Welcome to the Jungle...

Husband sacrificed his home office to create a nursery for Jate. I had a small desk that I kept in our guest room, which I didn't really use. We moved Husband's work space into the guest room, and moved my desk into the living room, which means I have to keep it presentable. We decided not to change the paint colour in the room. When we first bought the house, we hired a professional colourist to select a colour scheme for the entire house. This particular paint, is actually in the grey family, but looks blue in the room. More so, the name of the paint colour is "Husky Grey" which connects to my Connecticut roots.

This is the photo that inspired the jungle theme. Many years ago, I spotted it at the Embarcadero craft market, and even though I didn't think I would want to have a child at that time, I decided that I would want this photo in the nursery. I bought some other prints from the artist, so I was able to track down her email address and made arrangements to order this photo.

The crib was provided by my cousins, although we purchased a new mattress. It was used by both of their boys and had been stored in their garage for the past few months. We cleaned it with some Chl.orox wipes and a Mr Clean Magic Eraser, which really does have magical powers. I don't think the crib has been this clean since they first took it out of the box. It took Tyler all of two seconds to find his way into the crib...

What do you mean this is not my room?

The glider will go into this corner. The baby supply store has signs indicating that they offer a plethora of fabric and colour choices, but they don't state that a custom order takes at least twelve weeks to receive. Twelve weeks! That's almost an entire trimester! We'll move the bassinet (also offered from my cousins) into our room once the baby arrives. I thought the bassinet seemed a little flimsy, but it has been used by four other infants, so that's a good indicator of quality control. Someone else has offered to test out the bassinet for us.                

The end table/book holder was a random Internet find. Does anyone remember the significance of that book?

When we thought we might be facing a pre-term delivery and NICU stay, Husband wanted to wait until baby was born before purchasing any furniture for the nursery. I convinced him to take a leap of faith, which was a good idea, as I tried to order this changing table from Ama.zon, only to discover that it was backordered for weeks. Fortunately, I found it at Way.fair for almost half the price! Score!

We're going to try cloth diapering through a local service. I was cloth diapered and I felt proud that my parents were so environmentally conscious, until my mother explained that it was really because they were poor. We found that the cost of using a diaper service is about the same as using disposables, but the other advantage of using a service is that their washing process uses less energy and less water than cleaning the nappies yourself. Husband has been busy practicing his technique.

I tried to find a simple mirror as I was going to stencil some animal designs on it, but in my search, I came across this mirror from P.ier1 and I decided that I had to have it. Unfortunately, it was also backordered, but I had a saleswoman at a local store track one down for me and secure the sale price! Not only does it compliment the colours in the room and is an interesting decorative piece, I love how it captures the reflection of the tree design and other pictures in the room. It took us nearly three hours just to hang the mirror and the pictures. Really glad we didn't put this off until after the baby's arrival...

The final detail was a small little basket for toys. I made the lining myself. I wanted to place the stuffed animals on a small shelf, but it would impede opening the closet door, so on the floor they sit...

It was a lot of fun to put the nursery together and we hope Jate likes his or her room. The jungle theme not only works well from a gender neutral standpoint, but 'welcome to the jungle' seems to be a good metaphor for parenthood...