The Nest

Operation Baby Room: Part I

For the past several weeks (or more) I have been so ready to get my baby girl's new home started and we finally made some great progress the weekend before last. With the help of my wonderful in laws, we totally deep cleaned our back house, then cleared out our guest room/office and set up the furniture to transform the back house into a lovely guest suite! Our guests will be so happy to have their own little space with a shower, etc. It will be nice too with a new baby because I imagine guests would rather be away from the late night cries. ;) After getting the guest house set up, we started on the fun task of painting baby M's room. I knew almost immediately that I wanted to do large stripes on the wall where the crib would go - definitely the most challenging part. After sorting through hundred's of paint chips at Lowes, I finally settled on the perfect combination - skinny latte (or tan) for the main wall color and cream rose (or light pink) for the large stripes. I absolutely love the way it turned out!! I've already picked out many of the elements of the room. I also plan on DIYing many of the fun pics and things I've seen for nurseries. I cannot wait to get more work done in there soon! This is making is sooo real! :) Some pics below are the progress. Please excuse the first before shot. I forgot to take them until I already began disassembling the room, but you get the idea...

Before & During

After (well after painting that is....)

Some of the things I really like for her room so far:

Bedding:
Pottery Barn's Penelope Pink Chocolate Nursery Bedding

http://www.potterybarnkids.com/room/rom/romnur/romnurpnk/?cm_type=lnav
I absolutely love the little birds and the color combo featured in this bedding. I actually picked it out even before we found out we were having a little girl (of course obviously it would have changeed if we would have a little boy-lol). It's going to be the jumping off point for the whole room.

Accent Rug:
Pottery Barn's Penelope Rug
http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/penelope-rug/?pkey=ball-rugs
I mean is this precious or what!

Precious Typography Print:
Made by Girl
http://www.madebygirl.com/product.php?sku=MM-20
Simple, but it pretty much sums things right up. :) The colors aren't exactly perfect, but it's so precious that I might just have to figure it out. I'm also planning to DIY some typography prints for her room using scrapbook paper.

DIY Ceiling Art:
From a post at http://www.chicandcheapnursery.com/
http://www.chiccheapnursery.com/2010/do-it-yourself/do-it-yourself-pom-pom-tutorial/
I love these...thinking of doing a whole bunch of them in one of the room's corners. I'll either do the pom pom method featured here or use a collection of colored paper lanterns for the same effect. I'm not sure yet...

Letter Pillow:
Inspired by Jonathan Adler
http://www.jonathanadler.com/Letter-pillow/?cat=568&initial=5317
I really want one of these to put on the glider, but I need a different color combo and a lower price point! I need to go on the hunt, but I love how it has the needle point look. So precious.

Vintage Picture Frames:
I've seen many that I like on Etsy and Ebay. I need to choose some. I want to have a collection of antique white or super light pink for the walls. I also saw some really cute painted ones with large frames and polka dots-so cute...maybe another DIY project.

Birdies:
Lots and lots of birds are saved in my files, but I won't put them all here. Don't worry, I won't go overboard with the theme, but I just want a couple of cute bird things throughout the room. So far my favs are a tiny paper mache bird I saw at West Elm and a DIY birdie mobile.

Crib:
Not sure exactly which style yet, but I want to go with either white, off white or antique white finish and probably a wooden frame.

Glider:
Not sure here either...just know it has to be comfortable!

Dresser, Armoire, Changing table:
TBD, but I think I might buy something and repurpose it so that it can grow with her.

Just typing this out made me so anxious to get to work! Hopefully I'll make some progress this weekend.

XOXO,
Katie

The Name Game

Choosing a name for our baby has been one of the most difficult things ever! Normally it takes me hours to decide on an outfit for the night and days to decide on a purchase, so you can imagine my hesitation in committing to a name. I've been on so many baby name sites and have been reading a baby name book to try to make up my mind. Our original list was about 20 names long, but one by one we whittled them down since they either didn't exactly seem right or one of us was against the name. Soo as of right now, I think we are 90% set on Macie Kate Miller. We're not sure about the spelling of Macie though--"Maycee" is really cute and different, but I worry it might be too different or hickish? "Macie" is also a strong front runner. I don't think we'll go with "Macy" because of the store Macy's, but gosh I just don't know! Maci seems a bit incomplete and looks like maxi, as in maxi pad. Lol...see what I mean? Kate was a little easier because I love the name and I feel like it will be neat for her to have a piece of my name in her name. We also really like the name Charlotte. It's so pretty and has a really southern sounding, I think. I really do love Charlotte, but we keep on calling her Macie, so it might just be meant to be Macie. Decisions, decisions!!! Thoughts? :)

In other news, my belly has seriously grown so much from last week to this week. It's insane! Up until last week, I still sort of looked bloated/beer bellyish, but this week I definitely look pregnant. It's crazy what a week can do-especially the 19 to 20 week change. Apparently, this week our little girl is the size of a banana. I don't really understand though because last week she was a small cantaloupe and those two seem so different to me. I'm having a hard time grasping the fruit analogy-lol! Plus it makes me hungry, which is also weird!

XOXO,
Katie

Bumpin'

Bump Watch

Soooo, I'm pretty much halfway to my due date (crazy)! Here is a look at baby M's progress along the way.

XOXO,
Katie

Future Soccer Player?

Little Angel Kicks

Okay, I think I have been feeling my little girl kick since I was about 17 weeks pregnant (about the past 2 or so weeks), but I couldn't be sure because the first little flutters were so faint. They felt more like bubbles or little tiny flicks from inside and they only came every couple of days. Well, let me tell you, this past Saturday my baby girl definitely decided to let her growing presence in my belly be known. I was laying down watching a movie when I felt a disticnt, hard kick! I actually let out a little squeal! Justin tried to feel her, but it was too faint on the outside still. We kept trying every time she would kick on Sunday. I could still feel "hard" kicks, but Justin couldn't feel at all. Last night, that changed! I called him over because she was really kicking up a storm and he had his hands on my belly and all of the sudden she let out a sharp kick, we both looked at each other and he said "I felt her!" It was such a cool moment. I definitely started tearing up. The kicking is simultaneously the most amazing and weirdest feeling in the world. I feel like I'm getting pushed from the inside (whoop she actually just did it right as I typed that!). Some are faint while others are so strong it's crazy! I know she'll only get stronger as the weeks and months pass. Love my little angel already!

XOXO,

Katie

Cupcake Reveal

June 28th

Always having loved surprises (and cupcakes), we knew we wanted to do something really special to tell our parents the girl baby news. I had seen and heard about cake reveals and decided to do something similar. Originally, we decided to do the reveal on Friday, July 1st, but after learning the news about our little girl, we simply could NOT wait that long. We were bursting at the seams. So, we decided that we would drive in to Baton Rouge the next day for dinner with both of our parents. Of course, Tuesday was one of those crazy work days where you are on the go 24/7 with no breaks. I came home and whipped up a batch of cupcakes with the a tiny bit of pink (food coloring and sprinkles) in the center and plenty of frosting on the top to make sure not to give away the surprise, and we rushed off to Baton Rouge. Waiting until after dinner was absolute torture. I was so scared I would give the secret away before it was time. FINALLY, everyone finished dinner and we were ready to do the big reveal. Seeing everyone's reactions as the bit (or cut) into the cupcakes was PRICELESS. I am so glad we recorded the moment. Excitement was definitely in the air!!

Video footage:

http://photosbykatiemiller.shutterfly.com/pictures/543

XOXO,

Katie (& Baby Girl)

It's a Girl!

June 27th

Video of when we found out she was a she:

http://photosbykatiemiller.shutterfly.com/pictures/544

We had our 18 week anatomy and gender scan on Monday, June 27th. Of course, we had been counting down the weeks, days, then minutes and seconds until we could find out the baby's sex. Calling our baby "it" was getting a bit old! Plus I was so anxious to start planning our nursery and all of those fun things. Of course the appointment wasn't scheduled until 2:45 in the afternoon, and then we had to wait until around 4 to get called because they were running behind! Patience is a virtue, right? lol... Finally, we were called back to the ultrasound room. Justin, Brittany and I went back like giddy little kids! Final predictions were in, some thought for sure a girl and some were convinced Baby Miller was a boy. I was so on the fence, having had dreams about me with a little girl, but 2 pee tests that predicted boy...On a side note, do not trust Intelligender (pee test at Walgreens). Both that I took turned "boy" right away...

Anyway, I laid on the table and immediately when the ultrasound tech put the prob on my belly the babies little bottom was front and center. I was thinking hmm I certainly don't see anything that would make me think boy. She asked us who predicted what, Brittany said girl and Justin said boy. Then, Justin said, is it a girl?! And we all started screaming! It was so exciting! Luckily, we had Brittany as our photographer and video person, so we were able to get the moment on tape! So special.

The rest of the scan was nerve wrecking-checking to make sure our little girl had all of her organs, body parts, etc. Thankfully, the doctor assured us that she was developing on track and everything looked great...phew-big sigh of relief! She measured 9 ounces - putting her on track to arrive about 4 days prior to the predicted due date (which might I add was the original date that I predicted my due date as based on my LMP...). Since it was only 4 days, they decided to keep my due date set at November 28th, but 4 days earlier would set her arrival for Thanksgiving! We'll see... :)

XOXO,
Katie (& Baby GIRL)