Well the big move is finally upon us. With the walls painted (and aired out excessively to appease this mommy-to-be’s sensitive sense of smell haha), the dresser put together with some added personal flair, and the canopy hung in just the right spot, all that’s left to do is hem the curtains and hang some decor but nothing that keeps our little one from getting a jump on her new sleeping arrangements. We finally took the plunge and introduced her to her new abode for her Sunday afternoon nap but as could be expected the transition wasn’t completely seamless.
Our little one loved her Bambi nursery. She felt comfortable in her toddler version of her crib with her friends all piled in around her. She knew exactly where her skirts were in her dresser and how to squeeze them out through the childproof locked hole. It was her home for over two years and now with the arrival of her little sister looming around the corner it was time to move into the room she’s been eyeing up and playing in the past two months. As her mommy I’m trying to tackle this nagging feeling of guilt that I’m sure every mommy of one with another on the way feels and that’s partly why I wanted to create a really special new space that was suited just for her.
It’s been a labor of love for sure but after a few short weekends of work, a special little bedroom has been created for our soon-to-be big sister and she’s loving it. She loves having tea at her little tea table, hiding underneath her floral canopy, snuggling with her special shape pillows on her big girl bed, and even putting laundry away with mommy in her new dresser and closet. All of the fun that she’s having in her new room is so sweet and special to see especially since day 1 of sleeping didn’t go so well.
We started out with a nap thinking that might be a bit easier than bedtime and boy were we wrong. After happily putting her in bed, the second we started walking away we had a little girl chasing behind us in complete terror. So we snuggled up next to her in bed and talked to her about how fun it is to be a big girl now, fending off the occasional question to go back to the “tiny baby bedroom” as she calls the nursery. It broke my heart to see how sad she was but I had a glimmer of hope when she eventually fell asleep for her first successful nap. Our big girl has certainly done us proud though because only one nighttime rest later and she was happily sleeping in her new room.
So what’s our little girl’s favorite part of her new bedroom? She seems to love every bit which makes me so happy but I’ll share some of her highlights.
A big girl bed fit for a soon-to-be big sister!
We thought this upholstered headboard from Target was just perfect for our growing girl and it just so happened to fit our budget even better. But a transition to a bigger bed wouldn’t be complete without the guard rails along the sides. We picked up a two pack at Babies R’ Us and put them on either side sans comforter for now until she gets used to the bigger and higher space. So far so good, excluding the solo falling out of bed incident the other day during nap time which I knew was bound to happen since my little girl is quite the mover, always flopping from end to end in her baby bed. Thank goodness for the Moroccan Trellis rug from RugsUSA because even though it looks fantastic it will surely give some extra padding for accidental tumbles.
Bedding and pillows in someone’s favorite color are probably one of her favorite parts!
We picked up the comforter and pillows from RH Baby & Child for a great deal after Christmas and we paired it all with a Target clearance pair of purple flowered sheets that match really well! The favorites by far out of this set though are the shape pillows, so much so that little one hopped down out of bed in the middle of the night to pick up the two pillows that I put down at the bottom as a just-in-case cushion for a fall. She loves to snuggle with the velvet shapes with the heart being her number one even using it to say I love you to her mommy.
A new look for her name, with a little creative help from the big girl herself!
These letters hung proudly above her crib in pink for quite some time but we knew we wanted to still include them in her new room with a new look. So I scoured all of the craft stores for just the right purple spray paint and found this gorgeous lilac at Joann’s. To add a little something extra too I thought I could glue some flowers to the letters themselves, so with little one in tow we picked out a multipack of flowers in different patterns and shapes that seemed to go with the paint color perfectly, great choice little one!
What a difference changing a light makes!
The addition of this cute little chandelier from Kohls was perfect and I’m so glad we decided to swap out the ceiling fan for this one. The smaller size and lighter features of this light are perfectly suited for the smaller room making it much lighter, brighter, and a lot more girly too!
A little twist on an Ikea dresser makes it that much more special!
After doing our fair share of furniture shopping over the years we’ve gotten a pretty good idea of how expensive bedroom sets can be, hence why we tried to piecemeal her room as much as possible. Going with the single headboard from Target and a BJs bed frame was a great move to downsize on the cost there but dressers seem to be expensive no matter where you go. So after some scouring online we finally found a reasonable fit for our budget and as a bonus, one that we could tweak a little to make it a little more unique. We decided on a white Hemnes dresser from Ikea that was comparable if not bigger than her dresser in the nursery and we knew we wanted to add a personal touch to it in some way. I came across this fantastic company called o’verlays who sell kits of different wooden cutouts to attach to all different Ikea pieces, a genius idea in my opinion. So we ordered the Jasmine kit, spray painted the overlays and all of the knobs a shiny gold, and voila, a new dresser was born! This is one of Mommy’s favorites!
For now those are just some of the highlights from the room but I’ll be sure to share the final product in all of it’s decorated glory once the odds and ends are tied together. I just picked a mixture of white, gold, and lilac frames to hang up, along with hemming the curtains, and a little idea I have to tweak the play table once more. I just loved putting this room together for my little best friend and it makes me even happier that she loves it just as much as we do.
For a little pregnancy update, I’m 30 weeks now and baby and mommy are doing pretty well. Mommy has been feeling pretty sick again with lots of acid reflux, so some daily Zantac is a must, along with some nausea and a very picky appetite again but other than that I’m doing pretty well. We took little one to my appointment this week to hear her sister’s heartbeat for the first time and boy was she in shock. I’m pretty sure she didn’t quite get the concept of a heartbeat but an adorable excited grin spread across her face as she heard the rhythmic thumping. I’m so excited for her to meet this little girl and finally see what we’ve been talking about all of the time. But for now I’m in the midst of meeting with the anesthiologist like I had to with my first pregnancy to go over things beforehand in terms of safety with my venous angioma. I’m not a huge fan at all of these added meetings but they’re a must for me so no negotiations there, I just wish they didn’t cause even more anxiety about the big day but that’s inevitable. More updates will come after our meeting with the anesthiologist next week and a few bump pictures as well!
Sincerely,
Lindsay (30 weeks)