It’s a…

I can’t ever wait to find out the gender of my babies as soon as possible.  The “nesting instinct” kicks into overdrive!  Since it has been nearly 8 years since my last bundle of joy, we had already gotten rid of any and all baby gear from the former 6 children.  We don’t even own a rattle or have a crib to dust off.  Colton was in his crib until he was a 45 pound 4 year old (he never figured how to climb out of it so we kept him in there as long as possible) and he loved jumping!  He jumped so much that the whole bottom of the crib broke.  We zip tied it together until he was finally ready for a big boy bed, but that crib went straight to the trash. 

I was shocked to discover that gender determination can be made as early as 14 weeks now in the modern world of technology.  Justin and I took all the kids to the ultrasound just a few weeks ago and we all found out together that we were having a boy!  He opened his tiny hand and it looked like he waved to everyone as if he knew we were watching him float and tumble around in utero.   He was stubborn at first and had his legs crossed making it difficult for the tech to get a clear picture, but without question, she announced, “It’s a boy!”

I am still a little skeptical.  I’m saving receipts for the boy items I’ve purchased just in case at the 21 week ultrasound we find out otherwise.  Until then, the rearranging and remodeling have commenced to make room for one more. 

Our first order of business was to move Britney and Matti into the same room.  We have a 7 bedroom house, so each of the kids had their own room, but now they have to share (gasp)!  I wasn’t sure how 2 beds, 2 bookcases, 2 dressers, a desk and 2 walk-in closets full of clothes and toys would fit into one room, but we did it.  Here is their room now:

We used all the same furniture and bedding and accessories we had in storage from the last house, but painted the room the girls’ color choice….green!  This made it feel new to them.  My main problem was storage for toys, books, clothes, stuffed animals and special “stuff”.  Each girl has their own vertical bookshelf for their treasures and I found the trunks for stuffed animal storage on clearance at Hobby Lobby.  I bought Matti a matching dresser.  The key here was vertical storage!   

Britney’s original walk-in closet was like another room.  So I had to figure out a way to blend all their toys and clothes into one smaller closet.  Thanks to IKEA, there’s a place for everything, and everything’s in its place!  Each girl got 4 bins for their “stuff” and their seasonal clothing storage fits on the shelf above.   Harley, our cat, even likes it in there!

All that work was necessary to free up this bedroom which will become the nursery.  We are starting from scratch with this little one!  Here’s what I will be working on over the next several months:

Stay tuned!