Second-time aRound

I think there are many great things about being pregnant for the second time. I now have a pretty good idea of what to expect during pregnancy, what contractions and labor are really like, as well as the pointlessness of worrying too much. Of course, not every pregnancy/birth is the same which I've learned already with my picky stomach! But, I keep thinking positive thoughts like how I think all of the waiting will go by faster now that we have an active child to keep us very busy, and how we've got experience in caring for a newborn. But most of all I'm thankful for being able to experience a miracle all over again. What an amazing gift pregnancy/motherhood is. ;)

With both my husband and I being second children, I want to make sure that this child feels just as much anticipation and preparation from us as our first. My parents did a wonderful job of always giving each of my siblings equal attention and treating us each as individuals, and that's something we are going to strive to practice too. When preparing for Benjamin's arrival, I spent hours upon hours designing and shopping for the nursery. That was something I'd looked forward to doing since I can remember (almost ranked as high up there as planning our wedding), and I had a lot of fun in the process. 

This time around is a bit different since Benjamin is still occupying his the crib. The plan for that crib as well as everything else in the current nursery was always to have it be a space for our other children to also enjoy. This is why we spent a good amount of time and money as we selected and invested in practical, quality, and gender-neutral pieces. Thankfully everything in the room has held up beautifully, and that room still gives me all of the joy I had from the first day it was finished (minus the crib bedskirt n' bumper which had to be removed to lower the mattress). But- it doesn't solve our current question of....Where should baby #2 go?


After many hours of problem solving and space planning we came to the decision NOT to buy another crib, or another toddler bed (we bought a conversion kit for the crib we have now), or transform our guest/office space into another nursery. There is nothing I would want to buy that the original nursery doesn't already have and since newborns spend their first 3-4 months close by their parents anyway, and Benjamin will be 2 by that point, we're thinking that timing is going to work out perfectly for him to move into our guest room bed (a queen size which we will simply take off the bed frame and place on the floor) in the guest/office room, and the baby into the crib in the nursery. This will require us to move the desk out of out guest/office room into our room and the T.V. in the garage (we really don't need 3 T.V.s in this house!), but we're okay with that because it means we won't be putting any MORE unnecessary things in this place- a goal we had when we first moved in here 2 yrs. ago. I've also been productively cleaning out the closet in the nursery by boxing up Benjamin's old clothes into cardboard diaper boxes and storing them in the nook between the head of our bed and our bay window. And thanks to this super cool invention we've now amazingly freed up HALF the closet!


I'll be sure to post pics of the set-up I've created in our bedroom for the 3-4 month stay our newborn will have with us in there. Second time around, I've learned what's handy to have nearby in the middle of the night, and have come up with some really cute and inexpensive ways to house those necessities without taking over our bedroom.


During these past few months I've also been doing a little bit of shopping (one of my favorite pastimes). Here's a list of things I think every new baby needs...

Their very own Baby Memory Book 

Their very own Soothies

Their very own Blanket 

(this one I have yet to try, but have heard a lot of good things about it. Even though B did NOT like to be swaddled, I figured it's worth a shot with #2!) 

And their very own take-me home from the hospital outfit (which you'll all have to wait to see pictures of!). I've been saying that being pregnant is like waiting 9 months for the BEST gift in the world to arrive but until then, buying these gifts has been my way to welcome our second child into our lives, family, and home. Looking forward to meeting you lil' P!