Nora's Nursery - A Look Back

I didn't have this blog when I was pregnant with Nora, so I thought it might be fun to do a little post on her what her nursery looked like. Especially since I still have yet to take photos of the new one . . . :)

Nora's nursery theme was complicated! (It was also prior to Pinterest - what a help that would have been!) I wanted red, green, and yellow to be the colors (since we didn't find out her gender either) and I wanted to do a "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" (TVHC) theme, mixed with lots of alphabet-related items. Back then there was virtually no TVHC nurseries anywhere, so it was a pretty unique idea. (Of course last year Pottery Barn Kids came out with TVHC crib bedding. Of course they did.)

My pregnancy with Nora was marked by one specific thing: SWELLING. I swelled a LOT. When I woke up each morning I could not move my fingers for about 15 minutes at a time (made it interesting to go to the bathroom each time I woke up!) My ankles were non-existent. So I was not going to be creating a whole lot of sewing projects for "the baby's" nursery - it's tough to sew with sausages for fingers! The nursery ended up being simple, but personal, and I was pretty proud of it! :)

I ended up finding Nora's crib bedding at Target. I loved it from the minute I saw it and never even considered anything else! Those of you out there who have decided not to find out your baby's gender know that there is not a whole lot of gender-neutral bedding out there unless you want to go boutique. I did not. I am a practical lady and I knew one thing even then - kids are messy! I wasn't about to drop hundreds of dollars on bedding that was going to get ruined. This set was a great price, and went well with the room.

The crib is a convertible crib that goes from crib, to toddler bed, to daybed, to full bed. I think it's from Babies-R-Us, and we eventually bought all the pieces from the set except the nightstand (including the toddler rail and full bed rails - glad we did that because this set has retired and you can't get them anymore!)

This part of her room hasn't looked like this since this picture was taken. :) I ended up hanging the quilt from her bedding up on the wall, but soon after I took this photo we bought Nora the large dresser from her furniture set and it has been in this spot ever since. That toy bin stayed on the other side of her room for a long time but when we got a playroom I moved it downstairs.

This was Nora's changing area. The dresser from her set had an optional "lip" for the top of it so you could use it as a changing table and then take that part off when she got older and just use the dresser. That part has been off for over a year now and the dresser now houses her pet fish (who, by the way, is still alive!) The book rack is from Pottery Barn Kids and has been wonderful. It stores a lot of her books still to this day - specifically ones I don't want her ripping up before she is old enough to read them!

This corner now looks totally different as well. Instead of a reading nook, it's now used for toy storage. A lot of the books are in Nora's book sling that I made for her awhile ago, and the rocker is out in our living room. I wish she still had a reading nook, but she mostly "reads" in the living room while I am doing dishes or cleaning up after lunch. Plus she has a lot more toys now, so it just makes sense to have toy storage here. I also added some wall art about a year ago.

The rocker I ended up hardly using for Nora. I didn't have a pad for it, and it was uncomfortable and creaky. Plus, I ended up breastfeeding a lot in bed or on the couch anyway. It means a lot to me because it belonged to my grandma, so it's making a reappearance in the new baby's room, complete with a new homemade pad that I made. The quilt is from Cory's grandma, and Nora still uses it to this day (she calls it her "birthday blankie" for some reason.) The art above the crib is one of the only things I made for this room myself. It's still there and I plan on leaving it there until our baby arrives and gets bigger - then I will update it with photos that are more up-to-date. I really like having photos of her family in her room - it helps us when we are praying for them each night - but there are a lot of new family members that need to be up there.

So that's Nora's old nursery! It has undergone a lot of changes (I may post photos of those someday if I can get her to CLEAN her room) but has always been very functional and practical for us. The new nursery is no less practical, and looks a lot different. Hopefully I will get those photos up this week!

Until next time . . .