The First Month

Our little Grayson was one month old this past Wednesday – sorry, sweet boy, that I’m doing your one month post 5 days after the fact, but one day you will have small kiddos of your own and will know that things don’t always proceed on time! 

We had your one month checkup last Thursday, at which time Missy (the ARNP at our pediatrician’s office) looked you over and declared that you were “just perfect” – and I couldn’t agree more!  You weighed in at your one month at 8 pounds and 15.2 ounces, and measured 21 inches long.  You have gained almost 2 1/2 pounds and grown 2 inches since birth, which is not surprising given you have a VORACIOUS appetite and could nurse all of the time if I let you!  We are exclusively breastfeeding and I have to say that I feel some pride seeing you grow and knowing that your nutrition comes solely from your mommy. 

Even with that great weight gain, you are still a little peanut!  It is just in the past week or so that we have started moving out of Newborn sized clothing and into 0-3 month clothing, and they are still very big on you.  I’m not too worried about your size, though I am worried that all of the clothes we have for you for the summer will be way too big!  Grow, baby, grow! :) 

You have the prettiest olive skin (slightly flawed at the moment by a little bit of that baby acne that seems to afflict most newborns for a week or two), and a head full of dark blondish brown hair.  You have huge expressive eyes that are the deepest blue in color – so pretty – though I know the color is subject to change.  I stare into your eyes and often wonder if you will have beautiful blue eyes like your Daddy and sister or if you will have hazel green eyes like your Mommy – I’m going to bet on blue.  We are currently battling our SECOND round against conjunctivitis in your left eye, I will be so happy when it clears up.  We’re giving you drops in your eye and you’re such a trooper and don’t seem to mind too much when we have to give you the medicine. 

We are still on newborn diapers, and boy do we go through a lot of them!  With a hearty appetite comes a LOT of dirty diapers.  Your digestive system has caused more than a few chuckles in our household – I can often hear you passing gas from the next room!  Your burps are equally impressive.  What can I say, you are all boy!

We are not really on any set schedule right now – you are fed on demand and that seems to vary anywhere between 1.5 hours (yikes!!) and 3 hours.  I keep waiting for that 4-5 hour stretch of sleep during the night before you wake up for your next feeding, but so far, no dice!  You wake up every 2 to 3 hours to eat during the night, making for a very tired mommy.  You are currently sleeping in a bassinet in our room which makes middle of the night feedings much easier. 

When you are awake during the day, you are very alert and take in your surroundings with such a serious expression.  Your little brow furrows and we all crack up because you look like a little old man when you do that – sometimes I call you our little “Benjamin Button!”.  You are very observant, which I love.  I have been placing you on the play mat and you are starting to stare at yourself in the mirror.  We are also doing tummy time and despite your small size, you are very strong and love to stretch your neck so you can look up.  You also are a big fan of your bouncy seat (so is your big sis, she likes to pull the toys and dance to the music!), but you are not liking your swing so much.  Oh well, neither did your sis – you both preferred to be swayed back and forth in our arms as opposed to the swing!

You are not very fussy, sweet boy, but when you are not happy or you want something, you certainly let us know all about it! You are generally at your fussiest around 6pm to 7pm, though you are certainly not colicky like your big sis (thank goodness!).  When you are fussy, you like to be held and have us dance around the room, bouncing you up and down.  I succumbed and bought a pacifier, but so far you don’t seem to have much interest in it. 

Your big sister Alexandra loves you SO very much!  She really enjoys doting on you, generally calling you “Baby Brother” as opposed to Grayson.  She uses a sing-song voice to describe you, stating, “Look at his tiny feet!” or asking if she can “Hold Baby Brother’s tiny hands?”  She likes to hug on you and kiss your head, and I’m trying to get her involved as a helper in diaper changes.  While she is very sweet with you, unfortunately I feel that she is having some issues with adjusting.  She is much clingier to me, and at bedtime insists, “hold me, hold me, hold me!”  She also is acting out a lot more, but honestly I’m not sure how much of that is related to her getting adjusted to baby brother and how much of that is the Terrible 2’s/3’s. 

 

Sweet Grayson, you are such an absolute joy!  You are a very easy baby, which has helped with the adjustment from one to two kids, though it has still been more challenging than I had anticipated.  I just adore you and my heart bursts with happiness every time we snuggle together.  I can’t wait to see what the future holds for you!

March Madness & A Blast From The Past

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather – our alma mater, the University of Kentucky Wildcats, defeated #1 seed Ohio State on Friday night to make it to the Elite Eight.  What a barn burner that game was!!!  Our household will be sitting on the edge of our seats on Sunday night when we take on North Carolina for a Final Four bid.  The littlest member of our family will be wearing these festive socks for good luck.  GO CATS!!!!!

On a random tangent, the most recent issue of Entertainment Weekly was in our mailbox this afternoon with my favorite vampire on the cover, talking about life after Twilight and the upcoming feature film “Water for Elephants” (I cannot wait for this movie, I just adored the book and am hopeful this cast will make a great film). 

The mag contained a book review of “Sweet Valley Confidential” – basically a look at the Sweet Valley High gang 10 years after graduation. 

If you are a woman of a certain age – as I know many of you who read my blog are – Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High were a part of your adolescence (along with The Babysitters Club!).  Almost every female I know my age has read at least one of these books.  Kind of makes me curious how Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield ended up!!

                        

Time Flies

A million little thoughts, hopes, and blog post ideas are running through my sleep deprived mind, but I’m too exhausted to put any of them into typed words tonight.  Here’s the little culprit robbing me of my sleep…you can see why I don’t mind the lack of sleep too much. 

(Notice that he doesn’t seem to have a problem sleeping!!!)

My sweet Grayson was born ONE MONTH ago today – how is that possible?!?!

A Birth Story

It’s 10:30 pm.  I’m sitting in the dark in our bedroom, holding our sweet son, now 2 weeks old.  I keep brushing my fingers against the incredibly soft skin on his cheek, watching his little chest rise and fall.  In the faint light emitted by the screen of my laptop, I can see his little mouth rise in a half-smile and my heart melts.

One regret (of many!) that I have is that I never posted on the blog the account of Alexandra’s birth 3 years ago.  In my defense, I started it but a little thing called COLIC showed up and everything else –including blogging – came to a screeching halt.  Ugh, colic – wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, much less my sweet children.  Thankfully, it looks like we dodged the bullet with Grayson (knock on wood!!). 

I didn’t want to live that same regret twice, so without further adieu, here’s the birth story of Grayson Charles. 

I was scheduled for a repeat c-section for February 25, 5 days in advance of my due date of March 2.  After approximately 12 hours of labor with Alexandra, the decision was made to do a c-section due to some non-reassuring heart tones.  So the decision was basically made for me to do a repeat c-section with this pregnancy (very few doctors in town do VBACs, that is, vaginal birth after c-section). Grayson’s movement slowed down somewhat toward the end of the pregnancy, enough that it caused me sufficient concern to head to the L&D department on the night of Feb. 15 (where, of course, he was doing barrel rolls and kicks, proving me to be a worry-wart!).  I was home within 2 hours of going to the hospital.  I was in a deposition the next day with about 10 other attorneys, and my OB – Dr. Kuntz – called me on my cell phone during the depo, noting that she was on call that day and asked if I would want to come into the hospital that afternoon to be delivered?  Needless to say, I wasn’t ready to make that decision!  So we compromised and ended up moving up my c-section by 2 days to February 23.  I had a follow up call from her office scheduler telling me to be at the hospital at 7am and the c-section would be at 9am.  Just like that, easy peasy!  In some ways, I regret that we never experienced the thrill of me spontaneously going into labor, but it’s also nice to have everything scheduled so you can be packed and prepared and have childcare arrangements in place for your toddler!!

Things are so different with your second child.  With Alexandra, I had a huge suitcase packed weeks in advance of her due date.  With Grayson, I was up packing the night before and the morning of the delivery – with a much smaller bag, I might add!  My parents spent the night so they could get Alexandra to daycare that morning before coming to the hospital.  I spent a lot of time with Alexandra that night before the delivery – laying with her in her bed in the dark, talking and singing and – to be honest – with me shedding a few tears.  It was definitely a bittersweet moment – while excited to welcome our son, it hit me like a ton of bricks that this was our last night as a family of three.  It had just been Ryan, Alexandra and I for so long and I was worried how the dynamic would change with a new baby.  Alexandra seemed to know everything would be okay – she patted my face and told me, “Mommy, I’ll make you feel better.”  My girl, such a big heart. 

So we headed off to the hospital that Wednesday morning, bag packed and ready to go.  My Dad went with Ryan and I to the hospital and remarked how calm I appeared, which I really was!  Here I am at the hospital, 39 weeks pregnant – check out that huge stomach!

We were shown to our labor and delivery room – since I was a scheduled delivery, we knew I wouldn’t be in there very long, just a couple of hours, max.  We had the sweetest nurse – Michelle – and she instantly took command and got my IV started and all of the paperwork going.  An attractive young male anesthesiologist came into the room to do my pre-anesthesia evaluation.  I made the mistake of turning to nurse Michelle after he left the room and stating – out loud in front of Ryan and my Dad – “He’s pretty good looking, isn’t he?”  Ryan’s response was classic: “I’m right here, do you want me to leave the room or something?”  OOPS. 

I was put in the ever so fashionable hospital gown and even lovelier hair net, but, in the words of Tim Gunn, I tried to make it work!

Ryan got suited up, too – note the Big Blue pride he was sporting for our beloved University of Kentucky Wildcats under his scrubs. 

And with that, we were all ready to go.  My parents were directed to the family waiting area, where they were joined by Ryan’s dad and stepmother, Jackie, and his grandmother, Helen.  Michelle was a dear and grabbed our camera to take one last picture of us before I was wheeled to the OR.  (I remembered to put my Rebel in Automatic setting so others could take plenty of pictures!!)

Michelle took us down to OR 3, which she affectionately referred to as the “closet.”  She apologized on the way, noting that the room was VERY small.  Hey, what did I care, I was going to have a baby in my arms in less than 30 minutes!  She was right, though, it was VERY tiny. 

It was such a different experience being taken into the operating room this time.  With Alexandra, I was exhausted, just drained physically, emotionally and mentally.  I had already had my epidural in place, and was wheeled on a bed into the room. This time, I was met by the same anesthesiologist who administered my epidural for Alexandra’s delivery, who administered a spinal right there in the OR.  The spinal was SO much better than the epidural – quicker to administer and quicker to wear off in recovery!  The anesthesiologist also noted that his eldest daughter – who was about my age – had been delivered in that very OR.  I took this as a good sign!  Dr. Kuntz and the rest of the team (all female except for the anesthesiologist) came in the room and finished draping and prepping me for the delivery.  Ryan was then ushered in, camera in hand, and seated next to my head. 

I felt so much clearer mentally with this delivery, knowing what would be involved going into it.  I recall chatting fairly casually with Dr. Kuntz and members of the delivery team as they got started about my job, our children, even reality television!  Before I knew it, Dr. Kuntz said, “Here we go, Sara.”  I held my breath and waited, trying to ignore the nausea that had been brought on by the quick acting spinal.  I remember the anesthesiologist placing his hand on my shoulder and Ryan holding my hand.  The next thing I knew, our nurse, Michelle, was telling Ryan to give her the camera – QUICK – because our son was being born!  I’m so happy she grabbed that camera and was not shy about it, she got some amazing shots. 

I waited anxiously for that first cry.  As a mother welcoming a baby, it is that first cry of your newborn that provides you with such immense relief that YES, they really are here, and YES, they are okay.  I felt the tugging and pressure as the delivery team maneuvered our son and then Dr. Kuntz remarked, “Sara, he’s beautiful!” 

And then I heard it.  The most beautiful, lusty cry that escaped my son’s mouth.

And I cried.  A big sob that I didn’t even know was in my throat choked out of me.  And I cried such tears of ABSOLUTE JOY.  Our son was HERE, thanks be to GOD. 

Dr. Kuntz remarked how tiny he was, but that he had very long feet and fingers!  He was quickly taken to the warmer, where he was met by the same neonatologist who attended Alexandra’s delivery (it was like a reunion!).  When I asked for his Apgar scores, the neonatologist responded that he got 9 at 1 minute and 9 again at 3 minutes, and he was “just perfect.” 

Ryan followed the nurses out of the room to document the weight of our son, who still didn’t have a name at this point!  (More on that below). 

See how tiny he was, but also check out those long toes and fingers!  I immediately started calling him “my little peanut.”  Ryan and our son then returned to the room and I got my first close up look.  (That is my finger touching his little head). 

At that point, they began stitching me back up so I could go to the recovery room.  Meanwhile, the nurses said that Ryan could take the baby out in the warmer so he could be seen by our family members.  As they were getting ready to go out, someone asked what the baby’s name was.  This has been a running thing throughout the pregnancy – we were constantly asked by curious friends and family, “Well, what are you going to name him?”  When we said we didn’t know, people thought we were trying to be coy and keep the name a secret, but I’m here to tell you that we TRULY DID NOT KNOW! 

We whittled a list of favorites down to 6 or so, but Ryan and I both had our favorites.  They were so similar, it is laughable, but I liked Grayson while Ryan liked Mason.  How close could we be?!  We are both very stubborn, so neither one of us would concede.  When asked in the OR what our son’s name was, this sparked the “Great Name Debate” again.  Everyone was laughing and the predominantly female delivery team kept telling Ryan how much they liked the name Grayson.  Poor Ryan….he looked to the only other male in the room, the anesthesiologist, for help, but the physician just threw his hands in the air and laughed.  I told Ryan that when he came back with the baby, we would have to finalize a name. 

Here’s some of our proud family – Ryan’s Dad, his grandmother, Helen, my dad, Ryan’s stepmom, Jackie, and my mom. 

Ryan then returned to the recovery room where I had since been moved, and showed me his phone – while he had been gone, he had sent a text message with a photo to all of our friends, announcing the arrival of Grayson Charles.  Of course, I was happy that he ended up agreeing to the name I liked, but I was shocked that this was how we had “settled” upon eis name!  (We had already decided upon the middle name – Charles, for my late grandfather). 

The hospital where he was born really emphasizes kangaroo care, so I spent the  next two hours in recovery room holding my sweet boy – it was pure heaven. 

After a few hours, we were moved from recovery to the mother-baby unit.  The reunion continued, as I was greeted by my nurse, Mara – who had been my primary day nurse three years ago on the same unit when Alexandra was born!  Really, what are the odds?  Mara was my nurse each day we were on the mother-baby unit, and I was so happy this was the case, I just adored her. 

Later that afternoon, my mom left the hospital to go pick up Alexandra at daycare and bring her to the hospital.  To say I was nervous would be a huge understatement.  Sure, we had prepared her as much as we possibly could for this day – I had read a book about being a big sister to her every night for weeks and we had talked about all the things she could do to be “mommy’s big helper” once baby brother came.  Still, I was apprehensive as to how she would react once she saw him.  Plus, she’s not a fan of hospitals (what kid is?) and I knew she would be a bit freaked out to see me hooked up to an IV. 

She entered the room and seemed somewhat bothered, so I quickly introduced her “big sister” present from her baby brother.  In the weeks leading up to the delivery, I had put together a present for Alexandra, consisting of a backpack, Curious George doll and books, markers and coloring pages, and Silly Bands.  I am SO happy I did this, it was a big hit and helped warm her up – I would highly recommend doing this to anyone welcoming a 2nd or 3rd child into the family!

Mommy and Alexandra spent a little time coloring before we decided to make the big introduction. 

I shouldn’t have been nervous because she did GREAT!  She was so gentle and sweet -  she kept whispering “Hi, baby brother” in this voice that was full of pride and adoration.  She loved tickling his feet and holding his little hands.  Sitting there holding my son in one arm and my daughter in the other, I considered myself the happiest, luckiest mother in the entire world. 

It was hard to say goodbye to her, but I knew she would be in good hands with her daddy and her grandparents!

One last picture in what has been a VERY long post – I would be remiss to post a story detailing Grayson’s birth without also including a picture of Dr. Kuntz with our sweet boy.  I am so very fortunate that this very smart, kind and strong woman brought both of my children into this world. 

So there you have it!  A birth story in a mother’s words and pictures.  As a woman, I feel so blessed that God deemed me worthy of being the mother to these two sweet children while they are here on this Earth.  Motherhood is truly the greatest gift and experience of my life.  I find it incredibly difficult to remember what my life was like before my children, and I certainly cannot fathom a life without my daughter and son in it. 

Introductions

Our sweet boy, Grayson Charles, was born on February 23, measuring 19 inches and weighing in at 6 lbs. 9.6 oz. I look forward to introducing you to our boy - he is absolutely perfect and truly a gift from God!!

Sweet Sights and Sounds

A few bright spots of sunshine from this very cold week...

This adorable face grinning at me following daycare pick-up!


Please note the presence of the hat - this is HUGE. Alexandra has never liked hats, even refuses to let you put the hood of her coat on her head, which has been somewhat problematic this winter. She saw her Daddy and Mommy both wearing hats this week - and BINGO - someone was agreeable to her hat! She even fussed on the way to daycare this morning when it fell off her head. So funny how fickle they can be!

And another sweet sight AND sound was seeing our little guy this week at my 36 week appointment (I only have two more weekly appointments to go!). I tried to take a video of the ultrasound with my iPhone, but needless to say the quality isn't so great. It's also a lot harder for me to pick out body parts at this stage since you can't see the whole body on the screen but only bits and pieces. However, you can definitely see his heart pumping at 0:54, and the special treat of his heartbeat just at the end!

Soak up the Sun

What a fantastic weekend...I hope all of you were so lucky to experience the near 60 degree weather that we in the Bluegrass state had this Saturday. It was pure heaven, I tell ya - while out running errands, I even found myself ... gasp ... opening the sunroof in my SUV. Of course, reality bites and we were back to frigid cold temps this Monday morning. Glad we enjoyed the sun and warmth while we could!

The days of us being a family of three are ticking by very quickly - just 3 1/2 weeks, to be exact - and we're trying to soak up as much time together as a little nuclear unit as we can. We went to brunch at the fantastic Verbena Cafe not once but twice this weekend - it's our new favorite brunch spot. To say we are big on breakfast on the weekends is an understatement. When you have a toddler, it can become difficult to go out to dinner (especially a late one near bedtime), so we find it easiest to do breakfast.

Plus, it doesn't hurt when said toddler gets to enjoy a "nutritious" breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and whipped cream (kid size, of course).


I would have loved to have sneaked a bite of these scrumptious looking pancakes, but Alexandra ate every last bite. Don't worry, we made sure to fill her up on fruit the rest of the weekend!

Granny Sharon (Ryan's mom) came up for a visit Saturday afternoon. Alexandra didn't let her rest for a minute....I'm pretty sure Sharon ended up reading at least 25 books in the less than 24 hours she was with us. I did catch this precious moment during storytime - I love the look of adoration and love on Alexandra's face as she peeks a glance at her grandmother. My child is blessed with such wonderful, loving grandparents that just dote on her so much.


I've been having fun adding clothes to baby boy's growing wardrobe, but no matter how much better the selection has gotten for cute little boy clothing, it's no match for little girl clothing. Little boys don't do accessories, but little girls definitely do! This was clearly obvious given Alexandra's outfit on Sunday. I give you Exhibit A (adorable hairclip from Etsy seller May Crimson):


And Exhibit B ... purple Paul Frank monkey socks. Is there anything cuter than little baby and toddler feet? I think not.


I'm coming into the home stretch, folks. It's hard to believe that our little prince will be here in less than 30 days. I find myself becoming more sentimental with each passing day (if that's possible), enjoying the final moments of it just being the three of us. I'm sure there will be a sap-filled post on this to come!

Picture Me Blushing

Emily at Emily Clark is featuring our dresser update on her blog today and I couldn't be more honored!


Emily's blog is one of my favorites. She has an unbelievable design aesthetic and I always love reading about her latest finds and ideas. She has more creativity in her little finger than I do in my whole body! Plus, she's a Kentucky girl at heart which makes her a kindred spirit!


In case you didn't catch my original post about our Craigslist dresser makeover for Alexandra's big girl room, you can read some more on it here and here. I just love how it turned out, but all of the credit really goes to my husband, Ryan - since I can't touch oil-based paint right now as I'm 33 (!!) weeks pregnant, Ryan did all of the labor without issuing one complaint. What a guy!

Rocking and Rolling (and Kicking and Jabbing)

Hey ya'll! Boy, time flies when you're having fun - and when you're running after a very active 2 1/2 year old. Here we go again with a couple of weeks passing between blog posts - I've decided not to hand out the same tired excuses but to just jump right into things.

We had a wonderful Christmas - actually, it was more like 3 Christmas celebrations with different parts of our extended family. Alexandra thinks Christmas is an ongoing event - she asked me this past Sunday who was coming to visit her next and would they be bringing presents? Oh, and the little princess is still singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and talking about Mrs. Claus, too (because we are equal opportunists around here!). Seriously, she had a fantastic Christmas and received LOTS of wonderful presents - our families are entirely too generous (and Santa was generous to all of us, I might add!).

We're really moving along with Alexandra's big girl room, I can't wait to share pictures of the finished product! We move her into the big girl bed this weekend, and I must admit I'm nervous about it. While adventurous during waking hours, Alexandra has always been happily confined to her crib, never once trying to jump out during the wee morning hours. I'm a little worried that the big girl bed might be too much for her - namely, too big and unconfined. Moms of toddlers before me, do you have any words of wisdom to help us in making this transition as smooth as possible?

Wondering what the title to this blog post is referring to? Well, that would be the little man in my stomach, who happens to be 32 weeks along tomorrow. I can hardly believe we are 7 weeks away - this pregnancy has flown by, probably because I'm so busy with work and chasing after Alexandra. I hope the next several weeks go by fast as well, because I'm tired of not being able to bend over and put on my shoes. :) Seriously, I require assistance with donning/doffing all footwear and pants right now. Thankfully, my husband is always willing to help me in getting ready in the mornings! The little guy still doesn't have a name - we've narrowed it down to 6 (!!!) with Ryan and I both having favorites. We will probably just wait till we see his sweet face to make a decision as to which name suits him best (much to the chagrin of the inquiring minds of our family and friends who have been on baby name watch for months!). He moves alot, but unlike Alexandra - who was more of a kicker and jabber - baby boy likes to do full body rolls. This is something I didn't expect at this point in gestation as I figured he was getting a little too big for that. We were watching Inception on Saturday night when I felt this immense pressure under my right rib cage. I looked down and laughed because he had obviously rolled and was wedged up on my right side, as the right side of my abdomen stuck out twice as much as the left side! I love the kicks, jabs, pokes, prods and rolls - such a neat experience, one I know I will surely miss as this will be our last pregnancy.

Finally, thoughts on the new year - 2010 was an adventure, and I'm fairly certain 2011 will be a complete roller coaster ride what with the addition to our family. I'm not one to make new year resolutions, but there are a few things I'd like to aspire to this coming year:

(1) Slow down and savor all the little moments that I would miss if I'm stuck to my iPhone, or laptop, or Kindle, or any other form of electronic gadgetry for that matter.

(2) Really learn all the ins and outs of my DSLR and take pictures more regularly. I've really slacked off with my picture taking the past few months, and I believe that is because I'm frustrated with the quality of my photographs. Maybe trying to find time to attend a photography class could be a goal?

(3) Speaking of photography, I'd love to take and post at least one picture a week. While Project 365 sounds fantastic, I just don't think it is realistic for moi to take at least one picture daily, but one a week should be realistic.

(4) Not be so hard on myself, realizing I am not Wonder Woman and THAT IS OKAY. It is impossible to be the perfect wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend, attorney, blogger, etc. - I cannot be everything to everyone and also lose myself in the process. I will try my darnedest to be everything I can to those I love, but also I will try to realize that no one expects perfection and it is an unattainable goal anyway.

(5) The last one is to get in better shape after little guy is born. I'm not going to set some goal for myself as to a certain number of pounds because I think that is a recipe for disaster, but I think a general plan to improve my physical health and well being is a good and realistic approach (and if I just so happen to lose a few lbs along the way, added bonus!).

Will try to post again very soon and include pictures - no one likes to read pictureless posts!

"Hoo" Loves You Baby

Since finding out we were having a boy, I have remained stumped - until recently that is! - as to how to decorate his room. I didn't want it to be too frilly (which would have been easy to do given our exposure to all things pink and girly the past 2 1/2 years with Alexandra!), but I also didn't want to go the opposite direction with something "all boy" like trucks, tractors, etc. (No offense to any who go that route, it just wasn't what I wanted).

Imagine my delight when I stumbled across the following bedding set from Carousel Designs:


Isn't it adorable? I love the owl print fabric - kind of retro. The shade of blue is beautiful, and I was sold at the chevron bedskirt (I have a great love for all things chevron, as if you couldn't tell from my blog background).

I've had a blast looking for owl decor on the web - I might be going a TAD over the edge with the owl theme, I'm going to have to pull myself back! (And no, I wasn't a Chi Omega in college!)

Picked up this very cute owl lamp from Target - the base is more of a deep brown, not black as it appears in the photo. I'm considering painting the owl base white and then covering the shade in the same chevron fabric as the crib skirt - what do you think?


I was out buying some Christmas presents last week and ran into Z Gallerie, where I found the cutest owl bank at the most ridiculously low price:


Plus these really pretty frames that I think match the blue in the bedding pretty well:


There will be a collage of these cute owl prints on the wall that I purchased from this Etsy seller:






I think I've reached my limit in all things owl, don't you? Along the way, though, I've bookmarked some other owl decor that I thought would be perfect for a nursery...

Like this little owl clock:


And this growth chart:


As I type this post, Baby Boy is rolling around all over the place, so I am going to take that as a sign that he likes his new room! I will be sure to post pictures of the finished product.