I’m excited to share with you a tour of my favorite room in our house: baby April’s nursery. I set it up little by little in my third trimester and love how it came together. I planned the layout in my head and started ordering the items after we moved into our house at the end of February. The room gets beautiful soft light throughout the day and puts me in a good mood as soon as I walk in. Going from decorating the room and folding her little clothes to holding her and changing her in the room fills me with gratitude, love and peace. We feel so fortunate to have a dedicated space for April.
The first thing I purchased for the nursery, aside from the rocking chair, was the Parisian-themed wallpaper. I love the soft colours in the wallpaper and thought it went really well with the colours in the room. Damon had a heck of a time putting it up, so for the sake of my marriage I’ll have to hire a professional if I want to put up wallpaper again (he admits that it looks great though).
I loved the oval shape of the Stokke Sleepi Mini crib as soon as I saw it. It’s so adorable with the canopy draped over it. A benefit we didn’t expect was how easily it would fit into our bedroom. We had originally purchased the HALO Bassinest for our bedroom, but we don’t have a raised bed frame so without any clearance under our bed, the x-shaped legs of the HALO were bulky and in the way. We put the HALO downstairs in the tv room by our couch, which is actually the perfect spot because we hang out in that room a lot.
When we came home from the hospital, Damon spent the first night downstairs with April in the HALO. The next day we wheeled the Stokke Sleepi into our bedroom and voila, it fit perfectly. The oval shape makes it ideal for fitting into smaller spaces compared to traditional rectangular shaped cribs. Stokke has a bed expansion kit to convert the mini to a full sized crib so it can grow with our baby a great feature seeing that April is actually quite a long baby and might grow out of it sooner than we expect.
Above the changing table we installed two picture ledges to display an assortment of cute and sentimental things. There are two frames holding photos from my 7 week, 20 week and 32 week ultrasound appointments. I used to get so teary eyed looking at them. It never ceased to surprise me that there was an actual baby in my belly and I’d stare at every detail in those ultrasound photos trying to imagine what she’s like and worrying about how she’s growing. Now I can look at her beautiful face in real life but I will always remember how emotional and protective I felt over those photos.
The cauliflower stuffed animal was my first pregnancy purchase, and the bunny was a cute gift. I just love Jellycat products. The vegetable artwork was from when I was in Paris in September 2019. On one of my solo walks in Le Marais I discovered a little shop that featured local artists, including one from Lyon who makes the prettiest itaglio artwork of vegetables and fruits. I was at the peak of my veggie gardening passion at the time and was obsessed with all her prints. When I became pregnant, I knew those prints would be perfect for the baby room.
The change table is from Fisher Price and we got this changing pad and this cover. We bought the Skip Hop changing pad but it didn’t fit on the change table so my parents are using it at their house. The baby video monitor was a gift from our friends and it’s great. We currently use it in our bedroom where her crib is to monitor the temperature in the room and check on her in the dark from our bed. I love that it comes with a display so you don’t have to use your phone.
The chair in the nursery is the Dream Swivel Gliding & Reclining chair from Pottery Barn Kids. We walked by the store three days after finding out I’m pregnant and decided to go inside just for a look. I walked straight to the rocking chairs and sat down on this exact model. I loved it immediately. We purchased this shortly after, and funny enough Damon ended up using it most of the time because as my pregnancy progressed, I actually didn’t love sitting on the chair. The rocking motion made me feel sick and my growing belly made it uncomfortable to recline. But the chair is super comfortable for me now and it’s great with a baby. It’s perfect for feeding the baby, soothing the baby, and cuddles with the baby. I read to her once a day from the chair as well and it’s one of my favorite things to do with her. A friend gave me a nursing stool which makes it very comfortable for holding the baby and helps my posture. Damon loves using the stool too.
A friend introduced me to the book “Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud To Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever“. I try to read aloud to April once a day from whatever book I’m currently reading.
This is the view from my recliner. I couldn’t resist getting the Charlie Crane Paris rocker. It’s just so aesthetically pleasing. I put April in the rocker or on the Malia Mu braided raft inside the tent when I need to prepare a bottle or use the washroom.
Growing up, I wanted a large standing giraffe. Having a baby gave me the excuse to get one. This purchase was definitely for me, but I hope April will enjoy it when she’s a little older. It adds such a fun and colorful element to the room.
I may have been just a tiny bit over-enthusiastic with getting sensory toys, so I bought a variety of cute baskets to store and display them (more photos below). In the basket you can see a llama, a Jellycat egg on toast, and a bunny. The bunny is a white noise stuffed animal. It plays a variety of sounds, each one more annoying than the one before. April prefers the more annoying ones. It’s quite perplexing to me how white noise could soothe a baby. It certainly doesn’t do anything for me when I’m crying. But it seems to magically stop April when she’s yelling so I’ll have to get used to the sound. We love using the Hatch night light and sound machine in the nursery and the bunny in other rooms. We control the Hatch from our phone and it’s super handy. I like that it looks nice when it’s not in use.
I got the cutest little hangers for hanging up April’s dresses and sweaters. Damon’s mom gave us some truly adorable crocheted cardigans from when Damon and his sister were little. They are beautifully made and just darling. April has a variety of party dresses that she’ll get to wear when she’s a little bigger. I’m so excited. Does anyone want to invite us to a wedding?
I remember randomly flipping through the book Up and Down by Oliver Jeffers in a bookstore because the cover looked cute. It was so unexpectedly moving that I was crying when I got to the last page. It’s my favorite illustrated book.
I love this Loulou Lollipop Paris quilt so much that I bought the New York City one. The Loulou Lollipop city quilts have beautiful designs reminding me of my travels and are perfectly weighted with 4 layers to be warm and comfortable. I drape the quilt over my legs when I’m feeding in the morning. The city designs are also on swaddles. I have the Vancouver muslin swaddle and the NYC muslin swaddle. There’s an oversized city quilt that I’d love to have for my own bed and you bet I want to collect the other locations (there’s London, LA, Canada, Toronto, and Quebec).
For the open storage area in the changing table I have a diaper caddy, a woven basket, and assorted Pehr Pom Pom bins (available at Indigo, Nordstrom, Amazon and Bed Bath & Beyond).
Damon took these photos of me at 38 weeks pregnant. Just a few days before April came into our world. I get emotional looking at photos of my belly. I can’t believe it was April in there this whole time.
Thank you for reading!
For more baby related content, check out the following posts:
Pregnancy Q&A
Baby Wishlist – Under $100
Baby Wishlist – Over $100
Life Update – Third Trimester