Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Nursery - photo tour

Here are some pics of the nursery, just for fun. I am not a big fan of theme nurseries or gender-specific stuff, so we went with a colourful, eclectic look.

Her bookcase we got secondhand - solid wood, so perfect and we didn't pay an outrageous price. The decal of the branch and birds is from Wilson Graphics (read my review and see it being installed here). The little painting on top of the bookcase is by Toronto artist Scott Waters, and features a parakeet and sailboats. I love it.
The glider I bought secondhand (I paid $25 for the glider, plus $75 for fabric) and recovered (see the before and after here). The print above the glider is a monoprint I did in one of my university printmaking courses.The crib is secondhand, too (I paid $100). It was a drop-side crib, but my husband secured the side so it no longer drops down. I made the dust ruffle because I couldn't find one I liked - it's simply broadcloth in white and blue with a gold braid trim. The sailboat mobile is from ATG Stores, and the two quilts are handmade (all hand stitching!) by my aunt. The maple dresser is one I refinished the summer after high school. I remember stripping off about 9 layers of paint, so I couldn't bear to paint it white to match the other furniture! The shelves are from Ikea, laundry basket from Bouclair - I picked it up on sale for less than half price and added the fabric that I used on the glider to the laundry bag. To the right of the dresser (just outside the picture) is the dirty diaper pail for cloth diapers. The red horse on the top shelf I picked up at an art gallery in Spain years ago - it's modeled after a horse in a painting (and I have just totally blanked on the artist and the painting). The tigers are from my husband - he won a contest some years ago to name tiger cubs at the Metro Toronto Zoo, and along with a behind the scenes tour of the zoo he got those cute stuffed tigers. Something I did just today was add a couple of ribbons dangling from the shelving above the change table, with clips on them, and clipped on some Wee Gallery baby art cards in black and white - something to look at for her, and it's easy to change the images from time to time.
As you can see, I did end up using the wire alphabet that I made - my husband spray-painted it bright red and I love the way it turned out! I hung it using tiny finishing nails. Here's a close-up:And the little bird you may have spotted on the curtain rod... one I made just for fun a while back.
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We discovered the cause of all the nursing problems - thrush! No wonder I've been in so much pain. I knew it wasn't the latch!

The medicine they gave the baby (Nystatin) makes her spit up all day long, and the cream I've got (the one recommended by Dr. Jack Newman) doesn't seem to be helping much. Ugh. I've been treating this for a week and it has gotten better (I'm not in tears with every feeding) but it is not all better. It's driving me crazy. The next thing to try is vinegar (1:3 with water) swabs, and instead of giving the baby 2mL of Nystatin twice a day, swabbing her mouth with it instead so she's not taking so much in. I sure hope it starts working.

So I'm spending my days nursing, cleaning up after baby spits up - changing her outfit a lot, nursing again because she's hungry because she spat up all her milk... along with doing cloth diaper laundry and stuffing, and wishing she would sleep (this baby does not nap OR sleep at night!).

This is the first chance I've had to get on the computer for a week! I miss the blog and hope to get back on a more regular basis (just need to get her on track with that plan!). I have reviews of some really great products to write and giveaways too, so do bear with me, there is good stuff to come.

Lastly, I can't resist sharing a pic of our cutie - just over a month old now: