Chapter 4: The Complete Nursery!

The post you have all been waiting for :)

We are so proud of this room. It is everything we dreamed of for our little boy.

Here is the room before:

Remember, this is the previous owners stuff.... not ours!

Here's the closet before:

And here is the after:

Brand new closet...

Here are a few more angles of the overall room.

The picture above is looking at the room from the closet door.

Above is looking at the room from the opposite corner.

We used Benjamin Moore's Gray Horse for the paint and White Dove for the trim. We took down the curtains and shutters and installed silver roman shades from JC Penney. We painted the ceilings and closet a flat white. Thanks again to our friends that helped us paint! It was a fun paint party :) We also installed a new Hunter ceiling fan, because there was just a little light bulb in the ceiling with a cheap glass thing over it. It was really ugly. Plus, I read that having a fan in the nursery reduces SIDS, so that was a plus. Oh, and the rug is from Pottery Barn Kids.

Now for all the little details :)

For his crib, we went to Ikea and got the Sniglar. We painted it white. Bedding and bolster pillow, all handmade by my mom, Preston's Mimi. Fabric from Ikea. The Preston blanket is from my friend Bev. The sign above the crib was made by my friend Hurt (you might remember it as a decoration at my Nashville shower) and the fun poms above it are from Etsy.

For you moms out there, don't worry. The pillow and bumpers will be removed when Mr. P sleeps in his crib. We have breathable bumpers we'll use until the risk of SIDS declines. Wow, this is my second reference to SIDS. I am not a paranoid mom, I promise!

The chair where we will spend lots of time together feeding and snuggling is a hand-me-down. It was lime green and had some stains on it, so we got it re-upholstered. I love the simple fabric and am so happy with how it turned out.

We already had the little glass lamp. It came from Target a long time ago. The side table is just a round sawdust table. I bought a cheap, round, white tablecloth to go on top, and finished it off with some fabric from Ikea. In the chair is a pillow my mom made with fabric from Ikea and a sweet monogrammed blanket from my friend Candice.

Please note that next to the little owl on the side table is Preston's iPod. That's right, our unborn child has an iPod. It is filled with Rock-a-bye Baby songs and all kinds of sweet classical lullabies.

I found these prints on Etsy and I love them. They say "You are so loved," "You are my sunshine," We are all made of stars, " and "You are not alone." Then, the print below is really special. It hung in Brian's nursery when he was a baby. It says, "A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on." How cool is it that it matches the colors of the nursery, too?!

Next is the changing table area...

My dad got the changing table a few years ago and it has just been in their garage waiting for Brian and I to use it one day :) It is solid wood and really nice. I was a little concerned about blending it with the white furniture, but I love how it mixes with the white.

Hanging above the table is this print:

Also found on Etsy, it is the Italian alphabet represented with different animals. I love this print. I picked up the mat and frame at Michael's for 50% off. Preston needed something in his room to represent his Italian heritage :)

Cute monogrammed burp clothes from my friends Meghan and Kate. We got all the blue and green bins from Land of Nod. The sock monkey is from Brian's mom, Preston's Mimzie.

And his diapers are all ready to go!

Now for this side of the room....

First, the little rocking chair.

It belonged to Brian was he was little. That's why I was okay with putting his little Georgia pillow there. ;) See the writing at the top of the rocking chair?

Apparently, Brian was really excited when he learned to write cursive.

Next, is his little bulletin board. This was actually a gift from my big sister in Delta Gamma my freshman year of college. I used it all through college for pictures. It works perfectly in the room!

I put Rudyard Kipling's "If" on there. I knew I wanted it somewhere in his room, and this proved to be a good spot. Along with that are a few cards and shower invites.

Next to the bulletin board is this cross and a little quote that I love in a frame below. It says "You are the tiniest thing I have ever decided to put my whole life into." Love it.

The Expedit bookcases are from Ikea. I am pretty sure every nursery or playroom has one of these in it.

We have two in the room and they are both great for displaying things at the top and for toys at the bottom. Just to point out a couple things on the shelves that are extra special...

This picture hangs above the bookcase. It is four generations of the Fields family men. The baby in the pic is Brian. Preston will be the fifth. Speaking of family photos, this is also in the bookcase:

In this picture are my great-great-grandparents and their children Thelma and Samuel Preston (he went by Preston). Preston, my great-grandfather is our Preston's namesake and is the little blonde boy in the photo. My grandparents got this for us for Christmas and it is perfect for his nursery.

Ultrasound picture from the day we found out Preston was a he.

Next to the bookcase is a little rack from Ikea for us to hang stuff on. His diaper bag is packed for the hospital and ready to go!

Moving to the next side of the room...

We've got the other bookcase with all kinds of fun toys and books for Preston to play with.

His first train set.

We can't wait to play with him and read him books. One of the most meaningful things in Preston's whole nursery is this quilt.

Brian's godmother made it for Preston. It has a Noah's Ark theme and it is just amazing. Every time we look at it, we find new things. This is so special to us and always will be!

That's pretty much his room... let's look at the closet.

One thing that seriously sold us on our house was the closet space. We are so thankful that he will have a closet he can grow into, although it is already almost full.

Love all the little onesies. I organized them by size and they get bigger as they go down. Brian's mom went through his baby/toddler clothes and he had some COOL clothes. Check out these blazers.

She even got cute little "Preston Fields" tags to put in all of them.

Well, that's about it. We've had a lot of fun putting together his room. We can't wait to see him grow in it and how we add to it and change it as he grows. We just hope he loves it as much as we do.

I'll leave you with a pic of my favorite person who is so proud of this room he can hardly stand it. He is also very proud to be Preston's dad. I love him so much and he did a great job with so many parts of this room. :)

38 Weeks

Preston is the length of a leek!

We know from our last appointment that he's getting close to 7 lbs. This week, he can firmly grasp objects with his hands. Can't wait to hold his little hand!



I am feeling good and am just so ready for him to come! I have really enjoyed pregnancy in so many ways and feel so blessed to have gotten pregnant. Brian and I both have a feeling he isn't coming until his due date and will be forced out :) I just haven't felt any noticeable changes lately and I still feel well, so I can't imagine him coming any sooner. We did confirm with our doc and the hospital that we have to be at the hospital at 4 a.m. the morning of the 4th. I don't know how we are going to get any sleep the night before... we will be way too excited.

We have everything ready to go. His room is completely finished, the pack-n-play and swing are set up, our hospital bags are packed.... not to mention that we are mentally ready for sleepless nights, diaper changing, and feedings. I guess as mentally ready as you can be :)

Here I am at 38 weeks:

38 down, 2 to go!

Memphis Baby Shower

A few weekends ago, the Keller's, Coughlin's, Stringer's and Owen's threw us a baby shower. We got so much great stuff for Preston. Clothes, diapers, a carseat, stroller, pack-n-play and all kinds of great books and toys. We had so many friends and family there and it was a day we will always remember. It was awesome and Brian and I are so thankful!

Us with our parents

Us with Preston's godparents, Robyn and Robert.

Us with the hosts of the shower

Opening gifts for P

Love The Giving Tree!

Cute onesie from my brother Joe... he plays the drums :)

Us with my brothers and Brian's sisters

Preston has more stuff than we know what to do with. Thanks family and friends!

Master Bedroom Reveal

But first, a pic of our house in the Memphis snow :)

Okay, I promised this post a really long time ago, but with the rush of trying to get the nursery ready, I am just now getting a chance to post pics. Plus, it took us a while to hang things, raise the headboard and get all set up. While we still have a little bit to go in this room, this is a huge start.

Just to recap, our house has 2 master bedrooms... one upstairs and one downstairs. We opted to live in the one upstairs to be closer to the kid(s) while he (they) are small. The downstairs master is off the family room, and will be the playroom. We think when the kid(s) are pre-teen/teenage, we'll move downstairs and give them the run of the upstairs.

Here is the master bedroom and bathroom before:

Love those curtains that don't match and the Lucy Desi bed set-up against the wall. Covering up the beautiful hard woods with a beige carpet rug was genius. Also, the mustard trim and off-white walls are just gorgeous, don't ya think? ;)

Really, knobs are not necessary.

And here is the after:

Awwwww much better!

For the paint, we went with Benjamin Moore's Yarmouth Blue. I have to say, Brian and I had a hard time choosing between two Ben Moore colors: Yarmouth Blue and Buxton Blue. From the paint swatches, they looked almost identical. We decided to try them both in large swatches on the wall. Thank goodness we did, because they were totally different. We really liked both colors - Brian leaned towards Buxton and I leaned towards Yarmouth. Buxton was a bit richer, Yarmouth a bit lighter. Well, we see who won :) Then we painted ALL OF THE TRIM, WINDOWS, DOORS, INSIDE OF THREE CLOSETS, and THE CEILING. Let me tell you, WHAT A TASK. Our bedroom has FIVE DOORS. Between both walk in closets, bathroom and main doors, that was a lot of paint. Plus, to cover up the gorgeous trim, it took anywhere from 3 to 4 coats depending on the area. The four windows were not too tough to paint, thankfully. All the trim, windows, and doors are painted with Benjamin Moore White Dove. The ceiling and inside of closets we chose just a basic white paint. Our parents seriously helped us with this room and all the paint... we can't thank them enough!!

Along with paint, we decided to spray paint all the window hardware, including the bathroom mirror, brushed nickel. So glad we did this. It was gold overload!!!

We used the headboard at our old house. My mom and I made it one afternoon. We decided to raise it higher since our ceilings are higher in this house, and I really wanted it to look more "masterly." The photos in the frames are all of trips we have been on. We chose pics from San Diego, NOLA/Mardi Gras, Switzerland, Mexico, Rome, Paris, Bahamas, and an old pic of us from when we first started dated in Athens, GA. At the center above our headboard, is a pic of us on our wedding day.

We also switched out the cheap ceiling fan for a brand new Hunter fan. We LOVE this fan. It is 64 inches, which is big, but the room is big, so it looks great. It is also completely silent... so nice. Also, we took off the wood shutters (still trying to figure out what to do with those shutters), and installed roman shades. We got a great deal on these from JC Penney. The side lamps are from HomeGoods, bedding from Pottery Barn (wedding gifts!), and the bench is also from Penney's. The side tables are antiques, of course.

For the rug, the one we put in here used to be in our living room at our old house. I love the floors in our new house, so this allows the floors to show better I think.

In the bathroom, we took a door down that separated the room and the sink area. It was always in the way. Then we installed a new towel rack, shower head, shower curtain rod (curved is the way to go) and toilet seat. We also painted the walls, the linen closet, gave everything a good scrub down and it was ready to go.

We still aren't all the way there yet. I am dying for an antique vanity with a mirror to put on my side of the room for all my makeup and girly things. I have my eye on one at an upcoming estate sale that would match our antique 1940's mahogany furniture. I already contacted the estate company trying to get them to sell it to me early, but no can do. They gave me a price I am happy with, so now it is up to us to get up at the crack of dawn, wait in line, and hopefully score it for a sweet deal. We'll see. That's part of the fun in buying estate furniture, right :) I like it so much better than what is sold in stores today though.

That's about it! Brian and I are so proud of this room. I am proud of what we accomplished while 8 and a half months pregnant. We love our new room and our house is really starting to feel like home :)

Weekly Doc Appointment

Went to the doctor today. I was pleasantly surprised to get to SEE Mr. P! My doctor wanted to know his size so that we could make sure there wasn't a need to induce sooner. I was super excited to get an ultrasound. Of course, Brian was super upset that he missed it! He hates when they spring stuff on us at the doc, because he never knows when to go to an appointment or when to stay at work.

So, according to the ultrasound where they measure everything, today Preston is 6 lb., 14 oz!

Can't believe I am walking around with an almost 7 pound baby in my belly. They think that at his delivery date, Feb. 4 (we aren't changing it), he'll be about 7 and a half pounds. Amazing!

I asked if I could see his face, knowing it would be hard to see it because he is SO LOW. The ultrasound tech worked her magic and I got to see his profile again, this time with a much chubbier face :) He was chewing on his fingers. Seeing him chew his little fingers made my heart melt. The ultrasound tech also said that he has got some legs! Apparently, they were measuring a little long... how funny, because Brian and I are both not the tallest people :) Maybe he will grow into them. I did get a couple pictures, but they really aren't great.. you can't see anything.

After I left and got in my car, I wish I had asked if she could see any hair on his head. Oh well, some things have to wait for the big day!

37 Weeks... Full Term

Preston is 37 weeks and the length of swiss chard...

His estimated weight is over 6 lbs and he should be over 19 inches long. His lungs are developed and if he came tomorrow, he should not have to spend any extra time in the hospital. It's great to get to this point. He also SHOULD have hair on his head, but we'll have to wait until he is born to know for sure. Here is what his scrunched-self looks like this week:


As for me, sleeping has officially stopped. I am up multiple times throughout the night. I can get comfortable, I am just running to the bathroom lots these days. Nesting mode has set in for us. Brian and I are trying to finish up all the last minute stuff before P comes... running errands, stocking our house with basic essentials for us, etc. I think once he is here, I will be holed up in our house with him, so having extra of all our basic living items has to help, right? I am feeling noticeable changes to my body... won't go into detail, but I can definitely tell I am close to having this baby.

And because this is an exciting day (according to my fortune cookie) Brian went all out on the photos of me this week. Here are a few angles of the full term belly! (Also, can you tell I am 9 months pregnant???? There is snow outside and I am wearing a tank top!)

My stomach will probably never be the same. But who cares?!

37 down, 3 to go!!!!!!