25 Weeks and Finished Nursery!

Well the walls are finished that is.  lol. 

So 25 weeks and still growing.  Still loving my belly though - even though I notice more and more that I'm having difficulty moving around, getting up, etc.  I did have one random morning of sickness but it was apparently a freak occurrence and I've been fine since then.  So overall I'm feeling good - getting more and more excited to meet her and hold my little bundle in my arms instead of my belly!!

One interesting thing I've read is that around this time, babies begin to prefer their right or left hands.  It seems crazy that this starts before birth let alone so far before birth.  I remember mom telling me that when I was really little I would use both my right and left hands for things often and Babci would freak out saying that she was supposed to force me to use my right hand because left handed-ness was some sign of the devil or something (and yes she was crazy.  Clearly!).  But baby is also getting more dexterous and the ability to really make fists and grab for her feet, etc is improving.  So she'll have plenty of time to practice before getting to the outside!!

So - onto the nursery pics as I know those are everyone's favorites.  First pic is showing the finished paint job with the white chair rail installed.  I really like how the chair rail ties in the white stripes and works with the design.  I had my doubts that I could pull off a white chair rail with the stained woodwork in that room unless one of our stripes was also white to tie into it.  Looks like my hunch paid off, huh?

Next is the finished walls with the crib put together.  Have I mentioned how much I love this crib?  Cuz I really really do.  :-)  The angle I took this pic you can totally see how it will make a gorgeous headboard and footboard for a full sized bed someday too, right?!  Definitely a good choice.  :-)  Still no mattress or bedding in it, obviously, so I'll post another pic once we get that bit all set up.

We probably should have cleaned up the tools from the install before taking pictures, but this is the dresser.  It was apparently the heaviest furniture that Jeff and his dad had ever had to move (up two flights of stairs no less!!).  The drawers don't even come out - must be some kind of safety feature - and the whole thing was already put together in one piece in the box.  I'm glad we didn't have to put it together, and I'm glad it's clearly a solid, good piece of furniture, but man is it heavy!!!  hahaha..  Very pretty though and plenty big enough to put a changing pad on and still have room which is great.

And the last pic is just a close-up of the final paint job with the chair rail in place so you can really see the stripes.  They are definitely not perfect, and we did have a few issues that we want to touch up, but I'm really really happy with how it finally turned out.  :-)

We've so far gone to 3 of the 12 birthing classes, and are really enjoying it.  There are definitely some sorta 'hokey' bits to it - as there are with most things like that - but it's been great to get information and different exercises to do to strengthen the muscles that will help the most with labor and birth.  It's also fun to have the things I've previously mentioned to Jeff validated by having someone else say them as well.  :-)