There's a lot of different questions you get asked over and over if you're pregnant - one of the more benign topics, though, has to with the nursery. Have you picked a theme? Is it done? What does it look like? It’s certainly an easier topic than symptoms or complications.
The Last Night
There are a lot of parenting choices that split parents into one of two camps. Team pacifier forever or team take it away quick. Team potty train early or team wait until they’re way older. Team switch them to a bed at 18 months or team wait for years.
I don’t know many parents of littles who don’t have strong opinions on these. We certainly do. And if you know us, it’s probably not a surprise that we’re team wait it out on a lot of things. Including the crib.
A Night Recently
Usually when we put the babies down for the night, it’s pretty easy. Hugs, kisses, place them in their crib and walk away. If anyone gives us trouble, it’s usually G and it’s usually because he’s demanding more food before beginning his 12 hour fast.
But one night recently, it was E that was making noise. If he does wake up, it’s usually the result of a bad dream, and it will be hysterical crying which will bring us running. But this was just small cries, which sometimes happens when he wakes up at the end of a sleep cycle and before he rolls over and goes back to sleep. So we watched him on the monitor and figured that’s what it was. He was lying on his back, rubbing his eyes, and softly crying.
Nursery Round II
It’s been interesting putting this room together. It almost didn’t happen, and then it did, but while we were working on it, we were constantly thinking ahead. Because we know at some point “soon” it won’t be a second nursery, but will be E’s big kid room.
The eventual plan, when E is ready to be out of a crib, will be for the new baby to move into E’s crib, and E to move into this room with a toddler bed. It sounds complicated, but trust me there’s logic there. So it’s interesting that as I’m putting it together, I’m thinking more about it as a toddler’s play room than a baby’s room. We already have a perfectly good baby room next door.
Nursery Update
So far I've shared bits and pieces of a nursery in progress: the painting, and the almost crib. Since then, we received the crib piece we needed to finish putting that together, and we've made progress in other areas of the room too. We've been tackling things in small chunks, which makes it much more manageable. Some days we might only have energy to take tags off of baby clothes, or to throw in a load of laundry, but piece by piece, things have been getting done.
Expectation vs Reality
Expectation: The piece of furniture you ordered and scheduled for delivery on Monday, will be delivered on Monday.
Reality: You'll get a call from the delivery people saying they'll deliver on Monday. Then they call you back and say, um they're not sure, but they'll get back to you. Then they call back and say they absolutely will deliver on Monday. They promise, pinky swear. Then another call. Oops, their mistake... they're not delivering on Monday after all... you're totally cool with changing all of your plans, right?