In case you missed it, visit Nursery Reveal…Part 1 .
OK! Here it is! Baby M finally has a baby boy nursery….with all pink eliminated. Not that he would know 🙂
What do you think? The story behind the theme of his room is that the first night he was born I couldn’t sleep. The little hat he was wearing had woodland “friends” on it in sweet brown, grey, blue and lime green. I had been thinking about what I was going to do with the pink room I had at home. I liked the way all these colors looked and even better was that I had a bunch of woodland animals at home in my kindergarten teacher tickle trunk to add to the room.
You see, I am a planner. That’s why the room was ready for a baby girl. I had all the little clothes out and folded (with Lil’A’s help). I had made a few new blankets so this little one would have some to call her own.
I loved Baby M the second I saw his little face coming out facing my thigh. (Ok for some that’s too much info…but this is a mommy blog!) I just couldn’t believe all my planning was in vain this time. I know now that God is showing me to allow myself more spontaneity in life. To make room to be surprised. To not always make such solid plans, but allow God to really move in my daily, sweat pant wearing life!
While everyone was laughing and all giddy in the hospital room that night, I was going through a range of emotions that no one will ever understand unless you’ve been through such a shock. I felt foolish for planning so much…well not a lot…. but you know what I mean. For not listening to all the people who kept say, “are you sure it’s a girl?” (Which I always said, “that’s what they said…and it looked like on the screen in comparison to our first two girls. We shall see.”). I felt bad because I had a lovely friend whom had planned for a girl baby sprinkle, people who had made gifts, and bought gifts. (For the record, I only bought two little new outfits for baby to call her own.)
I felt like I had been wrong, and I didn’t know how to deal with that. I honestly just wanted everyone to leave so I could cry. I guess now looking at it, I just needed to let go of all the things I had hoped for this little girl. Foolish things like this time around I’d put bows on her from the start so she’d always leave them in. The sweet shabby chic bedroom I had planned to finish for her once Lil’ E moved out. Matching ruffled outfits for the girls. Tea Party photo shoots in our backyard.
(The “8 weeks” frame is a chalkboard I use to take photos. I had to re-do the chalkboard, as it was cracking. It doesn’t work as well as I had hoped or read by painting the glass. I instead painted the back of the frame and took out the glass. All the photos were taken by my photography friend, Jenny of Watermark Photograpy on Facebook)
No one really understands unless they’ve been there. I guess it was like I was mourning a child. I had to let go and embrace new things for my son, not for a daughter.
I guess dreaming up new ideas that night for this room (via Pinterest) helped me through that process. I prayed a lot that night too, which gave me peace. But as I started to think about the nursery, I started to think about his toddler room….then things I’d do with him, teach him, play with him. And from something as simple as pinning nursery ideas, God gave me new ideas and dreams for this little guy. God used something as simple as nursery pinning on Pinterest to help me deal with the shock.
I love my little man too much for words. I hope he will always know that and remember that. All the thought and planning in the world couldn’t have prepared me for what having a little boy is to a mommy. And yes, I have an incredible bond with each of my girls. This bond is just different. I am very grateful that God allowed me the surprise of having this opportunity. (However, it doesn’t mean that people who have all of one gender or the other don’t have a different kind of bond with that gender….because I think it takes a strong woman to parent all girls and all boys-who both create unique circumstances to being in multiples.)
God’s grace is always there when we need it. He gave me grace to get through. And even though I still think of that night and am a bit upset that those around me didn’t have more care or consideration to how I was feeling, I look at Baby M and get all giddy at the new dreams I have for him. They are full of mud pies, dirty hands, dandelion bouquets & sticky kisses from my lil’ M.
Below is the lamp shade the now hangs from a pendant light in the center of the room. The chandelier has found a new home:)
The bedskirt is from the baby girl nursery set.
The minky blanket is my favorite of the ones I made. So soft and fussy. I’ve slept with it a few times as it’s ended up in our bed after many late night feedings.
I had found a crib bumper for 300.00!!! Seriously? What’s it made of? Silk? Nope, it was 100% cotton:) For something that just comes out right away? Yeah…Thankfully I now have a place to put it; the window seat.
I took the bumper I had with Lil’ A and made a slipcover for it. Nothing fancy. Just made to match. (This is the same thing I did for the baby girl nursery.)
I love “dressing” shelves and bookcases. In my home, they don’t stay this pretty that long. But I have pictures to prove they once looked neat. I thought of the pussy willows at Michael’s one day. Yes, they are fake. I really like the added touch.
Lil’ E and Lil’ A helped me collect all the baby toys around the house that we had that were not pink and put them in his room shortly after he came home. Turns out we had quite a few still.
I really enjoyed coming up with ideas for the pillows. Not that I don’t like ruffles, but I did patchwork style pillows for the window seat. The backs and fronts are all different. I will do a tutorial on how simple these are to make in the future.
While I was taking all these photos, Baby M was in his crib staring at the mobile that Lil’ A and I made. I had the hedgehog and squirrel in my stash of finger puppets. Lil’ A and I made the mushroom and owl. I found the wreath at Michael’s for $4.00. I sewed the ribbons to the animals & mushroom and then tied it to the wreath. It was hard to make it hang even, but it was a bit of trial and error. Leave enough ribbon length incase you mess up like I did. It hung “lopsided” the first few tries.
I have been wanting to do a banner like this for a while. I have a paper one in my craft room. I used the fabric from the bedding, blankets and pillows. I sewed it inside blanket binding.
The orange, wooden fox came from Superstore, as well as the owl. The fox was from Ikea a few years ago.
Lil’ A and I stamped the woodland animals on cardstock and framed it in a wooden faux barn wood frame.
My friend gave us the “I am never alone” framed subway art.
We turned around the green dot laundry hamper (which sports a embroidered butterfly) so that it fit with the boy nursery.
Our thoughtful Pastors gave us one of the nicest Children’s bibles I’ve seen (and being a kindergarten teacher, I’ve seen many).
My collection of vintage Peter Rabbit books are on his shelf.
Oh…the skunk beside the fox….Lil A asked Auntie S and me to get her a skunk when we were visiting in Virginia last summer. It was random and she laughed, being the silly girl she can be. (She was 2 1/2 at the time). Lo and behold, we found one in the first store we went into. So I had to buy it. She gave it to Baby M when he was born.
I had an exact idea in my head for these curtains. I really like how they turned out. I was really glad my Nana was here visiting while I was making them. It was really nice to get her opinion. She told me not to make them too fluffy because of course that’s girlie.
This is a backless frame I got on sale at Michael’s. I don’t do too much thrifting (but really want to get into it.), but I am sure you could find something similar. It has a “barn/woodland” feel to it. I like the idea of initials in a boy’s room. I think it’s cute and a sign of a strong man, which is what I pray for.
So that’s it. Baby M has a sweet place to call his own…..maybe one day he will share with one of his sisters. Or maybe he will have a little brother. LOL! God only knows.
I hope you enjoyed seeing this sweet nursery. Hopefully it can inspire some creativity in your home!
Oh…and if you think from reading this that I was 100% surprised, that isn’t entirely true. I had an inkling that baby was boy. It’s the reason I didn’t paint the letters I had bought for the name we picked finally, and the reason I didn’t print & iron on the girl monthly onesies. It was a 1…maybe 2% inkling…. 🙂 I thank the Lord for his precious moments of grace in my life. 🙂
