Painting the Nursery, Part 1

Well, it's been almost a month since our last post, when we found out we were having a little girl, and our weekends since have been whirlwinds of activity, everything from weddings to spring cleaning to baby registries, and now painting the nursery!  A couple of posts back we showed everyone the nursery bedding with the tree tops/woodland theme, and we decided we would paint the crib wall to match that theme.  After some planning and discussion, and a couple of quick sketches, we took the baby quilt that comes with the crib set to Ace and bought ourselves some paint and other supplies.

We started by taping off the base boards, door frames, electrical outlets, and ceiling, and then taped down some plastic sheeting on the floor.  Here are a few preparation photos:


Tamara taping down plastic sheeting over the floor

 

Tools, supplies, color samples, and sketches



The final plastic sheet protection - ready to start painting!


Next, we drew three hills along the bottom of the wall and marked off with tape where the basic outlines of the two trees would be.  We then painted over the top half of the wall with blue for the sky, and then painted green in for the hills.  We're using three different colors of green, two for the hills, and all three for the leaves on the trees:


The blue sky painted in and two of three hills; we wanted to also overlap the scenery onto the adjacent walls without carrying the sky over



Now the third hill is painted in; this hill will mostly be covered by the crib when we're all done

 

We added a little pond in the corner as well - a little frog and turtle are going to live there to match the crib bedding

We went back and forth for a bit about how we were going to do the trees next...using a stencil or template or what...finally Jason decided to freehand draw them in on the wall, with branches and tips similar to the crib bedding, one tree on each side of where the crib will be, framing it like a little arbor.  Rather than trying to make the leaves realistic to a certain tree, we also decided to do several types of leaves and kind of make the tree more generic and playful, with lots for the baby to see.  With all of that drawn in, we printed images from the web of the animals on the bedding, and using carbon paper, traced them on to different sizes on the wall:


The right-hand tree, with a little squirrel drawn on a branch



A close-up of the squirrel - isn't he cute?

 

Some branches and leaves near the top of one of the two trees



A little songbird on a branch of the left-hand tree; we are thinking we will add some lavender and pink to the birds (along with some flowers yet to be drawn) to bring in some girly colors to the room


With everything pencilled in, it was time to start applying paint.  We worked most of the afternoon yesterday on painting the trees, finishing off all of the branches late in the day.  Tamara did a fantastic job painting in the orange color on a few of the animals, and next will be finishing the animals off and painting leaves everywhere:


A smiling raccoon sitting on a branch of the left-hand tree, with some of the branches around him painted



A mama owl sitting on a branch in the left-hand tree



A partially painted squirrel in a hole (he's got an acorn) and a fox on the hill



Back to mama owl, now with beak and feet painted in



Now the raccoon has a stripe painted in on his tail and you can see the baby owl that's flying between the two trees



The baby owl again and now the squirrel on the right-hand tree partially painted in



A baby deer, walking on the hilltop near the window waiting to be painted in - he's a bit skewed only because the photo was taken at an angle

Finally, we'll wrap this post up with a couple of the wider shots that show both trees together.  The crib will sit right between them perfectly, and we're making sure to face all of the animals toward the crib as we paint them in.  More to come, as we've got our work cut out for us in the coming weeks!


View of the two trees and hills taken from the doorway into the room



A more straight-forward shot

 

The left-hand tree



The right-hand tree



It's A Girl!

So, probably if you are reading this blog and clicking on the video links, you've already heard the news, but just in case you haven't...we had another ultrasound appointment yesterday at week 19 (as of today) and finally found out the gender of our baby.  It's a girl!  And yes, there is only one of them in there... 

The following videos were shot during the ultrasound appointment and show some very cool stuff, including the beating of our little girl's heart, her feet and hands, her face, her spine...all very amazing stuff.  And the best part - everything was normal, both with baby and mommy!  Oh, and please forgive my camera skills (or lack thereof)...it's a new gadget and we're still getting used to it.  Anyway, now the fun begins - registries, nursery painting, etc. etc.!  And before you ask, no, we haven't decided on a name yet but we've spent a lot of time talking about it...and tomorrow, on our long trek to Austin for Aunt Marcia's wedding I'm sure we'll talk about it even more...

Ultrasound - Part One

Ultrasound - Part Two

Since we had to reduce the quality of the videos to get them uploaded (give us your feedback on image and sound quality because we'll be working out a system to post these from here on out), and just because we had them, we've also included photos from the ultrasound as well.  These are basically still shots from the videos above, except taken from the machine itself and scanned in, so a bit better quality.  Enjoy!

Little hand up by her face

Profile of her face

Profile of her face and torso

Proof that she's a girl! (taken from bottom up, as described in the video)

Little foot...all fingers and toes accounted for!

15 weeks and 2 days

It has been over a month since we last updated the blog.

Pregnancy fatigue and video game playing have been big factors in the lack of blog updates. The pregnancy fatigue is finally letting up a little. I'm still passing out around 1.5 to 2 hours earlier than usual and waking up frequently and early. When I can't go back to sleep, I usually go lay down in the guest bedroom, so I won't bug Jason. I have been reading several different kinds of baby books. Turns out reading too much in one sitting can cause increased baby anxiety...I am now limiting it to one chapter at a time.

Yesterday, after Jason's haircut, we went to Walmart to set up a baby registry. We were told if you register in the store you get extra stuff, like coupons and samples...at the Woodlands Walmart this is not the case. Boo. This morning we got on our Walmart registry and added some baby stuff. We'll probably register at Babies-R-Us and Target also in order to have a larger variety for people. We'll do the bulk of the registry after we know the baby's gender.

The January OB appointment:

The first ultasound tech came in and was able to find the placental pulse right away with the doppler but couldn't find the baby's heart beat. Then, another tech came in and looked and looked for a really long time, but she finally found it. When the techs can't find the heart beat right away, they seem to get pretty flustered. She kept pushing harder and harder with the head of the doppler-wand-thing and trying strange angles. They used the doppler to measure the heart rate (BPMs) and the baby's pulse was 162. Dr. Morgan said that was a really good rate and the position of the baby seemed appropriate, so he couldn't justify doing an ultrasound. We assumed because I was nearing the 12 week mark that the doctor would want to do an ultrasound regardless. And when he didn't, I was a little disappointed; I felt like Jason took off work to listen to the doppler and watch the doctor measure my abdomen...also I really wanted to be able to post better ultrasound pictures. The little smudge and tadpole pictures aren't terribly exciting. I have two more OB appointments scheduled for February 15th and March 17th. In March, we'll hopefully get to find out the baby's gender.

Baby gender and quantity:
Jason and I have talked about this a lot. What we want most is a full term healthy baby. Most of my baby experience is with girls: Jessica, almost everyone I babysat in high school, the kids I nannied in and right after college, and the major of  my Aunt Marcia's grandchildren. I think life would be a tiny bit easier if our first child was a girl...I think Jason feels the complete opposite. He is in for quite the challenge either way as his baby experience is pretty much limited to playing with Andrew (our nephew).
There seems to be some spectulation among female relatives and co-workers that due to my already showing in a rather obvious way that there might be more than one baby in there. While missing a baby on early ultrasounds is a possibility and happens more frequently then either Jason nor I would care to admit, Jason and I continue to hope mostly for the baby(s) health that there is only one in there. I currently know 2 people who are pregnant with twins, both right around the 6-7 week mark. They have a permanent deer in the headlights look...the one Jason has finally lost/overcome.
Nursery projects:
Just before Christmas, Jason and I (mostly Jason because I got too hot and tired) cleaned out the nursery, which had become sort of a catch all for random junk and boxes we hadn't unpacked. After the nursery was clear of flotsam and jetsum, we assembled the fixed-side crib (for those worried about drop-side recalls) and the changing table. I bought these way early because Target was having a great pre-Thanksgiving sale; the crib was $100 off and the changing table was free with purchase!
Below are photos of Jason and I assembling the crib.

The following photos are of the completed crib and changing table. The other things in the nursery are presents Baby Mooney got from Santa, including a turtle night light, bouncer, munchkin feeding accessories, and a very fancy Boyd's Bear that Baby Mooney won't be able to play with until it is much older.

The following photos were taken on the morning of Friday February 4, 2011. They are not terribly attractive photos, however I think they show the size of my baby bump well. And as previously stated in my Facebook post, I am trying really hard to stand up straight and not pooch out my belly. When I pooch it out, it looks scary huge.

Nursery ideas:

I bought patterns from Hobby Lobby in order to sew my own baby bedding, but when we went to Babies-R-Us on a scouting expedition Jason really liked the Carter's brand Tree Top crib bedding. I posted a picture below. So now we're thinking about a uni-sex nature/forest theme with a tree mural. A chalkboard area has been suggested and we may try to incorporate something like that or add it later when the baby is older.

 

We might not get to another post until after the February 15 appointment, but we'll make sure to update everyone then!

Coming up on 9 weeks...

With Christmas just a few days away, we are rapidly approaching week 9, and have been meaning to put a post up with photos from the second ultrasound, which happened not too long after the first.  To get straight to it then, here are the new pictures (Tamara will add some captions soon):

When we reach week 9 officially on Christmas Eve, the little bun in the oven will be about an inch long and will weigh about one ounce.  In keeping with the fruit and vegetable theme, that equates to about the size of a grape.  This week, the four heart chambers should be completely divided and valves starting to form.  Teeth will also start to form at this time, and the eyes are already fully formed but with fused shut eyelids for many more weeks.  Earlobes are in place, and mouth, nose, and nostrils are clearer than they were before, and webbed fingers and toes already started to form last week.  Organ production is in full swing, and our little grape is about to start rapidly gaining weight.

Sex organs are beginning to differentiate at this point also, but we won't be able to determine whether we're having a boy or girl until probably between week 16 and week 20, so at the earliest probably right around Valentine's Day. 

So, until the next post, Merry Christmas all!  We'll probably be seeing all of you who are following this blog at this point in a few days anyway.  In the meantime, thanks to everyone for all the well wishes, advice, etc.  We're very excited about this new adventure and look forward to sharing more with you in the weeks to come.

Our First Ultrasound

So, as of today, in case you hadn't yet heard, we are officially 6 weeks' preggers.  Official due date: July 29, 2011.  Depending on which website/app/book you read, the baby is either the size of a sweet pea or a lentil bean, or if it's easier to visualize, about 1/4 inch.  The nose, mouth, ears, eyes, and nostrils are starting to form, and little leg and arm buds are starting to sprout up.  The baby's heart is beating already, pretty fast and only going to get faster as development increases.  Intestines, lungs, pituitary gland, brain, muscles, and bones are all starting to form already - pretty amazing!

Today we had the first ultrasound, and in it little baby Mooney measured just at .26 cm long, or closer to 1/10 of an inch than 1/4 of an inch.  Unfortunately, we did not record anything with video this time, but hearing the heartbeat already and watching it pulse on screen was pretty spectacular.  Here are the photos from the ultrasounds, and we'll be posting more updates soon:

Measuring little baby Mooney; notice the spikes along the line at the base of the image - those are the heartbeats

More measuring of baby Mooney

See the .26 cm in the bottom left corner?

More measurements...it's hard to make out, but the yolk sac is visible in there as well