Home Tour: Nolan's Room

I realized recently that since my last blog post (in 2016!) we have moved... twice. Yep. At that point, we were living in our amazing downtown condo. We sold that place and moved out to Highpoint. We loved our charming little old house in this amazing neighborhood. After living there about a year, our landlord decided he wanted to sell the house, so we moved.. again. This time, to the house we are in now, on Mud Island. I was really sad when we left Highpoint (and still miss the neighborhood) but it ended up working out for us. The house we are in now has 3 bedrooms instead of the 2 we had and an extra bathroom! With our new third member in our family, this extra space has been super helpful!

So, with that begin said, how about a home tour? I thought I'd start today with my favorite room in our new house. Nolan's room.

Before he was born, I found these adorable space prints on Etsy. It was because of these retro-inspired astronauts that I decided to go with a space theme for Nolan's nursery.

We are using an antique mid-century dresser as his dresser and changing table. The amazing stars over the changing table are from one of my baby showers! Everyone wrote prayers or thoughts on the stars. I love reading these little messages. 

This kid already has a tonnnn of books! Part of that is because I love to read and I think exposing children to books from day one is super important. Also, for one of our baby showers instead of cards, everyone was encouraged to bring a book with a message inside instead. Nolan has quite the collection!

There are so many special little things in this room. It's simple, comfortable, and overall I wanted to give Nolan a place where he feels safe and warm and loved.


Which room would you like to see next? 

prints / quilt / book ledges / sheets / activity gym

The Day You Were Born

This story actually begins the day before you were born. Thursday, December 7th, I had a doctor’s appointment. You were growing exactly how you were supposed to. I still had 12 more days until your due date. The doctor and I discussed when I could potentially be induced. Being pregnant is hard! I was so uncomfortable and I was ready to meet you. We talked about being induced the following Friday, December 15h and that she would check the hospital’s availability and let me know. Your Dad and I left the doctor nervous and anxious but mostly excited that we would get to meet you in just a week! We planned how we would spend the next several days getting the house ready and preparing for your arrival.

Well, you had a different idea.

Friday morning around 3:30 am, I woke up with some cramps. The thought that I was actually in labor really didn’t occur to me. I thought that these could be the Braxton Hicks contractions everyone had been talking about but that I had not experienced. These cramps would come and go and I would fall asleep in between. They had told us in parenting class that you know you’re in labor when your contractions are consistent and evenly spaced apart. I decided to start looking at the clock. These definitely weren’t consistent. I was still convinced this was false labor.

My alarm went off for me to go to work. Your Dad convinced me to stay home because every few minutes I was in pain. There was no way I could teach in this condition! I stayed home and hoped these false contractions would stop. Well, they did not get better. I spent the morning on the couch tracking these contractions that were sporadic. I still thought this wasn’t labor, or perhaps I was scared to admit that I was in labor.

Around lunchtime, I finally called your Dad and told him that he should come home from work and take me to the hospital. I figured they would tell me this was false labor and I would relax and these pains would go away. He came home, we grabbed a few things we thought we might need just in case this was the real thing but both of us thought the chances of us being sent home were pretty good. I mean, I was just at the doctor and we had talked about being induced in a week! 

We made it to the hospital and as I sat down at the registration desk my water broke. I was definitely in labor.

They put us in the last delivery room that was available and started my epidural. Those pesky contraction pains that I had been having all day gradually decreased and I couldn’t feel them anymore. Your Dad and I spent the next few hours relatively relaxed just hanging out in the delivery room waiting for something to happen. Apparently one of the other moms that day was having some problems so our nurse did not come and check on me as often as they usual do. After a few hours, she came in to check on my progress. I was 10 cm dilated, she jokingly asked me if I could feel the baby that was about to fall out of me! I had been so relaxed just hanging out in the hospital bed not feeling any pain that my labor progressed very quickly. It was time to call the doctor and push.

The entire pregnancy leading up to this day I tried to imagine what it was like to be in the delivery room. I always pictured it with a lot more people. I was surprised that the only people in the room when it was time to actually have a baby was my doctor, my nurse, your dad, and me!

Looking back I know I had a very easy delivery experience, I was only pushing for about 15 minutes and I got to meet my first baby, the one who made me a mom. It was the most surreal experience that I was always remember. That moment they handed you to me and I knew you were mine.

Nolan Anthony Long, you were born on December 8, 2017 at 5:03 pm weighing 6 pounds 1 ounce. You were perfect. 

Some things I learned:
- Relax! We were not expecting to have a baby that day so I had no time to get nervous about it. I really think that's part of the reason why delivery was so easy for me. I know this is easier said than done, but try to relax mammas!
- Epidurals are the best things ever. I had been having contractions for about 9 hours and it was brutal. Once they hooked me up, the pain went away completely. I was able to just be present and enjoy the moments leading up to my son's birth.
- Take a Shower. Someone had told me that once you think you're in labor to make sure you shower before you go to the hospital. I am so happy I did this! I was having contractions every few minutes but somehow managed to take a shower before going to the hospital. In all the excitement and craziness of having a baby and being in the hospital, I didn't manage to take a shower until Sunday afternoon.

Another note: I had Nolan at Methodist Germantown and I had an amazing experience. My delivery room nurse and the night nurses were seriously angels sent from heaven and I know they made the whole experience of becoming a parent ten times better!