As my baby bump grows bigger and bigger, the reality of an actual baby is getting more and more intense. In preparation for our little girl, I knew I would need to make a room for her. Our little house is a three-bedroom: one for Paul and I, one for our 16-year-old son PJ, and the other was functioning as my home office/home for a LARGE open kennel for our 85 lb pit bull, Lucy. Not that I actually did a lot of work in the office, or even spent much time in there at all–in fact, it’s largely become Lucy’s room. But the process of drastically changing this room has been just that, a process!
The first step has been moving Lucy out of the room–because she used to be in the habit of chewing up various parts of our house when we would leave, so she would have to go into her kennel when we were gone. Since the school year’s ended, we’ve started leaving Lucy outside the kennel in our absence and she’s actually been a little angel. As she gets older, she’s much more calm and less destructive. Now she just sleeps on the couch until we get home and has given us confidence that we can finally get rid of her MASSIVE kennel. So, phase one has been sort of accomplished–yay!
The second step was figuring out what we wanted to do with the actual space. The Jew in me has been a bit resistant to go all-out before the baby comes. There’s something so
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about having everything all set to go before we find out if she’s alive and healthy. My mom likes to tell me that my father’s mother (Grandma Carol) wouldn’t even acknowledge my mother’s pregnancy, even in the 9th month, just in case. She would have FLIPPED out if she saw the lengths that we’re going to pulling together this nursery! The fact that I’m even having a baby shower would have been perceived as a giant jinx! But now that I’m 33 weeks, tradition be damned, I want to get this done! Maybe I’m nesting?
Anyway, while wandering through a baby store, we finally decided upon the theme for the room–butterflies! I know, some people view this as totally cliché–especially since they’ve gone from mystical bugs to the emblem most tramps like to stamp on their lower back, but I still love them. When I was on March of the Living back in 1996, I remember walking through the grounds of the Treblinka Death Camp and marveling at all the beautiful yellow butterflies fluttering around the solemn place. I was dealing with a lot of guilt (because my grandparents are Holocaust survivors that never would have met if the terrible even hadn’t happened), and one of my friends on the trip said something about the butterflies being the souls of those who lost their lives here. It was so morbid, yet so lovely and comforting–I know, I’m a weirdo! But the idea of my baby being protected by butterflies makes me happy. Plus, I didn’t want a pink room, and this seemed like a happy compromise–more purple, blue, green, and white.
The third step was moving all of my fabulous Ethan Allen furniture (I got it mad cheap at an estate sale) out of the room and into my parents’ house. We opted to go with white furniture, so they traded us a few pieces for the ones I was giving them. We’re not quite done with this step. It involved me taking ALL of my stuff out of my furniture and boxing it up (noooooooo!). Also, my mom bought us a gorgeous white crib that will convert into a toddler bed, and then a full-size bed (when she’s older).
But there’s SO MUCH left to do! I know I won’t get it all done before the baby comes and as I get bigger, it’s getting harder and harder to do physical stuff–so I’m pretty reliant upon my big, strong husband! Wish me luck! And fingers crossed that all this work isn’t going to be one big ken ayina hora.
