The nursery, gifts and a little tangent on parenting

It's been awhile since I've updated. I've been spending a lot of time getting the nursery ready for little Evie. When we moved into this house, we knew we wanted our room to be the one beside hers since it would be easier to not have to cross the house to get to her at night. This means we gave up the master bedroom for a smaller room. Evie's room is right next door and hers is the smallest of the three bedrooms. It had some water damage on the exterior wall (and yet, luckily, no mold!) which we found when painting, so we had to tear out the paneling and insulation and replace it. We are still working on the walls, trying to figure out how we want to do the colors, but we already built the crib and put some of her furniture and other essentials in the nursery. It's quite pretty, actually!

It only took us like 3 hours, but we got the crib put together. The top rail is not flush with the side, but that doesn't appear to alter the structural integrity of the crib.

We have also been getting a ton of donated hand-me-downs from friends, family, neighbors and even some strangers! It's funny because I was a little worried that Evie was going to be the baby with a small wardrobe, but as it turns out, you can barely mention you're expecting and people throw clothes at you from every direction. I feel very lucky for this. I also feel lucky to have a friend who is ten weeks behind me that I can pass all of the love onto when she gives birth!

Some gifts: Headbands from a mommy friend, onesie and handmade book from one of Gavin's BFF's and the Counting Kisses and Curious George book and onesie are from said BFF's mom (whom I have never met!)

Other than that, I've mostly been spending my time having the senioritis of pregnancy. Third trimester impatience? Every day I work, every class I push myself in the doors. I spend a lot of time thinking about holding Evelyn in my arms and smelling the top of her head. Is there anything quite like the smell of a newborn baby? I cannot wait for her arrival.
I've also been perusing the Mom groups on Facebook. Some of the moms seem pretty confident in their parenting. I guess by the 3rd, 4th, 5th baby you have got to have a handle on how to answer their little curious questions ("Where do babies come from?¨ and "why does little brother have a tail on the front?").
I don't think anyone ever becomes a pro at being a parent, though. From what I've learned being a part of a large and pretty diverse family, you can think you're doing the best job ever and really mess up your kid and you can think you're the worst parent in the world and have your kid turn out to be the most kind and compassionate human being you know. Of course there are the neutrals as well.
I think the biggest change I've gone through during my pregnancy has been realizing that I had a lot of hang-ups. I let go of a lot of stigmas, chose to abandon the judgments I once had for moms whose kids were throwing tantrums in restaurants, running through the neighborhood unattended and touching every single thing in the store. I've made a conscious decision to encourage moms who seem to be trying their best and still failing to improve their day.
So far, I have only really had one opportunity to do this. It was in the Target bathroom a few months ago. A little boy had not wanted to wash his hands, kicked the pipe under the sink in frustration and the cover fell off, pouring water all over the floor. Immediately he sank into a puddle of tears (and sink water). His mom was caught between gentle parenting and getting the message across that kicking things was unacceptable. It was a struggle. I totally understood that. As I washed my hands I turned to her and I said, "You're doing a really good job, I promise. This is just one of those days and you'll get to the other side of it. You're doing the best you can," and then I took a paper towel, dried my hands and waved goodbye to the boy in the puddle, still wiping his tired eyes. The mom smiled and thanked me.
We are all fighting the same battle. To try to raise children with love, respect, compassion and strong hearts, intelligent children that will know how to solve the problems of the world one day is our optimum outcome. When I see people scoffing and rolling their eyes at the mom who is singing to her breastfeeding baby on the bus, I just want to shake them. "Do you really have room to judge anyone!?" And don't get me wrong. I still catch myself shaking my head at the lady who is dousing her child in hand sanitizer before putting him in the grocery cart. I have my reasons for being annoyed by that (mostly scientific, killing ALMOST all the germs leaves only the strongest germs to procreate and make stronger germs) but I'm trying hard to just let it go. Maybe her child has a weak immune system and even those weak germs destroyed by sanitizer would have been devastating to his little body.
I have a long way to go, still. I think we all do. But if we really think about it and try to put forth a conscious effort, I think we can be okay with each others' parenting methods and raise some pretty awesome future adults.