a caring and thoughtful co-worker put some of these sweet little
vintage-look baby hangars in my mailbox at school today
oh my!
such fun
they're so tiny!
so, here are a couple of questions for you mamas out there (and others who would like to chime in)
I am an "all one kind of hangar" girl. White plastic tube hangars happen to be my hangar of choice. I have a friend who had all red at one point. Neat.
I like the uniform look.
When we married, my closet expanded to two types of hangars, white plastic tube hangars and wooden hangars. I'm good with that. Each lives in it's own section. It's nice, organized, stream-lined, uniform . . .
so, I'm wondering, should I go out and get a supply of these same hangars to match because they're adorable or are there practical implications that I might not be considering?
'Cause I'll say this, I'm not sure if I've ever hung up a little baby outfit.
So, question #1, what's important to you in a hangar for baby's clothes?
(I know I can't be the only one with opinions about hangars, right? Let me hear 'em.)
Okay, second question kind of goes along with this theme.
Baby's closet . . .
what do you keep in the nursery closet besides clothes?
because, remember this post . . .
Glad I took advantage of that because everything is about to change in a wonderful way!
So, back to closets . . .
Well, here is the closet in the craft room nursery!
(okay, so you have to scroll down several pics to get to the closet but it's almost my bedtime and I'm trying to post while it's still Monday!)
I have wondered what in the world I would do with all of that stuff.
Then, Friday night, while hanging out with some great girls and talking through all the dilemmas of life, including but certainly not limited to nurseries, I had an aha!
What about an armoire?!
Shouldn't be too hard to find on craigslist or at a garage sale these days with people who had one for their tv wanting to get rid of it as they go to flat screen and such . . . and I could paint it
is this a good idea?
then I could keep the craft closet as is.
now, to be honest, i don't want to hear "what am i going to do when the baby's napping and that is the only time I have to do something crafty and all of my craft stuff is in the same room as the baby?" we'll cross that bridge when we get to it or maybe i'll become super organized and neatly lay out all of the supplies i will need for the project *before* i lay the baby down - ha! :)
Best bet is I'll be grabbing a nap too, right?
okay, one final thing in this now forever post . . .
a prayer request . . .
I'm going to just lay it out there and be honest . . .
I am thrilled to be pregnant but i am struggling with the whole body image thing.
I did not expect this, not one bit.
I didn't think that my identity was wrapped up in what I look like, well, the temptation to compare and find myself falling short has hit, big time and I'm disappointed in myself and I want to stop. stop comparing, stop feeling like I don't look good. I want to start believing God's truth about me. I want to know, deep down, without the nagging doubts that not only is my sweet baby being wonderfully made, but I am wonderfully made! Today, yesterday, at 9 months pregnant, post-partem, when I'm forty, when I get wrinkles and on and on and on.
Psalm 127:3 (New American Standard Bible)
"Behold, children are a gift of the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward."
Proverbs 16:31 (New International Version)
"Gray hair is a crown of splendor;
it is attained by a righteous life."
Thanks for "listening" and letting me be real and honest
and ask a bunch of crazy questions. :)
I hope you're having a good Monday.
Kelly
12 comments:
I use plastic tube hangers, the hangers that outfits came on, old hangers my mom had kept, pretty much any hangers I can get my hands on!! I use WAY more than I ever thought I would. Anyone who tells you you need two dozen is way wrong. You need more like five dozen or so. :-) I currently have Emily's 12 month and 18 month clothes out (and a few 9 month ones she can still wear!) and I'm putting things in a box as she outgrows them.
As for what's in the closet...Emily has a fairly small closet so she has clothes on the rod; a small bookcase that I keep a box of future-sized clothes and other things on, diaper boxes (both current size and a small size that we just didn't use), empty boxes that I know we'll use to put the items back in (Bumbo seat and other toys); Emily's travel bag and the old diaper bag; her swimming pool and a gate we're not using right now. We store as much as we can in there because we can close the door and keep Emily out.
An armoire is a nice idea, but we have WAY too many clothes to fit in one. I never thought I would have so many clothes for Emily, but I didn't realize how many Jenni would be buying! :-)
As for naps...if you're anything like me, you won't nap when the baby does. You'll take some time for yourself to do projects. That is my only down time so I try to not do things that I can do when Emily's awake, like laundry, cooking, cleaning (for the most part).
I, too, had a hard time with the fact that not only was I going to gain weight, but I NEEDED to. Just remember that this is your time to really focus on yourself and do things for yourself. No one will think twice if you take care of yourself right now (and if they do, tell them to just go away!). The best thing you can do for your baby is to take care of yourself.
I hope this has been helpful! :-)
Kelly - My admonition about tiny baby clothes is to have drawers - they are so tiny and you have to change the clothes so many times a day(or night) that you don't want to be messing with hangars (except for maybe the prettiest sunday dresses. When the baby grows, so does the clothes and the need for hangars.
Regarding your body image: Every woman has been /is / will be exactly where you are! You're a beautiful lady whose body is being used to form an amazing little person. When your body is done with that job, it will have new jobs. Just keep living a healthy lifestyle and know that God made your body to take on many forms in your lifetime. Remember to concentrate on the beautiful aspects one at a time rather than looking at the whole picture! :)
Love your honesty in your posts - I can just "hear" you saying it all!
Hang in there! It's going to be a wonderful adventure.
Ruth
I like the while plastic tube hangers - like you, I appreciate the uniform look. Now I hang all of Claire's dresses, t-shirts, and tops and fold her pjs, shorts and pants, but for the first year, when she was mostly wearing onesies, I folded everything. I bought some drawer organizers at Ikea and folded things (like onesies) in half or thirds, then stacked them in the organizers so that I could see everything at a glance. Our old house was a lot smaller, so we kept most of her clothes, blankets, bibs, socks, burp cloths, carriers, and odds and ends in a large dresser we bought from Ikea (the Hemnes series - love it. It has really deep drawers and holds a ton of stuff - we will probably buy another one when we have another kid).
Claire has a big closet with built in shelves, so it has her current clothes, boxes on the top shelf with things she's outgrown (labeled and sorted by size, with gender-neutral clothes in separate boxes), the bassinet for her stroller, toys that she is still too young for, boxes of diapers and wipes, extra diaper and travel bags and her baby bathtub that she's outgrown.
I agree with Heather - it would be easy to quickly fill up an armoire with clothes. Maybe you could use the armoire for your craft stuff?
I will tell you one thing that kept us from being overrun with clothing gifts - we didn't find out what we were having. So, the gifts she got before she was born were mostly off the registry - the things we needed, which was nice. :) After she was born, we still got a lot of clothes, and we still ended up with more "fancy" outfits than she was able to use. There are dresses that she never wore. People love to buy baby clothes, especially for girls.
Regarding the body image, I think it gets better as you get further along and you're really showing rather than just feeling fat, and also when you are regularly feeling the baby move. I think I've never felt better about my body than I did through about months 5-8 (before I got huge!). You'll get more smiles and kind looks from strangers than you've ever had in your life, and that made me feel really special. It's exciting to see your body do something it was made for. I'm sure it will get better for you!
White plastic hangers are great for baby clothes, and there are some that come with matching clips so that you can hang all of those cute little pairs of baby pants and shorts (and maybe skirts and capris!) straight under the matching tops! Like that.
I keep most of the everyday outfits for my little guy in the great-Canton-find changing table and the nicer outfits hanging in his closet. For me, having extra outfits nearby while doing changes has been a very good thing. This keeps me from having to carry a half-dressed baby to the closet to find something else when there is a, um, diaper accident...especially if this happens frequently. :) Not a lot of storage space at our place, so we keep other baby things in the closet too like diaper bags, extra diapers, extra wipes, blankets, sheets, toys, etc.
The body image woes helped me (after the fact, of course) to understand and appreciate what my mom went through with me. :) It's kind of a "right of passage" type thing. No. Our bodies will never be exactly the way that they were pre-baby, but thankfully neither will our lives because of the sweet new people that we get as a result of all of that wacky stuff going on. This is something I've had to put into the "just part of it" category (and I still have to remind myself of this at times). This is just part of being a momma. Know too, that you are probably more critical of yourself than anyone else is. You are beautiful dear friend!
Erin
What wonderful comments you have received. It has been 30 years since I had a baby (your brother) and even longer since I had a precious little girl (you) so I cannot remember exactly where I kept clothing. One of the comments mentioned different sized clothing. It might be fun, if hangers come in multi colors, to have colors for each different size?????
As for body image, let me just say that you are a beautiful lady and I think, too that when you are obviously pregnant and don't just feel "fat" you will feel much better. It is also definitely a good idea to splurge on some clothes that fit so that you feel beautiful.
I love you sweet mama.
Along the lines of your Mom's comment about the different colored hangers for different sizes--Babies R Us has some dividers that you can put on the closet rod to separate clothes by size. The are really handy if you have space to keep all of the different sizes hanging up. I also like the plastic tube hangers. At Target, in the laundry section they also have little clips that you can put on the hangers to use to hang pants, skirts, or the little diaper covers that come with most dresses. Another suggestion for storage is under the crib. You could always use boxes/baskets that slide under the crib, but some cribs also have an optional drawer that you can order. We got our crib at Babies R Us and then ordered the drawer to go under it. It is pretty shallow, but it is really handy for holding blankets and extra bedding as well as any other items that you might need storage for. If you do choose to look for and use an armoire, you might consider having Adrian adding a second hanging rod halfway down to double your hanging space. Baby clothes are so tiny that they don't need all the hanging space downwards, so you can fit two rows of clothes in. There are tons of options for how to organize clothes. It is really nice to have a lot of hanging space, but drawers work too. Have fun exploring all of your options.
WOW! You got lots of ideas! We will have to have you and Adrian over so you can get a visual of A's closet & room. I think you will be able to find a creative solution over the next few months.
Maybe I will have to blogg about this soon...how did we make our babies closet possible...hmm...the wheels are turning...stay tuned.
Hi Kelly,
Well, I'm a little late in making the rounds for comments, but I have been thinking about the post for a couple of days. I think you'll find that itty-bitty baby clothes are easiest to store in drawers. Oh yes, there will be some outfits that you'll want to hang -- just use the baby sized white tube hangers -- and people will likely give the baby outfits that he/she can grow into, these, I suspect you'll want to hang. All in all, I've always used baby's closet for many items other than clothes -- toys, Boppy, future baby supplies, packages of diapers, etc., but I've always felt that baby's closet doesn't have to be big. So, yes, I think you could quite easily do the armoire thing, especially if you got one with drawers in the bottom half.
Regarding body image, oh this is a struggle. I remember how I cried on and off for two days during my first pregnancy when I discovered a big, blue spider vein on my calf. The truth is, pregnancy makes a mark and leaves a mark but the blessings it creates far surpass. You are such a beautiful girl, just keep trying to do you best to honor God in how you care for your body, during and after your pregnancy.
Here's my take on it all....
Hangers- I prefer the white tube hangers. However, I like the ones that have the little slots in them. Do you know what I'm talking about? That way you can hang up dresses/tanks/whatever, and they won't fall off. That drives me crazy when they do.
Closet/Storage- I use everything. We have a set of drawers where I tend to keep everyday stuff. I have onesies and socks in the top drawer. There are "outfits" in the second drawer. I keep the third drawer as storage for things such as outfits that she can't wear yet and sheets for the crib...stuff like that. Aaron wanted a closet that was especially made for the girls, so we designed it. It has shelves in the middle for baskets. The baskets have toys, hats, play outfits, etc. in them. There are places for clothes on both sides. Mostly there are dresses in the closet. We also store anything and everything else in there. I can't stand the nursery looking messy.
Body image- You know that I'm the WORST about this. I stressed at every moment. I do agree that once you have a belly and people know that you are pregnant, it gets easier. However, I honestly counted every pound along the way knowing that I'd have to work it all off afterward. Here's some hope for you....I lost all the weight after both kiddos within about 6 months. It does take a bit depending on your body. BUT my body is NOT the same...but you know what, I like it BETTER!!! Just knowing why it's that way makes all the difference. You'll see your sweet baby every day and know THAT'S why your body changed. I've probably never loved my body this much!
Sorry this is so long. I hope it helps somewhat!
hey kelly! i was the same way... i wanted all of my hangers to be the same. but... little girl dresses come with the diaper covers, and i wanted them to stay with the dress. so, i let go of my ocd ways this once and started using the hangers that you get at the store that can hold diaper cover/pants and a dress/top. i liked for outfits to be together, i didn't want to have to go to a drawer to find the matching diaper cover or pants. pants wont stay on the hanger if you fold them over b/c they are just too little. i also started saving the pant hangers you get at the store, and i still have some itty bitty ones that i use today!
macie has two closets... one in her room and one in the guest room. the one in the guest room has all of the clothes i have bought her for the next year at outstanding prices... when i buy them i keep them on the hanger that they came on. and then when she starts wearing them, i change to the white plastic hanger.
Well, Hannah has lavendar plastic hangers for one piece and white plastic hangers with clips for pants/skirts and 2pc outfits. The boys have red plastic for one piece and blue plastic with clips for pants and 2 pc. :-) That does help when I hand Hannah an armfull of hangers to put in their respective closets (the 3 boys share one room and 1 closet) she can easily get the right hangers in the right closet! But you will need some clips - girls everything comes with multiple pieces (bloomers, diaper covers, socks, hats, skirts, pants, bows or headbands and even shoes!) and boys will have pants, hats, socks, shoes. Sometimes if it really came with that outfit it is easier to store with it! And if it's stored together, there will be times dad needs to grab a matching outfit easiley! Now, I am all for keeping the craft space and the armoir is always gorgeous. My first nursery closet (4 kids and 5 homes ago) held all the clothes, extra diapers, wipes, toys she wasn't ready for yet, the stroller, a file cabinet, some of my teaching stuff, boxes stored on the very top shelf we never got in to...can't remember what else. It was a big closet for a little baby! But the closet is a place - even when baby is crawling or toddling - that can be locked and he/she can't access that craft stuff - scissors, needles, glue, tape, glitter...:-) Oh the fun!
Kori
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