4th Trimester Nursery

As I enter into the 3rd trimester of pregnancy, I find it to be the appropriate time to introduce our second child's first space. As I've blogged about in a previous post, creating this space stems not only from needing a place to house newborn necessities (I learned quickly with our first how inconvenient the walk down the hall from our room to the nursery was), but also needing a place to properly welcome this new little soul into our lives. 


Below are pics of the room taken by my talented sister, Jenna. I value good photography but have never considered it to be my thing. I probably just don't have the patience for it. I do appreciate all of the tips she shared with me on angles/lighting that even worked with our run-of-the-mill Sony digital camera. Additional thanks to her eye in helping me re-arrange a few small things that really made a big difference! So without further ado, welcome to our bedroom The 4th Trimester Nursery.

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View from the room as you walk in. I already had this rug from my studio apt. in Chicago (great find at Target) which has really held up well over the years. Since we'll be waiting to find out the gender of our child, I decided that the colors green and brown would serve as the perfect color scheme for this additional usage of our space (btw- I recommend this blog post on: Making The Most Of Your Space from The Inspired Room blog).

Arial shot of the room. In this picture you can see how my clever little work triangle is set-up. Because of this practical-n-affordable pack-n-play (thanks again mom & dad) we were able to create double-duty out of the baby's sleep area with this convenient click-in, click-out changing station that's covered in a nylon wipeable surface. Eventhough I LOVE the Cooshee changer (we're still using ours for Benjamin and it's still in great condition), we didn't see the point in buying another (they're kinda pricey), when for all we know Benjamin could be potty-trained shortly after his/her arrival (wishful thinking, right?). So, just picture sleepy me in bed picking up our baby at the foot of the bed, and when in need of a diaper change, simply getting up, clicking in the changing station, turning around to toss away dirty clothing in the baby's hamper (found at SHOPKO along with a nylon liner instead of the easily stainable canvas one that it came with), disposing of the diaper in the mini stainless steel Simple Human garbage can (found at Bed Bath & Beyond and is what we use for Benjamin and have no problems with smells. I've heard diaper pails are SUCH a waste!), then reach for a new diaper, wipes, and cream all located in the handy T.V. cart newborn necessities cart located on the side wall. Since our pack-n-play also has wheels, I could easily wheel it over too. I know you parents know how important it is to have a trash can, changer, and hamper all within good distance of one another, so just imagine my joy when I was able to arrange all of these things in one convenient and workable area! I also found the perfect space for my Boppy nursing pillow (blue item to the right of my night stand) along with another basket that I plan to fill up with additional newborn p.j.'s (located on the bottom shelf on my night stand). 

A before shot of the left corner of our room. This is how we were previously using that whicker T.V. cart (whatdya know, for a T.V.!) and here's how that corner looks now...

This tufted leather bench was at the foot of our bed (where the pack-n-play now is). So, we just switched it over to the opposite side of the wall which now allows me to lean some coordinating green and brown pillows on it and create a nice little sitting area (who knows, maybe one day I'll have the time to sit and watch our baby sleep...). We also moved in a bookshelf to put the T.V. on (turns out we prefer having it higher up anyway) and swing (which we had previously and just so happens to also be green and brown).

Close-up of the newborn necessities cart. I found these cute whicker baskets with ivory canvas liners titled "baby things" at Michaels for about half the cost of the expensive ones from Pottery Barn Kids. The smaller one is where I'm storing things like Mustela cleansing fluid (love this stuff and still use to clean Benjamin's face), Huggies lotion (I think it smells the best...sadly they're not making it anymore), hand sanitizer, nasal aspirator, and Soothies. To the right of that (behind the wipes container) is a rectangle box from IKEA that perfectly fits breast pads and Lanisoh cream. The large bottom basket will house diapers, and to left of that, my slippers for when I do feel like getting up and leaving this cozy room!

Here's a close-up of the top basket. It's where I've put things like burp cloths (IKEA's hand towels are super soft, nice and thick, and much narrower and shorter than our hand towels- therefore making for great burp cloths!), organic cotton water-proof pads (found at Smiths Marketplace and such a must whenever you have the baby in bed with you), and an adorable baby blanket that was gifted to us by The Ricci's for our first baby, but we just haven't used yet. Perfect that it's also in the colors of...you guessed it: green and brown!

And last...a picture of an 11x14 sarah + abraham silhouette print that I plan to customize with our children's names and place in that blank white frame (found for $17 at Hobby Lobby) and brown mat (found for $3.99 at Hobby Lobby) featured on the wall above the newborn necessities cart.

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Hope you enjoyed your tour~I'm looking forward to many peaceful moments shared between my newborn and I in our budget-friendly, practical, welcoming, green and brown 4th Trimester Nursery.