The Secret Garden August Meeting

If you created a bedroom for your baby tell us what it was like.
Moira's room is beautiful! Lots of friends helped us get her room together. It needed a lot of work since it was originally our junk room piled with boxes. We live in an old house, 1850. The walls were in rough shape, electrical work needed to be done, and the previous owners had painted the wood floor. The trim work was an ugly pinky purple color.
Our friend Cam put up a chair rail and helped Dave fix the walls. Our neighbors helped pick out the colors and helped to prime and paint the walls. We did a creamy colored trim with a pale green on the top wall and a pale purple on the bottom wall. I agonized for months, constantly changing my mind about what I wanted for the nursery theme. I didn't want everything matchy matchy like all of the typical nursery decor. I wanted her nursery to be different, stimulating, and beautiful. I finally decided on bedding from IKEA. Her room is so much fun and so pretty. My parents bought us the crib and Dave's parents bought us the dresser/changing table. We had an old bookshelf that Dave stained and we got a rocking chair from a family that I used to babysit for. Our neighbor and Dave worked on the closet. It is beautiful!

Did you have it ready for them before they were born?
Everything was ready for Moira. There were a few finishing touches that weren't done, but the crib was ready. Her clothes were washed and hanging up and stored away in the dresser. Her cloth diapers were washed, prepped, and put away. Books on the shelves, her nightlight was ready. Stuffed animals lined a shelf and a were put in a basket. The crib was made with freshly washed linens. The room is the cleanest and most organized room in our entire house!

If so how did you cope coming home to it without your baby?
Friends of ours came to our house while we were still in the hospital and packed away EVERYTHING baby related and stored it at our neighbor's house. The car seat was taken out of our car and put away. Her room was left as is. When we came home it was so hard, but we came home to an empty house. The pack and play that had been set up a few days before in our downstairs was now gone. The swing and bouncy seat, still in their boxes waiting to be put together by Dave and my dad, were gone. The diapers and changing stuff I had ready for us to use downstairs, were now put away. Books, ultrasound pictures, notes, etc. all gone. It was surreal and strange, but I was glad to come home to all of that put away and we didn't have to do it. It took me about a month before I could go into her room and when I finally did, I went in with Dave and he held me and I sobbed for what was lost. Now, I go in there and I look around at her things, look at her cloth diapers, her clothes, and the crib and I smile. I smile because I remember all of the love that went into making that room. Our love and our friend's love. We had so much help putting that room together, it makes me happy to see it still there. I don't want to take it down.

Did you pack it all away?
As I said, just the things that were throughout the house. Currently her room is as it was the day we finished it.

What is your baby's room now?
Still a baby's room and it will remain that way for our next baby.

If you are trying to conceive again, or are pregnant again how do you feel about setting up another room before your baby is born?
We are trying to conceive again and we plan to use Moira's room. I feel so happy now when I go into her room. I will keep her room as is for now. When we get pregnant, if we are having a boy, only a few things need to be changed and of course we will eventually buy some boy clothes. If we have a girl, we will use Moira's clothes depending on the season the baby is born. I feel like it will be a wonderful way for us to keep Moira's memory alive, by using all of her things for her little brother or sister.

This is a picture of Moira's changing table/dresser and the bookshelf in her room

This is a picture of the crib

This is the crib and a look at the curtains in the room.