baby spaces

It's not hard to remember the days before our first ultrasound. We were eagerly counting down the days until we found out if we were having a boy or a girl. I had a very clear picture in my mind of rushing out to shop for the first gender-appropriate outfit right after our ultrasound appointment.

That didn't happen. In the wake of receiving the news we did about Ewan's heart, shopping for him was the last thing on my mind. I cycled through more feelings than can be named: I felt guilt, wondering if my body had betrayed him. I felt grieved, knowing that as tough as life is already, my child would be facing additional challenges in his first weeks of life. I felt despaired as I soaked in the information the doctors had told us, wondering if the outcome could really be as hopeful as they projected. I felt hopeless, devoid of joy, assaulted by sadness, and unspeakably jealous of every mother and father who had never gotten bad news at an ultrasound.

I remember going to Target the day after we heard the news, just to pick up some basics we needed at home: toilet paper, toothpaste -- those sorts of things. In the space of about five minutes, I saw no less than six healthy, cooing baby boys. I couldn't help it. I rushed out of there, weeping.

It took at least a week before I felt like I could be joyful in preparing for his arrival, before I could imagine his room: the colors, the bedding, the furniture, the arrangement. In the weeks that followed, we completed our registry, and I felt excitement again over preparing for the arrival of our baby. Now, I can''t be stopped!

In an earlier post, I told you about the print I ordered from Etsy. The print is entitled You CAN do it! that I've chosen to represent Team Ewan and all that people that are praying for, encouraging, and cheering him on.

This, my friends, is what you will look like to Ewan (you are very cute!!):

When I ordered the print, I sent the artist a brief note explaining our situation and why the print had significance to us. She also included a very sweet personal note ...

... and some extra postcard prints!

We've got a lot of work to do before we're ready to really get going on the nursery, though. This is what his room looks like now (we moved four weeks ago ... that counts as "just moved", right?). This room is our project for today.

In other baby room news, I also picked up some paint swatches to play with. My Dad has graciously offered to be the official baby room painter! I have no idea what I'm going to do yet, but I've got hundreds of ideas bouncing around in my head -- ideas that I'm flirting with and playing with about stripes and accents and all sorts of things, wondering what we can do with them (and wondering if we can execute on them). I have no idea how it will turn out, but I can tell you this: we will not, under any circumstances, be afraid of color.

No, no. We will not be afraid of color!!

The artwork:
In case you missed it in the first post, the print we ordered from Etsy is by Marisa of Creative Thursday. She has oodles and oodles of adorable prints with a cast of characters just like you see in the You CAN do it print.