Preparing a space for baby

For the past few months, I've spent a few minutes a week daydreaming in the middle of an empty room. At first, I was standing on stained, pink carpet looking at bright teal walls. And then slowly, the room became a little less empty until the only thing missing was a little person to claim that room as his own.

Waiting 40 weeks to meet the little guy has always seemed just way too long—and to help the time seem to pass a little faster, I've stayed busy getting the nursery ready. I browsed thousands of different ideas before I even knew if the room would house a little man or a baby girl. Then of course picking out the paint, the carpet, the furniture…

And since I still can't introduce Trouble to the world yet, I thought I would at least introduce his space.

Woodland critters as a nursery theme was a pretty easy decision—my husband loves the outdoors and we often see deer and other wildlife right in our backyard. And, well, it's just cute. Green just seemed to fit with the theme, but since the room is small, I choose a lighter color for the walls. My mom came and helped me paint, my husband installed new carpet and I found myself with a blank slate to work with (and wasn't at all sad to see the pink carpet go).

My mother-in-law makes all of her grandkids crib bedding, so I wasn't limited to picking out whatever was available in the stores; we went on a shopping trip to pick out the fabric (where I happened to fall in love with anything polka dotted), and from there, I had a color scheme to follow.

Inspired by a $600 bookshelf shaped like a tree (and with creative, impatient-for-baby energy to burn), I decided every woodland needs at least one tree and painted one in the corner, using the four different colors in the room for leaves (the blue leaves kind of remind me of coloring with my mom as a kid, when I teased her for making the trees purple). My husband installed three corner shelves on the trunk of the tree so we would have a place to store all of Trouble's bedtime stories.

I've never created wall art for any other room in my house, but, blame it on the nesting instinct or just the itch to have everything perfect for the baby, I made a set of framed art to match the bedding and painted and decorated letters to spell his name on the wall (the one we intend to put on the birth certificate, Trouble was a little too long to put on the wall).

I finished everything off with a toy box, topped by cushions for an extra place to sit, a comfy chair that used to be in the living room for nighttime feeding and rocking, and a dresser with a changing pad.

There's both a certain sense of satisfaction for having everything finished and a sense of impatience, without projects to keep me busy. My favorite part of the entire nursery? That it has the touch of so many different people. My husband, doing all the handywork. My parents, painting and assembling furniture. My in-laws, creating blankets and cushions and pillows. And numerous friends and family members pitching in with so many special gifts.

I still stop in the nursery and spend a few minutes either standing or rocking in the quiet, just waiting for our little one to arrive and make everything complete.