working mommy wednesday

Show us your life/ room/ work/ house/ drive to work, etc. in pictures!

Rodgers and I were talking about our living room furniture last night or the night before, so I'll show you our living room. Most of our furniture is handmedowns. I bought the chair-and-a-half used. We have a bookcase, designed by me, constructed by my dad, which is the only piece in the living room that has no previous owners. I don't have recent pictures, but here's how it looked when we first moved in:

This is our living room as seen from the hallway.

On the wall you don't see, to the left of the picture, is a loveseat. Nate was born 8 days late. I worked until 1 day after his due date. The week in between due date and induction date, I rarely left that loveseat. When I had contractions the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy (which would last for hours in the evenings), that loveseat is where I would lie down. I had countless pillows arranged just-so on the loveseat. It was the most comfortable I could possibly be at that point.

The chair-and-a-half is our cuddler. Rodgers and I sit there together, watching TV or movies in the evenings and on weekends. Rodgers usually sits there by himself in the evenings if I'm busy. After dinner, he can hardly keep himself awake in that chair. When Nate was newborn and I was on maternity leave, Rodgers and I split the night getting up with him. Rodgers would take the first half, and I would take the second half. Usually, Rodgers would use the monitor so that he could sleep in bed between Nate's bottles. Once it was my turn, I would turn off the monitor and get up with Nate. He usually had a hard time going back to bed by then, so I often cuddled him in the cuddler, and we would both sleep.

The recliner is where Nate and I spent our days during my maternity leave. It is also where I fed him most of his bottles at home once I went back to work. We spent many a Saturday afternoon there those first weeks I was back at work. When Nate would fall asleep, Rodgers would tell me to go put him down in his crib, but I relished those cuddly naps in the recliner. Sometimes I would have my laptop set up on a bar stool next to me and surf the internet, sometimes I would read a book, and sometimes I would just watch Nate sleep on me. The recliner is kind of gross now because it's coated in spit up. I really should clean it now that Nate spits up less...

The ottoman is no longer in front of the cuddler, except on movie night. We keep it under the bar next to the highchair, since the bar stools were never used there and have become our laptop tables. The floor is open, and often covered in toys. Rather than spending hours rocking in the recliner together, Nate and I (and Rodgers) spend hours in the living room floor, playing with cups and socks and monkeys, reading books, practicing standing up and walking, and exploring the variety of fuzzies that tend to gather in the carpet (which means Nate tries to eat them, and we find them stuck to his lips or chin).

There is now a basket of toys next to the recliner, and usually a Bumbo and bouncy seat sitting in the floor in front of the TV. Also, various burp cloths and blankets tend to be draped over the arms of the chairs. Sometimes a stray bottle is hiding under the recliner. There is probably a blue pacifier with sailboats on it somewhere in this room, but we have yet to find it...