Nursery Time

New babies mean new spaces to hold babies!  Jake and I have been excited to work on this space, which used to function as a guest room and second office.  It was the last room to remain untouched by our eager, if inexperienced, hands.  It's a strange arrangement; the main space is a 12 x 10 bedroom, off the back of which the previous owners built a small additional bedroom.  This means you have to pass through the large bedroom to get to the small room; it also means that the rooms are connected by the original exterior passage-ways: double french doors and an exterior window.

Here is a reminder of what it looked like before Jonah came along.

And here's what it looks like now.

Our main goal was to create a bright, clean and modern but sweet & slightly whimsical space for our little guy.  We decided on pale mint walls, with white, navy and grey accent colors.

Here are a few of the design highlights:
1. Walls and trim:  We sanded down the yellow-beige "textured" walls and painted them a pale mint, "Sea Cap" by Behr. We patched the old trim and painted it (and the ceiling) a bright white. (Oh and by "we" I mean we paid a talented friend to do it for us. Aint nobody got time for that.)  The lighting in these photos makes the mint walls look a little paler than it is in person.

2. Radiator Cover: Jake covered the old rad with a custom built radiator cover, which maintains its function (the heat is channeled into the room through the decorative aluminum sheeting) but hides the whole "ugly cast iron radiator" aspect.  Added bonus:  another surface for decorating! Although at the moment it's holding a water bottle, infant gas drops, two burp clothes and the granola bar wrapper from a late night nursing snack.

3. Furniture: How blessed we were to receive my sweet cousin Tera's lovely white crib and dresser/hutch!  It survived her three boys and remains in excellent shape, a testament to its quality.  I love that we're making new memories with Jonah in furniture that already holds so many sweet family moments.  My generous parents bought us this charcoal grey glider, which has definitely been sufficiently christened with countless late night and early morning nursing sessions, as well as a fair share of story times, made up lullaby concerts and spit up episodes.  Also, I repainted an old book shelf in pale grey.

4. Art: We did a lot of home-made art for this space.  Jake had the great idea to print and frame some old patent drawings of classic toys.  Looking at them framed in the space now, we think they need to be about 50% bigger. But in the meantime they'll do.  Other items on Jonah's walls are a framed piece of fabric that had all our favorite nursery colors in it (hung over the rad), an great fox print gifted to us by some sweet friends (on the rad cover), a framed whale collage of messages from guests at one of my baby showers, made by my awesome sister in law (sitting on the changing table) and DIY fabric bunting over the crib.

5. Other notable decorations: Jake's parents gifted us the gorgeous navy and white quatrafoil rug.  My parents passed along the collection of Stieff stuffed animals on top of the hutch, which my German family gave me as a child.  My sweet friend Leslie made the gorgeous star/chevron quilt draping over the glider.   And our one gentle nod to Jonah's name: the whale mobile over his crib.

6. The adjacent space: In the bonus room we just painted everything white, to make the space feel bigger. In addition, we replaced the old windows with bigger, energy efficient windows.  We initially intended this space to be a guest bedroom (or a room for us to sleep in while guests sleep in our bed), but this bed has been the "Jonah-duty" sleep spot.  From 10pm-3am, Jake sleeps here with Jonah while I get a good chunk of solid sleep in our bed; then at 3am he taps out and I finish out the night.   This bed has been a life-saver!

Sleep well, sweet boy. 

Bringing Him Home to Bellevue: Welcome Jonah Oliver

Five weeks ago we welcomed home our first child—Jonah Oliver Salter—and he has captivated our hearts ever since.  This first month as a family of three has been a wild ride: lots of smiles and laughter and joy but also our fair share of tears and heartache.  The constant refrain, however, has been God’s faithful provision and His merciful grace. Here's the first part of the story. 

 Jonah’s Birth:

I’ll start with Jonah’s surprise arrival. It's such a strange feeling to reflect on the birth of your first child. The experience still feels very foreign and strangely distant to me.  It's "other-worldly".  All the words I can think of to describe it don't quite fit.  But I'll try, anyways.  Because I don't want to forget it. 

3:30am: Early Friday morning, May 23rd (two weeks and 4 days before my due date) I woke up to a strange feeling, almost a grinding or popping, in my belly; nothing painful, but definitely something unfamiliar.  I spent the next half hour laying in bed wondering if I should look it up on the internet or call my doctor.  By 4:00am I started having contractions and around 5:30 I woke Jake up so he could start timing them with his Contraction Timing app (which he installed on a whim a few weeks prior).   We laid in bed together for about an hour timing my contractions. The contractions were sort of sporadic: anywhere from 20 seconds to 1 minute long, and from 2 minutes to 6 minutes apart.  And they were getting more uncomfortable, but I was convinced this would be the beginning of a long labor and that we wouldn’t be heading to the hospital for quite a while.  At about 6:30 I got up and took a shower, which felt really good.  Jake started packing his hospital bag and I finished packing mine in between contractions (we weren’t prepared to head to the hospital so soon!)  I labored through contractions on the floor, on my hands and knees, on the birthing ball and leaning against Jake.  They were definitely getting stronger and more painful.  By 7:10, they were about 50 seconds long and 3 minutes apart.  We decided we should head to the hospital soon.  But I remembered my doula recommending you get in a good “last meal”, since the hospital rarely lets you eat during labor.  “You wanna go to Kolache Factory?” Jake asked.  “Yes! Perfect!”.  During this pregnancy we ate at Kolache Factory probably a dozen times.  It was our new favorite quick breakfast date spot.  I always got two Jalepano Popper Kolaches.  So we packed up the bags and headed out to the car.  But as I labored through another really hard contraction on the side-walk and contemplated the prospect of laboring in the passenger seat of the car I changed my mind; this car was going straight to the hospital. No Kolaches for us today.  It was getting too intense. On the drive we texted Jen, my doula, and I called my mom.  We were hoping she would be present for Jonah's arrival, but since he caught us off guard my mom was still in Texas.  I'm pretty sure she packed and was on the road within 10 minutes of my phone call.  

7:30am:  We checked into the hospital and they put us in a triage room. The nurse checked my progress and said “Hmm, you’re either 0 cm or 6 cm.” What!?  Dear Lord, if I'm 0 cm then what the heck has been happening to me the past 4 hours?  She checked again, “Yep, you’re 6-7 cm. You’re having this baby today.”  The nurse also informed us that all the L&D rooms were full, so I would have to labor in the triage room. I really didn’t care either way; I was in such intense pain, I could have been in a barn for all I knew.  

8:00am: Jen, our awesome doula arrived, right in the heat of really painful labor. She immediately jumped in to help, got me on the birthing ball and as I was laboring on the ball, my water broke.  It wasn’t a big splash, but it was clearly a gush of fluid.  The pain of the contractions was unbelievable.  It was searing hot and so intense, I couldn’t talk or think. It was like my body was trying to escape itself.  I stayed on the ball for another hour and asked for the epidural a couple times.  Jen convinced me to work through a few more contractions but finally I insisted, “I need the epidural now.” Jake assured her I was serious. And I definitely was.  

9:30am: As luck would have it, the anesthesiologist popped in right at that moment just to check in.  But of course they can’t give you the epidural right away; they have to do some tests (on my platelet levels) and get the kit set up.  So they started the prep and I just remember thinking I was going to die if I didn’t get the epidural soon.  Luckily, my anesthesiologist was super quick.  I sat on the side of the bed, Jake in front of me, sitting down (everyone insisted; I guess fainting husbands are a common occurrence), holding my hand.  I don’t even remember the pain of the numbing needle or anything else.  All I remember was leaning into the shoulder of the nurse (evidently I told her that she smelled nice) while I labored through a contraction during the time when I was supposed to be “as still as possible”.  Relief came soon after.  It felt like the best decision I ever made.  I was 8 cm dilated.

10:30am-1:00pm

Laboring pre-epidural and post-epidural could not have been more different and I’m thankful I experienced both.  Without the epidural I couldn’t process any thoughts; my consciousness was completely overwhelmed by the pain.  I barely interacted with anyone.  I was very turned in on my body and myself.  After the epidural I was relaxed, laughing, eating popsicles and chatting with Jake and Jen.  Jake and I prayed together. We reflected on what was about to happen.  We listened to my “Welcome Jonah” playlist (or as Jake wanted to call it: “Feeling Labor-y”, since I categorize my playlists by emotion :) ).  I kept flipping from one side to the other every half hour since all the medication would drain down to that side and make it extra numb.  Jen sat in front of me and rubbed my legs for a good 3 hours straight.  Which was funny because during our pre-partum meetings, leg massages were the one type of massage I said I didn’t want.  I liked it because it helped my lower body feel less numb.  Somewhere around 11:30 Jake went down to the cafeteria and scarfed down a mediocre hamburger.  He didn’t want to eat in front of me because all I could have were clear liquids.  Honestly, I wasn’t that hungry.  I was fine with crushed ice and red popsicles.  

I think around 1:00pm they checked my progress again and I was fully dilated.  I expected to be pushing within the hour, but evidently May 23^rd was a busy day for babies: my doctor delivered 6 other babies that day and another mom was also about ready to push!  So Dr. Philpott decided to let me “labor down” (wait) for another hour or two.  I was in no big hurry, thanks to the epidural, so it was fine. 

3:00pm: My nurse, Rhonda, finally came in and said that it was time to start pushing. We did about 30 minutes of "practice" pushing (whatever the heck that means; I definitely didn't want to waste any energy "practicing" anything).   I wanted to push on my side, so I turned over to my right (looking out the window at the green tree-tops), Jake stayed at my head holding my hands (above the equator, so to speak), Jen held my left leg and Rhonda sat at my feet holding my right leg.  Dr. Philpott came in after about 30 minutes and sat where Rhonda was and we kept pushing with each contraction: three pushes and sometimes a bonus push.  The pushing stage was surprisingly enjoyable.  Peaceful, even.  The room was calm and my music was really soothing.  It didn’t feel rushed or frantic or painful like I’d always imagined it.  It took a lot of focused energy, but it wasn’t that hard or unpleasant.  

4:00pm:  After an hour of pushing, Jonah arrived!  They put him right to my chest. I can't explain the feeling.  It was overwhelming; overwhelming joy, overwhelming gratitude, overwhelming fear.  Jake and I both cried and just stared at our son.  He was gooey and crying and funny-colored and absolutely beautiful.  Perfect.   Jake and I had prayed for that very moment--meeting our son face-to-face--for my entire pregnancy.  We had asked God to deliver our child to us safely and let us hold and kiss him.  He was faithful. 

Jonah Oliver Salter * May 23, 2014* 6 lbs. 5 oz. 20 in. 4:00pm

Things that surprised me: 

(1) The overall story: If I were a betting woman, I would have lost a lot of money on the circumstances of Jonah's birth.  I would have bet that Jonah would be late, that I would have to be induced, even.  I would have bet that my labor would be long, at least 24 hours.  I would have bet that I would get the epidural long before 8 cm.  Wrong. Wrong. And wrong. 

(2) The pain: Everyone told me that the pain of childbirth is indescribable and the worst imaginable pain. They're wrong. It's worse.  But then you get an epidural.  (Shout out to Dr. Whats-her-name, my anesthesiologist!)

(3) The pushing phase: It was unexpectedly peaceful. 

Some of God's Many Mercies: 

(1) Healthy baby boy!

(2) Healthy mama

(3) An amazing husband who supported me, prayed with me, held my hand, rubbed my feet and was 100% present. 

(4) Time for two rounds of antibiotics (since I was GBS+) but an otherwise short labor

(5) No induction, no c-section, no complications or scary moments

(6) I got a decent night's sleep the night before and most of my labor was during the day. 

(7) Great nurses and an amazing doula, who helped us feel confident and prepared (as prepared as we could be)

(8) Breastfeeding wasn't easy, but it also wasn't awful and we got the hang of it pretty quickly

Did it go according to "plan"?  

Ha. What a silly question.  Of course not.  I didn't really have a birth "plan"; I had birth "preferences".  But still, I had done a lot of thinking about what I wanted my labor to look like.   We took classes.  We had a doula.  We did lots of reading and practice.  I wanted to labor actively, not passively (i.e. up and moving, in the shower, in the tub, walking the halls, etc.).  I expected the first stage of labor to be really long and to need lots of different positions and strategies to endure it.  Turns out, my first stage of labor was hardly 4 hours and was spent at home with Jake.  I didn't have much time to try all those cleaver strategies we'd planned for :)  Although I did enjoy the birth ball.  And then after the epidural, I really enjoyed the bed :)  I was afraid I'd feel like a prisoner hooked up to the IV and epidural in the hospital bed.  Honestly, it was fine.  The pain relief was so welcome that I enjoyed relaxing in bed.  I wasn't necessarily aiming for a "natural" birth; I wanted to try to laboring without the epidural and use other coping strategies first, but I also wanted to feel like the epidural was a legitimate option, and not like it was a cop out or that I had failed.  I honestly expected to get an epidural, even though it wasn't my "preference".   I'm glad I got it.

Any regrets? 

Only two.  

(1) I wish my mom had been able to be there.   She pretty much drove straight through from Texas and arrived around 8pm the day of Jonah's birth.  I'm thankful she could meet Jonah so soon, but I wish she could have shared in his birth, too.  

(2) I wish we had had time for Kolaches. 

"From the fullness of God's grace, we have received one blessing after another."  John 1:16

Indeed.  

The Passing of Days: Pregnancy Loss and Gain

This past Thursday was a full day: dealing with frozen pipes at home, attending and leading meetings and seminars, teaching, writing, a trip to the gym and the grocery store.  But it was not nearly as full as we expected it to be 6 months ago. 

January 23, 2014 was supposed to be full of first diapers and proud doctors and a waiting room full of family and a swaddled baby, just wiped fresh from the messiness of birth.   This Thursday was the due date for our first child, a daughter we said goodbye to in August.  A day we looked forward to with ultimate wonder, expectation and hope: now, just another Thursday.  Except with more tears.

I have watched this day coming on the calendar, wondering how it would feel to live through.  Would it sting with fresh grief?  Would it knock me over, or gently pass?  Neither, really.   Because as I grieved with fresh tears and desperate prayers, I also delighted at the kicks of a 20 week old baby in my belly.  A boy, this time.  Healthy and squirmy and due to arrive June 10. 

This pregnancy has been different.  More cautious and guarded.  Less giddy and whirling.  There were no creative Facebook announcements or weekly Baby Center check-ins.  But there has been more prayer.  And even, I think, more joy.   Not only because each kick is sweeter and each passing week one more than we got to experience last time, but because I’ve been invited to live in the mystery of this truth:  

“The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”  Job 1:21

With the same breath, Job says: He has given. He has taken away. Bless Him.   How does Job do that?  How am I supposed to do that?  Supposed to cry over the loss of my daughter, delight in the promise of my coming son and say, with the same breath,  “Your holiness is independent of my experience and your goodness is not tied to my circumstances. Glory be to You, Lord.”

But it is true.  Whether I experience it as true or not, God is good and perfect and worthy of my praise.  And the mystery of this is one of the captivating tensions of the faith.  And it reminds me that ultimately He, and He alone, satisfies me and gives my soul rest. (Psalm 62:5) 

Today we are talking about car seats and which one makes the most sense to buy.   And as we research and shop, we hope quietly for a healthy baby boy to ride home in that car seat on June 10.  But even more, we pray for a heart of faith that can say sincerely: God, you give and you take away and blessed be Your name.  

Our Beloved Card Catalog

Remember this beauty?  After casually looking for an old card catalog for over a year, we finally found her at an antique store.  This piece of furniture is no joke, y'all.  It's actually three separate sections of 15 drawers a piece (plus the legs and the pull-out shelf inserts) that easily stack on top of one another.  And it is really well-made.  Everything is solid wood and the joints are even dove-tailed.  So beautiful.  Except for the finish.  We weren't crazy about the honey-colored wood.  

So we re-stained it. And we went the lazy way: a gel stain instead of sanding, re-staining and sealing each surface.    We used Minwax Gel Stain, in hickory. All you do is brush it on (we used a foam craft brush) in a thin coat and let it dry.  Disclaimer: the directions say to wipe it off with a rag a couple minutes after you brush it on, but this didn't work for us at all.  We were wiping away all the color.  So we just decided to not wipe, and it worked just fine.  You can still see the grain of the wood and with a top coat of clear poly, it's actually quite durable.  We certainly hope so; we imagine this baby will in the family for generations  :) 

So, what are we using those 45 drawers for, you ask?   Well, being the nerds we are, it's our alphabetized small-item storage system.  Each drawer is labeling (in alphabetical order) and all the small knick-knacks that end up in random corners of our house are collected, stored and ready to retrieved.  For instance, "where's my flask?", Jake might ask.  "Under F", we can now confidently answer.  A lot of people are surprised that we have enough small random items to fill a card catalog.  Well, we do.  

For instance, under "F" we have flashlights, a flask, flashcards and fly traps.  Under "T" we have tape, thumb drives and a guitar tuner.  

Some drawers contain only one type of item (like charges and cameras); they get their own label.  

We like to think Mr.bDewey himself would approve. He was, after all, all about finding exactly what you need with ease.  Sort of.

We're (sort of) Bath Masters:Takin' it to the Next Level

The second level, that is.  Of our house.  Here's the upstairs bathroom refresh, which was completed several months ago but, of course, had some trouble making it to the blog.  Mainly because of my laziness. 

But regardless. Here it is!  

Here's the "before".  Notice the weird off-center vanity, painted-over wall tile (that must have had sand mixed in because it actually scraped us when we accidentally brushed against it) and out of frame to the right: a peeling cast iron tub that I refused to take a bath in because I was sure I'd get some version of lead poisoning.  Don't let the white on ivory on white fool you.  This was no master bath.  It was barely a bath. 

BEFORE

  We originally had planned to bust this whole thing out, steal some space from the adjacent master-closet (behind the tub) and the linen closet to add both a walk-in shower and new tub.  But when the plumber gave us the estimate to re-route all the plumbing (and alerted us to the fact that he'd have to come in through the ceiling of our dining room), we decided to reconsider our plan.  This was when the "let's re-do BOTH baths and add a second shower DOWNSTAIRS" idea was born.  We are so glad we went with plan B.  Now we can boast "two full baths" and we got two refreshed bathrooms for about the same price as our original plan to overhaul just the master bath.

To save money, we kept the layout the same in the upstairs bath.  We just decided to upgrade everything.  Floor tile, wall tile, tub, toilet, paint, etc.  And we veered off our usual color wheel (which only contains colors like "dove grey" and "gravity" and "porpoise grey") to embrace a dusty plum.  It's "Gothic Amethyst" by Behr. 

As usual, Jake found some unused space that we decided to re-claim.  This time it was in the wall to the left of the toilet (which was empty space under the eave).  We boxed it out, insulated around the box, added doors and made it an 18"-deep built-in medicine cabinet.  We also replaced the fancy second-hand shower curtain "door" to our linen closet with a wood bi-fold door. 

In another storage-claiming move, we added a shelf extending all across the back wall to connect the vanity and left wall, giving us extra countertop space which is currently holding my cosmetics, most of which are Clinique free samples from my grandmother.  Thanks Nana!

We went with the same carrera marble wall tile that we installed in the downstairs bathroom.  And again we extended it window sill-height along the wall behind the vanity.  

We used the same floor tiles as downstairs.  And, once again, we installed a heated floor underneath.  Given that tomorrow's high is a record -2*F, I can confidently say that we are in love with the heated floors.  

Another intentional design decision we made was to install one big wall-width mirror instead of a regular vanity-width mirror (which was all Jake; I resisted at first).  The space is a little awkward because of where the vanity and window are placed, making any mirror above the vanity necessarily off-center.  So after finally finding a mirror with the right dimensions (although the wrong color; we would have preferred something closer to cherry), we gave it a try and really liked how it made the room feel bigger. 

We spend quite a bit of time in this room. And now we don't cringe while we're there. 

Happy New Year! 

Bathroom half empty or half full? Downstairs study/bathroom

The layout of our house is very similar to our Bellevue neighbors.  Except our house has a fabulous bonus room:  an addition off the back of the dining room.  This is our pass through to the backyard deck and it has traditionally functioned as a study for us (although one day we hope to make it into a playroom for some kiddos).   In addition, this room had a coat closet (in the southeast corner of the room) and our main floor half bath (in the northeast corner).

Half baths are great for function, but this one left a lot to be desired; it was dark, smelled a little funky, had a wobbly toilet and just wasn't very welcoming to guests (or us, for that matter).   When we started planning our bathroom renovations, we knew we wanted to put some money into updating this half bath.  New floors, new vanity, a fresh coat of paint.  Then we decided, why not just upgrade it to a full bath while we're at it?   So that's exactly what we did.  We moved some walls, added a shower and moved the coat closet from the alternate corner of the room to squeeze in between the new full bath and the back wall, thereby flushing off that wall.

The reno also gave us a chance to refresh the back room, and paint over the hunter green paint with a fresh coat of a cool grey.  Here are some before and after shots:

Back room BEFORE,
looking from dining room through back window. 

Back room, looking from back window into dining room.
The coat closet is just beyond the desk and the 1/2 bath behind
that bookshelf. 

Half bath BEFORE (gag). 

AFTER:  sink and toilet in same position. 

Porcelain "Carrera" 9x14 wall tiles (for shower and taken all the way around).
18" x 18" light grey floor tiles, with a heated floor pad beneath. 

We made some very intentional design choices in this bathroom: 

1. Light colors: cool greys and whites, to help it feel bigger, cleaner and more "spa-like".  Couples massage, anyone?  We started with the "Carerra" look-alike porcelain tile from Home Depot, which we got for only $2.20/sq ft.  Our splurge was the slate hex tile for the shower floor and the shower inset.  This we found at The Tile Shop for around $13/sq ft.  We only needed about 15 square feet for those spaces, so it seemed like a decent place to splurge.   The wall color is "Gravity" by Valspar.  The floor is 18"x18" light grey ceramic, which we found for a STEAL at $1.90/sq ft at a local discount flooring outlet.  

2. We decided to take the shower wall tile all the way around the room (at least to chair-rail height) to help make the space more cohesive.  What we didn't want was a small room to feel even smaller because the shower and non-shower spaces felt separate.  (Which is also why we chose a simple white waffle shower curtain.)  We also hear it's nice to have easy-to-wipe tile on areas where dirty little kid hands tend to touch. 

3. Since there was no source of natural light (further contributing to the dark, cramped feel) we installed a sky-light (a Sola-tube, actually) in the ceiling.  I forgot to photograph it, but it does such a great job of bringing some natural light into the space.  On a sunny day you don't even need to flip a light switch; your business is perfectly illuminated by the skylight :) 

4. Speaking of making the room feel bigger, this was the main reason for such a big inset shelf.  Since it sets that shower wall back another couple of inches in the area where it counts (shoulder and arm room), we wanted to make it pretty big.  We intended to put a glass shelf somewhere for extra product storage, but decided against it since we didn't need the extra shelf space. 

5. Finally, another small splurge: we added a heated floor!   (That small panel next to the light switches is the control panel.) Because there is no radiator in this back room (yes, we still use our trusty rads for cold weather heating), it tends to get pretty chilly in the winter, especially when your bare tootsies are on a tile floor.  We haven't had an occasion to turn the heated floor on yet, but we'll update you on how it functions once we do.    

New shower!  Slate hex tile used on the shower floor and in the inset shelf. 

Gotta love your Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap. 

Vanity and toilet both from Home Depot.  

View from back door.  Coat closet on left, bathroom door on right. 

Love the function of these shelves added to the
wall between the bath and closet doors.  

View from the bathroom door, of the backdoor.