Nesting

Posted byAlison Allen

During my pregnancy with Ben I really didn’t get to “nest” much at all – it was more of a mad scramble once we realized things were going to get crazy. Once he was born, but still in the NICU, I managed to find a little extra time to do some meal prep for after he came home, but otherwise, his nursery was finished without me while I was stuck in the hospital.

Honestly, I really didn’t expect to make it to 36 weeks with baby girl, but at the same time, I wanted to wait until 36 weeks to do things like pack my hospital bag, buy the last few things for her, install the car seat and pull out the baby bottles. So – we made it and now I can happily start “nesting” a bit more.

Baby girl will sleep in Alex’s/my room in a pack & play for as long as we can make it work, then she’ll move in with her big brother. We’re trying to figure out when a good time to transition Ben out of his crib might be… I have a feeling that is soon on the horizon! I really have been feeling badly about taking away his independence by confining him to a crib. Stay tuned!

We mostly finished off the “kids” closet and figured out storage solutions in Ben’s/the kids’ room. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out – everything fits somehow and it doesn’t seem overly crowded yet. I’m sure we’ll get there soon after she’s born, though.

You’re not going to find this closet on Pinterest, but it works for us for now. Though I will admit I can hardly squeeze in there right now with my giant belly.

I love, love, love these little mountain hooks I found on Etsy.

I got some over-the-door storage which has been SO helpful – Ben only has a few pairs of shoes and even as itty bitty as they are, they still take up a lot of space, so now they get to hang out on the back of the door.

I also found some big pocket storage for behind the door to keep things like baby wipes, Ben’s art supplies and swim diapers. These have been a HUGE help in the storage department.

Baby girl is more than set on clothes and blankets and by golly she’s got her brother to thank for a whole slew of fun baby toys. I’m waiting to see if any of our last minute bigger items are going to be on sale on Prime Day and, naturally, I found a few tons of great things at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. Otherwise, in terms of tangible things, I think we’re about ready!

A few things I would still like to do are:

  • Go through Ben’s toys – I really don’t feel like he has that many toys {we try to be really conscious of this} but they take up so. much. space. And it’s space that we don’t have. I think I’ll start a box to take to The Lodge…
  • Go through Ben’s books. Omg. He has so many books. Reading with Ben is basically the best thing ever, and if I’m going to over-buy on something, I’m okay with that being books. But – I need to pare down the books we have out at any given time and add these to “The Lodge Box.”
  • Wash bottles, get them organized. Hopefully baby girl will only need to take the occasional bottle, but you never know. It’s a super, super bummer I’m unable to freeze my milk, so I’ll be curious to see how everything unfolds in the beginning.
  • Clean out the freezer and get it ready for extra meals.
  • Meal/food prep!!!

My food prep list includes:

I’ll probably sign up for a prepared meal service for a few days a week during the beginning just to take the stress out of cooking. We had some friends who generously gifted us a Maven gift card when Ben was born and I’ll probably mix and match that with Munchery, which I’ve never tried before. I remember loving having Whole Foods’ quiches {SO GOOD!} on hand and making a whole bunch of oatmeal in the early days. It’s nice to have easy-to-grab food since I’m expecting to be ravenous for a while.

Things are coming together for this baby girl! Alex and I are enjoying our last days as a family of three, {trying to} get some extra sleep in and imagining how dramatically our lives are about to change. We are getting so excited to meet this baby girl and see Ben become a big brother.