Sister's Room

With the arrival of "Sister" looming ever closer (I make it sound like we are dreading this, we are NOT, but adding another little one so soon is a little overwhelming to be honest) and Wes coming to a break in MBA school, it's time to get down to business on her room.

No name yet, we'll see when that epiphany hits Wes.

Step 1 is painting her room. I wasn't convinced we needed to do much of anything to this room. It's already a neutral color and I figured we'd just go with it. This was not O.K. with Daddy.

So I tried to wrap my mind around what we would actually do to her room. There is already a nice comforter in there with matching curtains and wal art I made, and I thought it would be a shame to just give all that away (or throw it away) so I figured we could just use that design and repurpose the bedding into baby bedding and things. It has a nice pink/light green/deep purple feel to it, which I liked a lot better than some of the pastel-ish things I was seeing. I was dead-set against pink. Everything in a room painted pink just kind of melts together into an unpleasant Pepto Bismol color. Since pink was out, I had the deep purple and light green to work with. The purple just seemed too dark for that small room, so we are going with light green. Neutral-to-girly, but not in-your-face girly.

 

I had several paint samples to choose from. They all matched parts of the fabric, but after putting them on the wall, one stood out as the clear winner.

So Wes got painting....

After priming all the surfaces (including the ceiling: in our house, for some reason, they painted walls AND ceiling the same color) Wes painted the ceiling, then got started on the walls.  He did a really good job. If he didn't hate painting so much, I might start booking jobs for him!

Reed has very nice stripes in his room that add a lot of detail, and sisters room was going to need something extra. So we decided to paint stripes on the crib wall in the same color, just glossy. After a little pow-wow session bouncing ideas off each other (and a little help from a trusty calculator) we had our stripe widths and a plan. Unfortunately, that plan did not include making sure we had enough tape. DOH! So after working very quietly because Reed had already been put to bed for the night (and was right next door), we were only half done. The next day Wes stopped by our local Home Depot, which is becoming an every-other-day occurrence, and picked up more tape. We knocked out the rest of the stripes and Wes got it all painted that evening. I would put up a picture, but the stripes are so subtle that they won't show in a picture.

We felt so accomplished to FINALLY be done with the painting. I make it sound like this project took days, but in reality, it was weeks. Since sisters room is mere inches from Reed's painting during the day and letting it vent was our only option. Leaving a baby to sleep and breathe in paint fumes isn't a good idea. SO...Priming the room was weekend 1, painting the ceiling was weekend 2, and painting the green walls was weekend 3. Painting the stripes actually happened during the week, which was great. So almost a month later, it's almost done. There's just one project left...the dreaded crown moulding.

I'm sure Wes will have much less hair after this weekend. Update soon (hopefully with a successful and completed crown moulding project).


Enjoy!

The Turners

 

Nighttime Cloth Diaper Update

We have been consistently using cloth diapers at night for a month now and I am pleased to say it is going very well! I was a little hesitant to start because I didn't want to go through the process of figuring out what worked best (and being woken up at night with a wet baby wanting to be changed/changing sheets/etc). Well my curiosity won out (and my patience with Pampers) and I decided to try it (I say "I decided" because Wes is supportive of just about everything I want to do and I am so very thankful that he is willing to try these crazy things with me).

While wearing disposable diapers at night (and we went BIG: Pampers Baby Dry and Huggies Snug & Dry both with the 12 hour guarantee) Reed would have a leak every other night AT LEAST! And he would only be in them for 10 hours, not the guaranteed 12! But that's what you deal with when you have a little boy who sleeps on his tummy. I was getting frustrated. Reed sleeps in a Halo brand sleep sack every night because his room is always the coldest in the house, and waking up wet means I have to wash all the wet clothes/sheets/sleep sack. This isn't such a big deal for the jammies, but I only have so many sheets/sleep sacks and doing a load of wash every day was getting old.

Since switching to cloth diapers a month ago, I can count on one hand the amount of leaks we have had (check that, I can count on TWO FINGERS). That's right, 2 leaks. So it's going really well.

My original solution from this post required 3 inserts; 2 microfiber and 1 hemp. I have since lightened the load to 1 microfiber insert and 1 hemp and we have only had 2 leaks. I may go back to 3 and see what the results are there, but I like the trimmer diaper.

Don't be afraid to try overnight cloth diapering. If you're frustrated with leaks like I was, cloth diapering is a great solution. They fit better than disposables AND you can customize the amount of absorbancy you need. A GREAT solution for you!

Enjoy!

The Turners