I’ve officially reached my due date. A bit anti-climatic as I’m still prego, but apparently only 5% of babies are born on their due date. We’re so trendy over here.
I started off my morning with a 3 mile walk over the Williamsburg Bridge and back. It was a cooler morning and the walk felt good. After the walk I got ready for my 40 week appointment. We stopped for a quick breakfast at the Clinton Street Baking Company, which was surprisingly packed for a weekday morning.
We arrived my OBs office with our hospital bag in tow (just in case). Fortunately, the bag was not needed, baby girl passed the non-stress test no problem. My fluid levels and heart rate were also good, so home we went with another appointment scheduled for Tuesday. As a side note, I took Emily Oster’s advice and drank a ton of water before the appointment, in hopes of not having any issues with the fluid test. Mission accomplished.
She is still very comfortable, no dilation or effacement whatsoever. More on this in a minute.
Yesterday was my last official day at work. I’ve been so focused on finishing everything up that I’m happy to know be able to focus on the baby more fully. I also think that being able to move around more (rather than sitting in a chair for 8 straight hours) may help get things moving. Since I have very limited maternity leave and vacation time, it’s a bit dicey to leave before the baby comes but working a full day at 39 weeks and 6 days seemed like it was a good stopping point. I may work from home a bit next week depending on how things go this weekend.
Speaking of which, at my 39 week appointment, my doctor asked me how long I wanted to be pregnant. I said I’d like to give it at least a week after my due date. He suggested closer to the middle of next week, which would be 40 weeks and 5ish days. The reasoning is that the baby was measuring quite big at my 36 week appointment, and waiting longer won’t make it any healthier at this point. While I really want to avoid an induction, I’d rather go with pitocin over a c-section, so I think I’m (semi-reluctantly) on board with the plan to induce middle of next week if necessary. As an aside, my practice’s c-section rate is around 13% compared to 30% average in Manhattan overall.
In the meantime, I’ve been trying to rev things up naturally with bouncing on the exercise ball, walking, squats and eating pineapple, dates, etc. I may try to acupuncture on Monday if need be. If anyone feels like they tried something that really worked, let me know! I’ve been feeling a fair amount of contractions for the last few weeks, but they are still braxton hicks.
In other news, we finished the nursery this week! We’d been waiting for a mirror to come in from RH for almost 3 months and it finally arrived. Here’s a quick tour:
We went with an animal theme that was inspired by Angela’s amazing design.
The focal point is the set of animal prints from the Animal Print Shop Little Darlings collection, if you are on pinterest looking for anything nursery related, you’ve definitely seen these! They were a gift from my sister-in-law. I believe the frames are from West Elm. We used Ikea mosslanda picture ledges for the bookshelves.
The faux sheepskin rug is also from Ikea and the chevron area rug is from PB Kids. The rug’s border is really the only pink in the room, as I was going for gender neutral. I realize the room is very neutral! I do have some cute decals for when she’s older and will probably add some pops of color through art and keepsakes over time, but for now, I really like the calming atmosphere of the space. Maybe I’m just boring!
Finding the right mobile took me quite a while. There were a lot of good options on etsy. Ultimately, I went with this animal one from RH. It’s one of my favorite pieces in the room!
The animal themed quilt is from PBKids -it’s actually on sale right now. 
Our dresser and crib set are the Graham collection in heritage fog from PB and they are really solid and stately. I ordered these before I knew the sex of the baby and they work well for anyone. And the aforementioned mirror is from RH. I’m glad we like it after waiting so long and cutting it so close to the due date! This room used to be so dark, but the large mirror reflects a lot of the day light from the windows, which is great. 
This perky giraffe toy bin adds some fun to the room. It doesn’t store a ton, but it works for book overflow!
Because this is a very narrow room, I wanted a rocker or glider that wouldn’t overwhelm it or me! After much debate, I settled on the Joya. There are a lot of good knock offs in darker colors, as well. It’s actually quite small, so if you are tall, it might be too low to the ground for you, but it’s great for pettitte folks. I also like that it doesn’t scream nursery, and should work in a kid’s room or playroom when the time comes.
As I mentioned, this room can be very dark. Our last overhead light fixture was basically worthless from a light perspective. I splurged on this crystal flushmount, which floods the room with light and also creates a really pretty pattern on the walls. This picture doesn’t do the light justice at all! I also wanted at least a few feminine features in the room and this is girly glam without being totally over the top.
So that’s the nursery. A lot of the decor and storage were shower gifts, as were the crib and dresser. However, every item we purchased we got on sale -with the exemption of the Ikea items.
Pottery Barn is amazing with sales – never pay full price. Also, Ashley told me about the Key Rewards program. It’s free to sign up, and you get 3% cash back on all purchases. We ended up getting the chevron rug for $25 when combining a discount code with the rewards redemption.
I also decided to join RH’s membership since it meant we got 25% off all purchases. We did end up returning a shelving unit, but between the mirror, light fixture and mobile, it more than paid for itself and saved us a few pennies too.
Crate and Barrel is stingy with discounts on furniture, so it’s a matter of shopping early and waiting (and waiting) until a rare sale or discount comes along.
Have a great weekend!
