theme.  

Baby Boy!

So we had our 20 week ultrasound last week and we found out that we are having a little baby boy!  Everyone that I asked to guess on the gender predicted a girl... mainly because my older sister is having a boy and she was barely even sick, while I was super sick for my first trimester.

I am so happy to be having a little baby boy!

I would post some of the ultrasound pictures that we got but... our cockatiel decided to chew his way through our printer/scanner cord (I'm surprised he is still alive) and I have no way to scan them in at the moment.  So... you get a blank post with no fun pictures.

Now its time to focus on the nursery.  We have almost all the big furniture items already... just need to find us a new dresser for our room since we are going to refinish our existing one for the baby as a dresser/changing table in yellow.  Matt and I almost bought a dresser at Ikea that was perfect... but when we got down to the warehouse area it was sold out and we hadn't written down any of the other dresser locations because there were a few others that were our 2nd and 3rd choices.... so we left dresser-less.  Sounds like this dresser is going to turn out to be a Christmas gift from Santa to both of us instead.

Starting on the nursery

This weekend I spent some time downsizing my wardrobe so I can fit all my clothes and my husbands clothes in our closet in our bedroom instead of in two separate closets... mine being the existing nursery's closet.  I gave DI 3 garbage bags of clothes and a box of old shoes.  This nesting business really has me in the mood to throw things away and get everything organized.

This weekend was tackling mine and the husbands closet so make room for the baby's closet.  Next week I am going to get the laundry room and downstairs pantry all figured out and organized.  Then I might organize the kitchen cabinets and kitchen pantry.  I've got a lot to get done before the baby comes.  I keep thinking of more things I need to get done and thats just around the house... it has nothing to do with the list of things I need to get done for the nursery.

After getting everything cleaned out of the baby's closet my wonderful husband built me some shelves to go inside.  We'll add another clothing rod and paint everything in there white.  I'm hoping to get an efficient baby clothes/item system inside that closet.

Closet before the shelving. 

Matt cutting the shelving

Matt screwing the shelving in.  :)

Nursery Ideas

So lately my pregnancy has been kind of uneventful.  The morning sickness has finally subsided... and besides my sciatic nerve acting up for a couple of days.  Its been a ton better.

One of the best moments of the past few weeks my older sister made the drive down to Price to see our house and hang in good ol Price town.  (I was a little nervous I wouldn't be able to keep her entertained).  We went out to eat, toured the house, went to the Helper arts and music festival, and went swimming at the wave pool.

The wave pool was hilarious.  We were the only adults in the swimming pool and we were trying to support a big tube.  Several times the tube was tipped over and I'm sure both of us looked ridiculous and the adults sitting by the pool were probably laughing as they watched two pregnant women struggle to avoid the waves.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about the nursery.  Even though we don't know the gender yet I've got the itch to get something going.  So I've started filling in all of the holes and cracks with mud to make sure the walls are perfect before adding color.  Here are a few pictures of nurseries that are giving me some inspiration.  Colors will probably be a silver/gray with yellow and depending on if its a girl or a boy we'll add a bit of blue or pink into the mix... maybe...

2nd Trimester...

So today I am officially 14 weeks Pregnant!  Yay.... which also means I am in the 2nd trimester officially. A lot of internet sites had differing opinions as to when the 2nd trimester really started... 13th week or 14th week.  So now that I am 14 weeks along there is no debating.  

Unfortunately, I feel just as sick if not sicker than I was during the 1st trimester.  Yesterday was the first day that I puked twice in a day.. and then I was sick with a migraine and pukes for the rest of the day.  This morning I woke up and my husband told me that he wasn't going to let me go to work.  He said I was too sick and that I needed a day to just rest and get my fluids back up.  

Apart from still being sick.. my back has started to hurt and I've become really really dizzy and lightheaded.  Yesterday while working I was walking and I suddenly felt like I was going to faint.  I had to sit down for a good 15 minutes or so before I could continue working.  

I would post a 14 week belly picture... but I just don't feel all that great right now... maybe I'll do it later. I have a "bump" but unless you knew I was pregnant you wouldn't know I was expecting.  I kinda just look fat to strangers.  Anyways... just another complaining post about the miseries of my pregnancy.  :)