Now that we know the baby’s gender, I hear two main questions from people:
1) Have you thought of a name yet?
2) How are you going to decorate the nursery?
I mean, yes, some people still ask when I’m due and whether it’s a boy or a girl, but once they know those facts, it’s always about the naming and the nursery. Which annoys me far more than any unsolicited advice or belly touching…at least for the moment.
See, I don’t want to name her until I’ve seen her face. We’re working on a short list of names we like but I have no intention of choosing one for sure until she’s born. And I’m reluctant to share any of our favorites for some reason. So I really don’t have an answer for that question. People don’t like that.
And as far as the nursery goes…well, it’s kind of a touchy subject.
Back when we were still trying, I kept hoping I’d wake up magically pregnant one day and would get to decorate the spare bedroom for my unborn child. I was really looking forward to it. Except that I never woke up magically pregnant, and the room just felt more and more depressing to me. It was like an embarrassing symbol of my childlessness. It was a storage space–a really ugly one–where the occasional house guest would sometimes sleep. I hated going in there. HATED it. And I had to go in every day, because the closet in our bedroom isn’t big enough for both of us, so all my clothes are in that closet. Sad but true.
Back in June, my mom convinced me I should stop waiting for a baby and just decorate that stupid room anyway. She came down to the Valley and we spent the weekend painting and picking out fabric for curtains and breathing new life into the detested spare room.
By the time she left, I felt so much better. Like I was letting go of yet another ugly, bitter, desperate-for-a-child part of me and moving on with my life. We didn’t even finish the room, but the changes we did make were liberating.
Fast forward to now and the room is once again a disaster area. A much prettier one, with aqua walls and gauzy curtains, but still kind of a hot mess. Because now it doesn’t just house my books and piano and cedar chest and the extra bed and my clothing. It’s also home to bags of baby clothing and a car seat and a swing and a play mat and a stroller and, let’s face it, it’s not Mary Poppins’ bag o’ tricks where the inside somehow grows to accommodate its contents.
I have no idea how we’re going to turn it into a workable nursery.
Lest you think I exaggerate, here is what we’re working with as of this very minute:
There’s barely room for me in here, let alone a crib and a rocking chair and a dresser. And yes, those are my clothes thrown haphazardly on the bed. And the remains of my sewing project on the floor. And Goodwill donations still hanging out in the corner. Don’t judge. Or at least pretend they aren’t there. Even without those messes, the room is sadly over crowded.
Seriously, people, what am I going to do? Because I tell you what, some of the things in this room are going to have to move elsewhere–mostly so I don’t go crazy or trip on something and DIE every time I go in to check on the baby–and there’s just not much “elsewhere” to spare. How is it that a tiny baby is forcing me to rearrange all the furniture in my entire house to make room for her?
I would love to come help you organize! 🙂 Also, there is a TON of storage space under a crib… just make sure you have a bed skirt that goes all the way down to the floor to cover everything.
So I must confess I chuckled to myself as I read this, because I remember Neil and I having this conversation about six months after Abigail was born and there was a bouncy seat in the bathroom, a swing in the living room, toy storage in every room, bottles and bowls in the sink–you get the idea. (Incidentally, as I have typed the last few sentences, Isaac has pulled off all the magnets on the 'fridge, emptied one cupboard of mixing bowls, and dumped out a basket full of books. They work fast.) Anyway–Kid Overflow.
Seriously though, the whole "nursery" thing is a lovely idea, but I think there are few homes that can entirely dedicate an entire room to just one person. I love all the beautifully decorated nurseries on blogs, but my nursery houses a baby and all my food storage. Yes, I've tried to make it fairly discreet, but still. (Like Em said, you can fit a TON of stuff under a crib.)
You'll probably feel better about it all once the Goodwill stuff is done, because all you have to do is drop it off and then it's somebody else's problem. 🙂
Good luck–I wish I was close enough to help! I'm actually in the process of reconfiguring my nursery so that another child can sleep in there as well, so I feel your pain!
I'm pretty sure the baby isn't going to be too concerned about what the room looks like. If you want to rearrange it, go ahead, but you could leave him/her in there with a bunch of power tools and oil slicks and he/she probably wouldn't notice.
Em: Feel free to come down for a few days!
Rach: There's no way the room will ever be a nursery and only a nursery. We just don't have space for that kind of thing. The problem is, like you said, mostly about all the STUFF that comes with a baby. It's hard to work that in!
Optimistic.: I know. It's really more for me. If I'm going to be spending any amount of time in there, it's going to have to be livable at the very least, and preferably pleasant enough that I want to stay. Which it isn't right now.
I am a big fan of just getting things out of sight, if that makes sense. Like all our water storage is under the crib. And the closet is packed with food storage. And the cheery yellow lengths of fabric along the walls, topped with stuffed animals, are draped over boxes of Mason jars. As long as I don't see it, it doesn't bother me, but if I can see visual clutter, it drives me crazy (which is why my desk has a lamp, an orchid, and a family photo). Can you stack things neatly so they're not visually distracting? Or make half the room baby things and the other half multipurpose? And I always find that some wall art helps me feel like the room is a little more serene and calm.
I agree that a lot of things just need to be hidden from view. But I've been working so hard on cleaning out and organizing closets that I REALLY don't want to just shove stuff back in (or under the bed or crib) just so I don't have to look at it all the time. It's going to take some careful arranging of our tiny closets and pantry, plus some concessions as to what lives in which room, but we can figure it out, right?