Room Reveal: St. Francis Room

What started out as a guest room is now a nursery and guest room.  We are calling it the St. Francis Room due to the woodsy/nature/animal theme combined with wanting to keep a sense of hospitality throughout our house specifically through providing a guest room for the time being as well.  My parents apparently have a bet going as to how long the room will also serve as a guest room but I've always wanted to have an open room for guests so that we can always have an open door for family and friends who may find themselves in the area and be in need of a place to stay so I'm hopeful we can keep this going for a short while at least!

Here is one picture from when the previous owner lived here.

As you can see, it is not an overly large room but was a decent size for the purpose of serving as a guest room.  Notice the light plate switch cover and fan pulls.  I called this room the Teddy Bear room in the beginning.  

The next two pictures show the rooms as they were when Adam moved in to the house last January before we had the new carpet installed.

We opted not to paint this room as we weren't sure what we were going to do with it just yet.  It sat like this for the first several months with a few left over boxes and Adam's hutch from when he was three years old that he brought with him all the way from California in it.  I thought it was sweet how he put our scrapbooks and photo books on the shelves.  My birthday gift last February was also being able to pick out curtains and new fan pulls for the house even though I wasn't living there just yet.    Then, after the wedding and I moved in, we got to work converting this "extra" room into a guest room and it started slowly taking on memories as we found items from our past to include such as utilizing Adam's comforter from CA when we purchased a guest bed and when I replaced the light plate switch cover with one I had painted several years back at a paint your own pottery studio - a pasttime of mine that I loved indulging in and have been itching to get back to doing.

About a week or so after we purchased the guest bed this past summer, we found out we were expecting...!

My first thought was, oh, my, what will we do with the guest bed now that we need to put a crib and other baby furniture in this very same room?!  However, Monika, one of my closest friends happened to be visiting us that same weekend we found out the official news from the doctor, helped me to see that we could possibly pull off having both the guest bed and the nursery in the same room which is how the St. Francis room came to be!

Due to being pregnant, already having brown furniture in the room, and also waiting to find out the gender of our baby, we opted not to paint and to go with the neutral woodsy animal theme that is evident in the St. Francis room today.  We moved the guest bed to the opposite wall, slid the hutch to the side which covered one of our windows (this is the only negative thus far but perhaps this will help the baby to get more sleep by having the room be darker by the crib?), and set to work adding little touches here and there as we prepped for baby's arrival over the last several months.

We bought this nightlight during our Babymoon in Oceanside, CA.  It took the gentleman 16 hours to make this nightlight by hand due to all the details in the Noah's Ark scene.  It was the perfect addition to the St. Francis Room as I would have loved to have done a Noah's Ark theme in the room!!

One night in early Decmeber last semester when I couldn't sleep, I wound up putting together this mural at 3am. I hadn't realized each of these stickers would come out of the package piece by piece but I think the effort was worth it as I love the end result!!

 

I love this piece of history from Adam's own childhood.  The bottom of the hutch has a small lamp that brilliantly shines down on St. Francis when we turn it on at night.  I love going into the room and looking at all the children's books and stuffed animals we acquired through my Pennsylvania family's baby shower back in early January.  These animals are barely half of what we were given but are currently being stored away until it's time to switch them out with these current stuffed animals.  I was struck with inspiration when I received a friend's gift that utilized the green polka dot ribbon (thanks Karen!) and wound up using that same ribbon as the way to display the animals on the side of the hutch.  For now, we opted to keep the scrapbooks and memorabilia from our courtship on the top shelf so baby will have a storybook view of Mommy and Daddy's first days together!  Personally, I don't mind as I love our love story and can't wait to share our memories with the little one!

The black frame and poem at the head of the guest bed was my first Valentine's Day gift to Adam in February 2014 that I had carefully mailed to him in CA from NC.  Then, it safely made the trek across country in the pod packed to the brim with Adam's belongings on the road from CA to OH.  The "All you need is love" quote was a part of our wedding program and luggage labels I had made as a small gift for our wedding party so I was thrilled when I snagged the wall stickers of the quote for a couple bucks as part of Adam's stocking stuffer this past Christmas!

Here is a view of the lovely crib Adam's parents purchased for us.  It was a tremendous investment as it will later serve as a toddler bed, a day bed, and even a double bed some day down the road!!  Do you see the two beautiful whimsical paintings that are hanging directly above the crib?  Those were painted by my former roommate's talented mother years ago.  She gave them to me as a gift in my early 20s and these nostalgic paintings have hung in my apartment I shared with my twin in Harrisburg, in my apartment across the street from a farm with a gorgeous lake that I loved waking up to each morning in York, then in my bedroom in Ash's townhouse also in York, and now in our baby's first bedroom!!  I think there is something so special about blending the old with the new and am glad we're able to do that with so many pieces that are found in the St. Francis Room.  To the left of the paintings are three leftover table decorations from our wedding reception.  The colorful mason jars that my parents had found for me in a craft store in Carlisle, PA hold sand my little brother (who is the baby's godfather!!) personally picked up from a beach in Delaware for me, and they have various verses from Scripture that have particular meaning to us on them.  It's neat to think a little piece of our wedding reception is also in this room.

 

This fuzzy tactile giraffe is hanging on the door.  Believe it or not, it actually fell off one of our gift bags from the shower as we made the five hour road trip from home back to Ohio!

The changing table was another consignment sale find...it was only $20 that we picked up during our very first consignment sale we attended in early fall.  I also found the bedding (dust ruffle, bumper, sheets, and baby blanket) for the crib you see in the other pictures for a mere $5 at the same sale!!  What a bargain!  I can't wait to check out the spring consignment sales since then I can then stock up on gender specific clothing!

 Can you tell how much I LOVE this stuffed elephant?!  Thanks again Monika!! 

 These frames are seasonal and wil be rotating throughout the year. They were a Christmas craft one year when I made all the frames by hand for my family and friends.  I also like this light plate switch better than the teddy bear one that was left behind by the previous owner of the house.  Who knows, we might end up switching it out with an animal themed light switch plate but for now I like the artsy look it provides as we enter the St. Francis Room!

We probably won't leave the bouncy seat where it is right now but for now it works.  I also can't wait to switch out the pictures in the puzzle picture frame above the hooks.  This frame was Adam's Valentine's Day gift this year.  To the left of the frame are two beautiful gifts we received from friends that we ended up hanging on nails that were already there from the previous owner.  Maybe someday we'll readjust them but for now that's where they are!

The clothes are washed and put away, the monitor installed, the diapers unpacked, and the last children's book tucked safely away on the shelf so all that is left is for baby to come home and enjoy his or her new room!!  The pups are also pretty anxious to meet their new little brother or little sister (and to get their spring haircuts once we're sure the snow is behind us for the year)...hehe!  

Inching closer and closer to the due date!

These were my thoughts last week at 37 weeks and 3 days:  The doctor at today's appointment said that I'm 50% effaced and 1.5 cm dilated.  He said that it's to be warm (50s and 60s) this weekend so drink plenty of fluids.  He also said that I'm negative for Strep so hopefully that means I won't need IV antibiotics during delivery!

I have follow up appts. with two female doctors the next two Thursday mornings.  The last appt. will be March 3rd and we're still counting on the due date at being March 7th even though today's doctor said that there will be a full moon on Monday and joked about a 02/22 birthday for baby.

I feel good, although today was a little rough with headaches/achy/moody feelings.  Fortunately these type of days are usually on days I'm away from campus anyhow so that's good.  I've been waking at 5 and 6am instead of 2 or 3am during the night so am almost getting a full night of sleep compared to earlier in the 3rd trimester.

The bags are packed, birth plan is printed, and right now we're sort of in a holding pattern as the doctor said today.  :)

Update from today at 38 weeks 3 days:  We just got back from our morning appointment with our main doctor.  It was a good one as our doula, Sara, was able to meet the doctor and a lot of questions were asked.  There was talk of induction and what the hospital procedures are for once the water breaks, etc. 

My belly measured at 39 inches and the baby's heart rate was fine beating between 120 and 128 beats per minute.  I only gained 8/10 of a pound since last week (in spite of all the ice cream/early birthday cake I enjoyed when Mark and Liz were here with the boys so I was happy about that..ha!).

Hanging out in one of my classrooms during the tour at school since last year when they came to visit we were snowed in and didn't make it to campus!

Thomas sporting and ice cream goatee at my favorite ice cream place in nearby West Virginia!

Check out the "nutritional" info. on the cup..hehe.

After Mark, Liz, Thomas, Ben, and Kona left, it was time to finish getting the bags ready....Hershey apparently wants to go to the hospital with us when it is time!

Loved the surprise "notes" in the St. Francis room for baby.  The blocks were still in their new formation from "Baby" to "A boy" courtesy of Uncle Patrick from New Year's..haha!

Thomas was so proud of his heart.  Aww!

At one point this morning, during our appointment, the doctor asked if I wanted her to "strip my membranes" which could possibly cause labor to start within 24/48 hours.  We opted for her to not do that in an effort to allow for as natural as possible of a process/birth but then talk occurred about what might happen if we go beyond the March 7th due date.  The latest they would allow me to go without induction is up to week 42 which is March 21st so maybe we'll have an Easter week baby?! 

For now, there are no signs of labor at all, no contractions, baby is still high, and no further dilation compared to last week.  The baby is at a position of a - 3 (not sure if that's the correct terminology).  We'll see what happens next Thursday morning at 8:15am when we meet with a female doctor I've not seen yet.  The hospital tour is set for Saturday, March 5th, assuming baby hasn't arrived by then.  In the meantime, I transferred the baby playlist to the iPod tonight and I've got the bags at the front door ready to put in my car tomorrow when I go to work just in case.  ;)