Baby Registry Essentials: Nursing

A couple weeks ago I finally posted pictures of Little J's nursery (now that he's TWO)! I included a list of our nursery essentials and now I'm working on a couple more posts about baby registry essentials since a number of our friends are having their first babies this year. I'm a huge proponent of breastfeeding (I breastfed Little J his first two years), so without further ado, here are a few of my favorite nursing baby registry items (if you are unable to nurse but are looking for baby registry suggestions, please check out my nursery post and upcoming registry suggestions):

(from top left clockwise)

Essential #1: Quality Nursing Bras

The Bravado Body Silk Seamless Nursing Bra is my favorite. So comfortable! Kind of spendy, but TOTALLY worth the investment, especially if you plan to have more than one child. I got away with just two of these bras, one in black and one in nude.

Essential #2: Quality Breast Pump

If you don't plan to return to work, I think you could get by with a less expensive pump than a Medela, but this is such a great pump. And depending on your insurance, some actually will pay for your pump or at least reimburse you some money which is awesome!

Essential #3: Nursing Tanks

Returning to work ended up not panning out for me, so comfy at home nursing clothes were a must! For the price, these Gilligan & OMalley Nursing Tanks from Target were great.

Essential #4: Reusable Nursing Pads

I've already written an entire post about these, but I'll say it again, reusable nursing pads are a great way to help out the environment and save some $$. I'm a fan of these particular Pink Daisy organic cotton/hemp pads (check out my old post for some other suggestions).

Essential #5: Boppy with Velour Cover

We couldn't have survived without our boppy! And I highly suggest a velour cover (usually the Boppy brand covers have one side cotton, one side velour). With velour (or something fuzzy like fleece), it will be easier to wipe up excess milk or spit up without it soaking right through to the boppy pillow.

Essential #6: Glass Bottles with Silicone Sleeves

When possible, I think glass over plastic is best. I absolutely love these Life Factory glass baby bottles, but they are expensive, so these Evenflo alternatives work just fine. The amount of bottles you will need depends on whether you will breast or bottle feed and whether or not you will return to work. Four bottles were about all we needed.

Essential #7: Super Absorbent Burp Cloths (not pictured)


Little J spit up...A LOT. The absolute best burp cloths for a heavy spitter-upper are flat Chinese or Indian prefold cloth diapers. They're big, they're absorbent, they're perfect. Even if your little one doesn't spit up a ton, it's great having something super absorbent to save your own clothes from unnecessary laundering.

Essential #8: Lanolin (not pictured)


The first few days (sometimes weeks) of breastfeeding can be rough. You will need some lanolin! A little goes a long way and some samples came with my breast pump, so those were all I needed. You may even be able to get some samples from your doctor or midwife...so ask for some :) Little ones come with a number of initial expenses, so accept samples / freebies when they are offered!

Essential #9: Nursing Cover (not pictured)


Can't believe I forgot this in the original post! Of course it's a matter of personal preference, but I really liked having a nursing cover like one of these.

So those are the nursing essentials to add to your registry. Did I miss anything? (See comments below for additional info).

PS - This is blog is not just about parenting / babies...but it's a topic that's near and dear to my heart so I like to write about it from time to time :)

PPS: I'm linking this post up with "Your Green Resource" (on Live Renewed, Sorta Crunchy, A Delightful Home, and the Greenbacks Gal) 

An Organized Nursery

 

With a number of my friends having their first baby (or twins!) in the next few months, I have baby on the brain! Our little man just turned TWO, but with the exception of his bookshelves and some of our cloth diapering set up, I have yet to post any pictures of his nursery. So here is our organized little nursery. The (3) bedrooms in our house our fairly small, so we tried to make the very best use of the space to fit in the essentials. I'll try to highlight what those nursery essentials are in this post along with how we've organized everything. I also want to write a follow up post with some of our other must-have baby items as I'm often asked for suggestions when friends are creating their registries.

This is the view of Little J's room from the hallway. I'm not usually a huge accent wall fan, but the nursery was an exception. The bright pop of green definitely brings a playful feel to the room.

Essential #1: A crib

We opted to go with this convertible crib. It goes from crib to toddler bed to headboard/footboard. Since convertible cribs are around the same price as standard cribs, it was a no-brainer. Even if we don't end up using it for all its different purposes we love having the option to do so.

Essential #2: Crib bedding

• 3 crib sheets
• crib mattress and mattress pad (preferably organic)
  
• bumper (be sure to do your own research on the safety of bumpers and make an informed decision)
  

We chose this Dwell Studio for Target Hippo bedding (I've always had a soft spot in my heart for hippos) which is sadly no longer available. After having purchased the full on set, there are definitely some components we could have done without (namely the comforter since it is never a good idea to cover a baby with a heavy blanket! and possibly the crib skirt...we used it for such a short amount of time, once we lowered the crib mattress it could no longer be used).

 

Essential #3: A rocker (or other comfy chair)

ESPECIALLY if you plan to breastfeed (please do!!), you will be spending many, many hours nursing, often in the middle of the night during the first year. I guarantee you will want a comfortable place to do so. Even though this room is so small, we had to sacrifice some real estate for this chair. I nursed Little J all of these past 2 years so this chair has received lots of love. Besides that, it is the perfect place to snuggle and read many, many books. Definite must have item.

Essential #4: A reading lamp

Setting up the nursery so we can have some dim light for stories has been great for our bedtime routine since the very early on. I've had this lamp for about 16 years. I just painted it black and bought a new lampshade to match the nursery (my favorite part of this lamp is that it has three cute little drawers. I keep baby nail clippers in one of the drawers so they are easily accessible when we're already sitting there in the rocker).

Essential #5: An automatic night light

Essential #6: A baby monitor

I don't think these need much explanation.

Essential #7: Curtains

We have both blinds and curtains in the nursery to make the room nice and dim, especially for  middle-of-the-day napping (make sure your crib is placed a safe distance from the curtains).

 

Essential #8: Lots and lots of book storage!

We like to keep this basket full of books right next to the rocker. It mostly holds bedtime stories for easy access at night. And across the room we have pretty much my favorite feature of the nursery, these bookshelves:

Essential #9: A wall clock

Before I had an iPhone pretty much attached to me at all times, I would often stumble into Little J's room for a middle-of-the-night feeding not knowing what time it was. When you're keeping track of feedings (and your own sleep), knowing the time is super important :)

 Essential #10: Closet storage bins / crates

What you see is pretty much all the functional space we have in Little J's closet (the other half has a slanted wall). On the top shelf of the closet there are two crates. The crate on the left holds outgrown clothes. When it fills up I separate into three separate categories: keep, donate, consign (since my church holds an annual clothing drive and children's clothing is the always the first to go,  we try to keep our consignment items to a minimum so that we have more to donate). The crate on the right holds bulky, too-big items that Little J will wear down the road. Other things we like to store in the closet are nice shirts and pants, some toys, and extra diapering / cloth diapering supplies.

 

Essential #11: Toy storage

We keep most of our toys downstairs but we like to keep a few things upstairs. This was an old laundry basket that I spray painted to match our old guestroom.

Essential #12: Cute nursery decor


Haha, I guess that's not an essential, but it sure makes the space so much more inviting. My favorite part of Little J's nursery decor is this shelf that includes some subway art I made for his first birthday party along with the bunting seen in some of the first pictures above (also something I made for his first birthday party). Even though they don't really match the green / brown / yellow Dwell Studio Hippo decor, I love how the wooden blocks that spell out Little's J's name on the shelf tie both color schemes together.

Essential #13: A sound machine

White noise helps the hubby and I sleep, so it's no wonder that Little J needs it too. Every night, every nap, it's on. This Graco one is a great value as it has different white noise options and also doubles as a speaker (the bottom portion houses a plug to hook up your iPod).

Essential #14: Changing pad (preferably organic)

• with at least two covers
• topped with a fuzzy sheet saver

We like using a sheet saver or even a small hand towel on top of the cover so we can just throw it into the laundry if it gets dirty instead of constantly having to change the changing pad cover.

Essential #15: A large dresser that doubles as a changing table

Even if we wanted a separate changing table, there just isn't space for one in this small bedroom. I love the idea of multipurpose items which is why this Hemnes Ikea dresser was the perfect solution to our small room / even smaller closet dilemma.

• It holds extra receiving blankets, sheets, and changing pad covers:

• socks, slippers, and ties (booties and babylegs too):

• pajamas and play clothes:

• extra blankets:

• swimsuits and (hand-me-down) clothes in the next sizes up

• and probably most importantly, all our diapering / cloth diapering supplies:

•  (burp cloths, diapers, covers, inserts, prefolds):

•  wipes, cloth wipes, diaper rash ointment (A&D is the ONLY kind that works on our little man), cloth diaper liners, etc:

The extension of our nursery is down the hall which includes other essential parts of our cloth diaper set up:

Essential #16: A large trash can (for cloth diapers)

• 2 Planet Wise diaper pail liners

Essential #17: A small trash can (for the occasional disposable)

Essential #18: A place to hang-dry cloth diaper covers

These space-saving hangers (way back from my freshman year of college when I lived in the dorms) are perfect for our cloth diaper set up. If you're into cloth diapering or curious about it, please check out all my cloth diapering posts.

So there you have it, our organized little nursery and another glimpse into our home. What do you think?

PS: I'm linking this post up with House of Hepworths, Liz Marie, Tatertots & Jello, and Thrifty Decor Chick 

DIY Chalkboard {Repurposed Cupboard Door}

If you follow me on Facebook, you might have seen this picture I posted a few weeks ago:

Cupboard doors that I picked up at my local Habitat for Humanity Restore. In the past I have looked for cupboard doors from the Habitat store to repurpose into signs like this for gifts:

But this time around I had something a little different in mind! So, without further ado:

I am so in love with my "new" chalkboard. Hanging up in our kitchen / dining room area it has already come in so handy!

Fun quotes, birthday / holiday countdowns, menu boards...chalkboards are so fun!

So how do you make your own?

• Find an old cupboard door with an inset center panel (check both sides of the cupboard door, sometimes the back has an inset panel). With the inset center panel you get the appearance of a framed chalkboard.

• Paint cupboard door your desired color. I just picked a shade of turquoise acrylic craft paint from my stash. I only painted the "frame" part of the cupboard door and the outer edges of the inset panel.

• The inset panel is your chalkboard surface. Tape it off and paint with chalkboard paint if that is your desired medium, or, if you're like me, buy some chalkboard contact paper or vinyl. The reason I chose to go with contact paper (vinyl works too) was because I wanted the option to write with chalkboard pens (which apparently do not work properly on chalkboard paint).

• Install a cup drawer pull upside down to store some chalk. Look around your Habitat store for a drawer pull to reuse, or you can find them at Home Depot for as little as $2!

• Choose a method to hang your chalkboard. I went with 3M picture hanging strips - they are AWESOME! Don't know why I haven't invested in these before now.

It goes without saying that I found LOTS of  inspiration for this project on Pinterest...SO many cute chalkboard projects to be found there!

So how about you? Have you given into the chalkboard craze?

PS: I'm linking this post up with House of Hepworths, Liz Marie, and "Your Green Resource" (on Live Renewed, Sorta Crunchy, A Delightful Home, and the Greenbacks Gal)

Master Bedroom & Wishlist

Back in December we made some changes to our master bedroom (that I talked about in this post) but I never really got around to sharing more pictures! After coming up with an inexpensive, pretty ingenious (lol, if I do say so myself) solution to hide our fuse box and filling a very boring wall with picture frame ledges (that I shared last week), it's time to show you the evolution of our room from matchy-matchy Pottery Barn poppies to a room inspired by a quilt I made (close to five years ago now!).

The thing I love about this quilt is that I made it...I handpicked all the fabrics, I came up with a design, I pieced it all together. The top-stitching was done professionally, but I did the binding. Quilts are such a lengthy process, but so much love goes into making them that they are worth every minute. Lol, I digress. All that is to say, I love this quilt and I definitely wanted it to be the star of the show in our master bedroom (even though I think the shelves are definitely a close second now).

So here are some before and afters of how our master bedroom has changed and the things on our wishlist for the future of this room:

And a little more up close:

On the wishlist from this view:

• Nightstands with more character (probably mismatched) and with more storage - I've been scouring Craigslist for a while but no luck so far. If I eventually give up on my Craigslist / secondhand hunt, I really like this Ikea hack {Armelle blog}
• Sheers for the window or possibly cute homemade pelmet boxes {A Home in the Making}
• Beefier lampshades. The scale right now is all wrong...but I love my green glass lamps so instead of getting rid of them I'd rather see how they look with bigger lampshades first.
• A white duvet cover! This dingy naked down comforter needs some help.
• A solution for this hideous ceiling fan. Any ideas!? I would really love something that was a little more streamlined and closer to the ceiling like this...but I'm always a fan (hehe) of something a little greener like just making this fan work somehow.

All happy from this angle! I really need to write a follow up post / tutorial on this fuse box cover, though. It really is funny how much traffic this blog gets for that specific post, especially from Google searches with keywords like: "how to cover up basement my fuse box," "hiding a fuse box," "how to hide a fuse panel," etc.

Very happy from this angle as well. Just need to make some adjustments in those frames. I just love waking up to this wall...the picture frame ledges are a HUGE improvement from that blank wall! We won't talk about the master bathroom located behind that pocket door, though. That is a future project all on its own!

Finally, this corner:

And up closer:

On the wishlist from this view:

• Like for the other window, sheers or homemade pelmet boxes {A Home in the Making}
• A corner office area / work station to replace the dresser. Eventually we want to have another kid(s), so we will need to convert our current guest room / office into a kid's room, which means we will need a new home for our office. I've thought about all the different scenarios, and with the limited space available, I think this corner would be the most logical place in our house. I absolutely love this work surface and shelves {Mini Manor} and think it would be a great solution for creating a small office space in our bedroom (this is another reason we need new nightstands - with the loss of this dresser, we will need more storage since we will have to share the other dresser which currently houses just my things).
• The walk-in closet located behind this door needs a few minor adjustments...but we'll save that for another time!

One last look:

So that's what we've got going on in our master bedroom and some things that are on our wishlist. Always a work in progress like most of our house! And always a balance between being content with what we have but making things prettier and more functional as we live and grow in each space.

PS -  The restyle of the room used only things we already owned with the exception of the round mirror (from Ross) and shelf-making supplies (from Home Depot)

PPS - I'm linking up with Thrifty Decor Chick

Almost $10 Picture Ledges

Well, the hubby and I started this project back in February?? (I think I actually posted about it in March). I am happy to report that it is finally done...almost. Our version of Ana White's $10 picture ledges (which probably cost us closer to $15/each):

The ledges themselves are finished...they are built and attached to the walls. I say "almost" done because I still need to tweak a few things on the ledges (that currently have scrapbook paper as place-holders) and find a frame for my beautiful Poppy & Pinecone print:

I have been in love with gallery walls ever since I saw Young House Love's wall o' frames and a bunch of others I have pinned on Pinterest, but Ana White's picture ledges were ultimately the best fit for what we needed: a place for so many mismatched frames we have received as gifts over the years. I thought about spray painting all the frames white like Ana White did on her shelves, but I couldn't bear to lose some of the funkier qualities of the frames (and even opted to make a couple of the frames even funkier by spray painting them neon and teal) and I like the contrast of the black frames as well.

The overall theme of stuff on the shelves is things / places we love. These are just a couple of my favorites (I'll have to include more pictures later because I really love it all):

From left to right, 1) the frame I spray painted a cheerful neon-y green, 2) a fortune cookie fortune that I loved: "God looks after you especially" back-dropped by some super sparkly paper leftover from Christmas, 3) A print Josh got me after we'd only be dating for a month (it was for Valentine's day...music is super important to me which is why this print means so much to me, he already knew me so well even after only a month!), 4) a Schilling from when I studied abroad in Vienna (I was there the year before Europe switched to the Euro and made sure to collect my fair share of beautiful coins from all over Europe before they were gone forever...someday I might just have to frame them all).

Here's nice before and after:

And a few more angles. Let me know what you think! And if you've ever tried any Ana White projects...I'd love to see them :)

 

PS - I'm sharing this post at the YHL Summer Pinterest Challenge, Delightful Order, Liz Marie, House of Hepworths, and Doodles & Stitches