Nursery

Ever since we moved into our house in 2005, we knew the nursery would be the nursery. Right away we would called it the "baby's room". However, it became a collect all room. As we unpacked our belongings and not know where something should go, we would say "put it in the babies room." That was fine until we actually had a baby on the way! So, one weekend this winter (probably one of those -30 degree days...global warming!) we decided to tackle the room. We trashed, boxed up and donated a lot of "stuff". We were left with an empty room that over the next few months we would watch transform into "Baby K's" room!

We began by picking out the bedding we wanted. At the time, not knowing if we were having a boy or girl, we wanted to make sure that we had a room the was gender neutral. Plus, Kristoffer said that he was not going to be redecorating the room every time we had a baby! So, we picked something gender neutral. Dana had seen the green color in the bedding, and really liked it from the beginning. We spent another -30degree weekend painting the nursery. The finished product turned out really well, even though we are left with an extra gallon of paint! So if our children ever decide to be "artists" all over the walls, we have plenty of paint to cover it up.

The next step was purchasing the furniture. We first bought the rocking chair from IKEA. It is very comfortable, but a very bright red. When it was just the green walls and red chair, Kristoffer wasn't getting the whole picture of the room, but would soon see it all come together. Getting the rest of the furniture was an adventure! We had been shopping many times to pick out exactly what we wanted; crib, crib mattress, changing table and dresser. After doing our research to see what stores had what we needed, we took our Tracker into town to pick them up. It was a little frustrating, because we would have to go to 2 different stores to get everything. We were excited though to be able to get our baby's furniture. After talking to several "team members", they brought our crib out from the back. As soon as we see the box, both of our jaws drop! The box was HUGE, we kept thinking there was no way that thing was fitting into the back of our roomy Tracker! Keep in mind that we were at Target, where we never walk away with just one thing. This trip was no different, we weren't going to be leaving with just the crib. Kristoffer, the eternal optimist, reassured Dana, the constant worrier, that it would fit and we would make it home, but there was no way we would be getting the rest of the furniture! Yes, everything did fit in the car, but Dana's knees were in the glove box and sitting up extremely straight. Always an adventure! We went the following weekend and picked up the rest of the things we needed, and thankfully everything fit.

The rest of the items in the nursery came from the generosity of others. We were very blessed to have 3 baby showers in April and 1 in May; 1) in Indiana hosted by Kristoffer's mom's 2 best friends, 2) at church hosted by our youth group, 3) Dana's co-workers had a surprise shower over an out-to-lunch and 4) hosted by Kristoffer's team at work. After each shower we were excited to learn exactly what you use each thing for...there are a lot of things we didn't know before! We also enjoyed watching the nursery come together. We are very thankful to all of our friends and family who have helped us prepare ourselves for our little guy!

The final thing in the nursery is the baby's hospital bag. Neither of us is packed for the hospital, but the baby is! This bag has been packed since our hospital tour a few weeks ago, and mocks us everyday as we walk by. Hopefully we will be using it soon, because tomorrow Dana will be giving "Baby K" his 2 week eviction notice!