32 Weeks, Crib Bedding, and "Feeling" Pregnant

Hey everyone, this past week has been fun because we crossed the last thing off our "Nursery Project To-Do List"...the crib bedding! You can see the rocking finished product to the right and now I'll share with you where the idea came from and how we brought it to life. As you can tell from my decorating style, I like unique items that you can't just walk into a store and find. Luckily I'm surrounded by talented and creative individuals who can help me turn my sketches and random assortments of pictures into works of art or functional pieces in a room. The star of this particular project was my mother-in-law, Cheryl. She volunteered to make the bed skirt and bumper pads awhile back and after I browsed the internet and made my final decisions on fabric and style of the two pieces, I was worried I would scare her away with my picky-ness and attention to detail, but she was a trooper and really created a crib bedding set that was better than I ever could have imagined! Here we are together with the finished crib bedding. Now onto the details...

Here's the steps we took in creating the crib bedding for Baby Avery's room:

1. Goggle, goggle, and more google....I looked at crib bedding for many hours to try and get a feel for what I liked, didn't like, and how we could re-create the ideas I was seeing without spending a fortune. I got most of my main bedding ideas from this really cool website called, "ModernPeaPod.com" and from there I found this bedding (which you can see to the left) which was ironically named Avery! Although it was a bit "busier" than what I had in mind, it gave me some good fabric and style ideas. I highly recommend checking out the Modern Pea Pod website not only because you could get some great ideas and inspiration, but also because of their unique style and inventory if you're not feeling like making it from scratch. You can see my "idea page" pic above where I laid out exactly how I envisioned the bedding. The page has taken some wear and tear, but you get the idea! ( :

2. Next I bought about 1 yard of the fabrics I liked the best to see if they truly were the fabrics we were going to use. After more searching on the web, I tracked down the fabrics that most closely resembled the fabrics in my idea above through Warehouse Fabrics.com. Here is the fabric we used for the stripe called, "Terrace Kelso Maggie". For the brown and pink dot fabric I used this fabric called, "Polka Dot Kelso Maggie". As for the light pink minky fabric, I got it from Joann Fabric, it's the light pink one in the pic on this link. Looks like there's another one just like it on the Warehouse Fabrics website here. After purchasing samples of all 3, I fell in love with them and purchased the remaining fabric needed to create the crib bedding.

3. After getting these fabrics in order, I knew that I also had to find a fitted crib sheet that would match all of these fabrics. My first attempt was a bust and although it was organic, it was a milk chocolate brown...not cocoa brown like the brown in the bedding fabrics. After more searching, I eventually went with this one from Target and although it's not organic, it does match and I will be sure to wash it many times with my eco-friendly laundry detergents to "green it up a bit!". Sorry Avery!


4. After all the fabrics arrived, and after one of my many days off from school due to snow days, I went over to help Cheryl get started on the bedding. Since it was the easier of the two projects, we started with the bed skirt. Here I am at about 28 weeks pregnant, ironing the fabric for the bed skirt...the one task I was good at! Keep me away from the sewing machine-lol! Here's Cheryl sewing away. Basically we cut the strips for the four sides and then sewed them onto a piece of fabric that would go under the mattress. Next we finished up the edges. One fun detail of the skirt is the pleat in the middle and how we snuck a bit of the brown and pink dot fabric into it...great idea Cheryl! Although it's not super obvious, it's a fun detail that I think think adds a little personality to it. Last pic here is of the finished bed skirt. Bring on the bumper pads!

5. For the bumper pads, you can see that I wanted light pink minky for the inner portion of the pads, brown and pink dot fabric for the outer portion, and a thin line of piping around the top of the pads with the stripe fabric. Cheyrl took this one on with her sewing buddy Nancy and boy did they do an awesome job!

6. I picked back up in the project when it was time for the ribbons that would hold the bumper pads in place. This was a funny part of the project because Brandon happened to be home while we were discussing the ribbons and where we should place them, and before I knew it, he was up there helping us decide where they should go. I love that he was able to be a part of this project, even if it was just for a little bit! Here's a funny pic of Brandon and his mom trying to figure out the placement of the bows. Both of them claimed that they have a few OCDs when it comes to position and symmetry, so it was funny to see them tie and re-tie the bows in attempts to get them "just right". They did a great job because, as you'll see below, they look just perfect! They were pretty funny in how they had to make sure it was just right and symmetrical!
7. Fast forward to this week, and now the crib bedding is complete! Here are some pics of the finished product. First up is a shot of the crib where you can see the stripe bed skirt and how it ties in with all the other pieces of the bedding.


Next is a shot from inside the crib, "Avery perspective" I guess we could say...lol, of the super-soft light pink minky that lines the inside of the bumper pads.

Next is one of the ribbons that line the crib and hold the bumper pads up. Way to go Brandon and Cheryl...they're placement is perfect!

Here is a full shot of that corner of the room, now complete with all the bedding...no more empty bed-yeah! Although this pic has a glare to it, I love how bright and warm her room is so I'm keeping it!
Onto more pregnancy related things, I'm entering my 32nd week of pregnancy (see the pic of Cheryl and I above right on 32 weeks!) and as I mentioned in the title to this post, I've started to really "feel" pregnant this past week. One way that I'm feeling this is how I started noticing a pain in my lower back only on the left side that shot down to my hip and leg. I figured I just pulled something while working out or maybe I just needed an adjustment from my chiropractor, but when it stuck around for a few days, I knew something was up. So by the middle of the week the pain seemed to be reduced quite a bit and I went in for a chiropractor appointment. While there, I got some good news and bad news. The good news being that it's just Baby Avery sitting right on one of my nerves (specifically my sciatic nerve) which tends to be very common towards the end of pregnancy. The bad news was that there's not much you can do about it...except wait for the baby to be born! I've even heard that the pain can get much worse as I get closer to the end. This is hard to take for a pro-active, problem-solver like myself because in the past, anytime I've had an ache or pain, I've researched it, found a solution and put it into action so I can move on with my life. When new things like this come up during my pregnancy, I've had to learn to adjust my thinking and reaction. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to sit around and sulk in my discomfort, I'm just going to be realistic in my healing and understand that this may just be one of those discomforts of pregnancy...a small price to pay, to bring a new life into this world!
So on a positive note, here's some things I have found that help my hip and low back feel GOOD: walking slowly (and at an incline on the treadmill-surprisingly), sitting on a stability ball, laying on a heat pad each night, keeping up with my yoga and stretching, and weekly adjustments at the chiropractor. Any other pregnant mamas experiencing this or been through it in the past? Anything you would recommend?

One last thing that seems to make me "feel pregnant" is how I'm battling yet another cold. About two weeks ago I fought off a sinus-like cold and it seemed to pass with all my natural remedies that I mentioned in this post. But by the end of last week another cold started coming on this time in my throat and chest. I'm not sure if pregnancy is just weakening my immune system, or it's all the germs from the kiddos at school, but these colds keep on hanging around! On a positive note, I've been drinking tons of water and tea as it feels good on my throat, so I know that's a good thing to do when you're pregnant. Perhaps a weekend of napping, and going to Hypnobirthing class will have a positive effect and help me feel better. We'll see!