-"Baby Makes 3" is funded in part by... -Dear baby, if you can't tell by the bump, you'll be here soon.

To be honest, I'm freaking out a bit.

There's still so much to do -- a lot of organizing, name picking, decorating, and cleaning, all while lugging around 25 or so extra pounds.

I guess I'm feeling a little bit crazy, but I'm allowed to be, right?

I'm your mom, and I want everything to be perfect for you.

I'll see you soon.

Love, mom.

-And by... ♪ -When it comes to baby's health, clean water is at the top of the list.

Food News Media -- supporting clean water for America's restaurant industry and for baby for life.

-Alex and Aaron are a young married couple who started their life together by moving thousands of miles away to Iowa.

But after a little more than a year away, they missed the support and interaction that family provides and moved home.

This time, though, they weren't alone.

Alexandra is expecting their first child.

With a dual-income family and a need to work from home, plenty is about to change.

Alex and Aaron welcome baby today on "Baby Makes 3."

That moment when you go from couple to family, everything changes.

When you bring the baby home, you want to create a warm, comfortable, and safe environment for them.

Step one -- the nursery.

-I'm Alex.

-And I'm Aaron.

-And we are expecting a baby girl.

-In three months.

-Her name is Charlotte.

So, Aaron and I -- We both grew up in North Carolina.

Aaron grew up in Raleigh.

I grew up in Cary.

And when we were planning our wedding, Aaron got a job in Iowa.

-And after a year and a half, we realized how important family was to us.

-When we moved back to North Carolina, we knew that we wanted to settle down here.

Like, we wanted to start a family.

We wanted to buy a home.

We wanted to establish, like, our lives.

-So we just moved in to a brand-new neighborhood.

-It's very family-friendly.

-It is.

-Aaron is an electrical engineer.

-I go to work every day.

They only ask me to work 8:00 to 5:00, but I usually work a lot more than that.

-You enjoy what you do.

-I do.

I do.

We're excited to try to be a working couple while having a baby.

-Yeah.

I'm a project manager for an I.T.

company.

I work from home, so it's something that I've been doing for seven or eight years now.

So it's very natural to me.

My thoughts about working from home and having a baby at home are it's gonna be -- It's gonna be a change.

We chose a celestial theme.

We wanted "Baby Makes 3" to help us with our nursery because we just don't know what we're doing.

-We did not know what to look for, but one of the things that was emphasized to us was the safety aspect.

We would have no idea how you're supposed to attach a crib to the wall.

-Secure things to the wall so the baby doesn't pull them down.

-We would have not known any of this.

-When we found out we were pregnant, Aaron's family is notorious for boys.

-We were expecting twin boys, to be honest.

-We really -- that's what we thought we were having.

-So, when we found out we were having a girl and we wanted the theme of space, I still wanted that theme.

I went to school where it was predominantly men in engineering, and I don't think that that should be the way it is.

-No.

-I think females should be just as encouraged to follow math and science as guys are.

-It's just something that's interesting to us.

It's just something that's special to us.

And thinking that we were gonna have twin boys, we just thought it was cool.

And when we found out we were having a girl, we've almost been thinking about it for so long -- -That it was in stone.

-We weren't gonna change it.

Yeah, that's the kind of nursery we're doing.

-We're at the home of Alex and Aaron.

They're both planning to work after their baby is born.

She works from home.

They're gonna be juggling careers and parenting.

So "Baby Makes 3" is here to help.

-Hi!

-Hi!

Welcome!

-Thank you!

-Come on in!

-Hello.

-I'm Alex.

So nice to meet you.

We're so excited that you're here.

-Well, congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Come on in.

Let me show you the house.

-Thank you.

Oh, wow.

-So, this is where we spend most of our time.

This is our family room, our kitchen.

-It's beautiful.

You have a lot of light.

It's very open.

-Thank you.

-It's really nice.

-Yeah, we love it.

Would you like to go up and see the nursery?

-I would love to see the nursery, yes.

-Okay, so this is our loft.

-Nice.

-We have a reading area where we hang out sometimes.

We have our spare bathroom, and then we have the office, which is where I work.

And it's also now our guest room.

-So, can I take a look?

-Yeah, come on.

Right this way.

-All right.

-And this is my office.

This is where I work.

-Wow.

-I spend a lot of time in here.

-Yes.

I bet you do.

-Yes, I do.

-And it's right across from the nursery.

-Just a few steps away, so that's really nice.

-Oh, that's great.

-But you are -- You're not gonna be able to take care of baby and work full-time.

That's a lot.

-That's gonna be -- It's gonna be a lot, but we have family in town.

-Oh, that's nice.

-Yes.

-It is.

-Well, I would love to see the nursery.

-Okay.

-We're gonna see the space.

-Right this way.

-Okay.

-So, this is it.

-Oh, nice.

Great.

Lots of possibilities.

Yeah.

-We had thought about doing something that's soothing and calm and kind of relaxing.

I know that I'll be spending a lot of nights in here.

So I wanted something soothing.

Aaron wanted something a little bit more... -Space.

-You have a theme.

You want space.

-Yes.

-I love that.

And I think it's great.

Like, you know, back in the -- back in the day, there used to be like -- Space was for boys, and princesses were for girls, so it's so nice that nowadays we can make anything, you know?

So I love that.

Why space?

-Well, we just moved back from Iowa.

My company sent me to Iowa, and they had an observatory while we were out there.

-Ah.

-Date nights out looking at the stars and playing with that stuff, so it's kind of special to us.

-So you can do a lot with the stars.

-Reaching for the stars, shooting for the moon.

She can be whatever she wants.

And we support her.

-Oh, I love that.

So I know that you've already talked to our designer Lauren, and she's been working hard on the designs and they are ready.

-All right.

-That's so exciting.

-Would you like to see them?

-We'd love to see them.

-Okay.

Let's go.

-It was really neat to do this plan for them.

Really sweet just to hear their story.

I loved hearing about how they used to go to an observatory and how important this theme is for them.

So I enjoyed working with it, and it was also a challenge just because it's not a natural theme for a girl's nursery.

So it made it fun.

I enjoy doing something new.

-So, Lauren, I know you've worked really hard on this design.

We're looking forward to seeing what you've come up with.

-Great.

I had so much fun working on this space for both of you and your daughter, Charlotte.

So to give you a good overview of kind of the colors and what's coming into the space, take a look at these paint chips.

So the walls will be neutral, and I'm actually gonna paint the ceiling this aqua-blue color.

-Love that color.

-Then I would like to use pink as an accent color.

-Got to have pink.

-On the furniture, we'll go with the mostly white finishes to keep things very light.

And then we'll do some gold accents, as well.

So this is actually what I'd really like to do with the ceiling.

So in addition to painting it blue, we want to add star decals in this pattern.

Then for the crib, I wanted to go with this Jenny Lind-style crib which means it has turned rails which is a very classic style.

It's actually been around since the 1800s.

So it, you know, brings a more traditional feel to the space.

And then you might be wondering why I have a shower curtain on here.

We're not doing your bathroom.

But I found this really great shower curtain in an aqua blue with a constellation pattern that we're actually gonna stretch over canvas for art.

-Oh, my gosh.

That's gonna be gorgeous.

-Cool.

-Yeah.

-There's a few other projects that are on here that we haven't talked about yet.

One is doing this cloud crown molding at the top of the room.

-That's awesome.

-That is amazing.

-So we're actually gonna paint the blue ceiling color down to the cloud so the clouds will kind of introduce the sky.

And we're going to backlight these, so you'll actually have a little bit of light coming up around them, as well.

-Oh, my gosh.

-It's gonna be beautiful.

And a really sweet night light, too, maybe.

-How wonderful to fall asleep to.

-I know that getting a really comfortable glider and ottoman was really important to you, and so I found these tufted pieces that I thought were just so sweet and in this great aqua-blue color.

-Wow.

-So going to the wall, where your closet door is, you have some really fun projects.

There's a moon-shaped bookshelf.

It's really hard to find a bookshelf that's actually shaped like a moon, so it's something that we're gonna build for you.

-Oh, wow.

-Well, you're gonna help.

-That's right.

-Wow.

That is so cool.

-We decided to re-create the look of the elements of the periodic table with her name.

There are actual elements with those exact letters.

So we'll just kind of do her initials in that style for art on the wall, so that way of kind of personalizing the room for you.

Then we want to do a shooting-star growth chart.

-That's so amazing.

-We have something interesting that we're gonna build over here.

Melissa, I think you know a little bit about that.

-Yeah, so that's a sensory wall.

I made one for my baby, but you can put fabrics.

You can put pieces that they can turn.

So you can kind of create whatever look you want in the room, but it's basically to entertain baby, but also to stimulate their senses and help with their mind growth.

They're wonderful.

-Thank you.

You did a wonderful job.

-Really.

You captured everything that we talked about.

-And above and beyond.

Above and beyond.

I can't wait to see it now.

We definitely are not, like, artistic people.

Just all the little details and the things that make it so special.

-We would not have known to do.

-We would never have thought of anything like that.

-No, we would not have.

I think the idea about the clouds is awesome.

The backlit clouds.

-And I'm really excited about seeing the stars on the ceiling.

I think that's gonna be really -- Like, just really beautiful.

-It's a new day for "Baby Makes 3," and we're already well underway with our nursery.

Let's check in with our painter and see what he's up to.

♪ So, Nate, I see that you have done a lot already.

-Yeah.

Everything's going good.

-Good.

So, next, we got the ceiling.

-Ceiling's up next, yes.

-So, Nate, when you're painting a ceiling, where do you begin?

-So, the first thing I usually do is think about how the door's orientated to the room.

And so I come in the door.

I want to paint perpendicular to how I'm entering the room.

So I want to roll back and forth this way to avoid any lines that your eyes catch on the ceiling if you were to walk in and roll it the other way.

-How do you keep the paint from dripping on the ground?

-The roller nap -- You want to use the right-size nap, and it only holds so much paint at one time.

So that helps keep it from dripping off the tool and the ceiling once you get it up there.

Right here -- This is the nap of the roller, and this is the thickness of the nap right here.

So 1/2-inch is the best.

-Any other tips for painting a ceiling?

-Just taking your time on the ceilings.

Make sure you're prepped.

Everything's out of the way.

Everything's drop-clothed, so if you do make a mistake, then you can recover.

-If you have a light fixture like this, would you just remove it?

Right, so in this room, we're gonna actually remove this in the end because they're putting a new light fixture in.

So that's easiest if you can remove it.

If you can't remove it, the best thing to do with a light is to tape the edge of the light.

-Okay.

While Nate finishes up with the painting, let's check in with Jonathan, our contractor, and Aaron, who are out back starting another project.

-All right, Aaron, so, did you ever think you're gonna be out in your backyard making clouds for your baby's nursery?

-I did not.

-So, basically, what we're gonna do here is pretty simple.

You have a solo cup.

-Okay.

-And you are just going to create basically something in the arrangement that's gonna come with a finished product like this, correct?

So it's really just all freehand, and you're just gonna kind of start from one end, and then work your way all the way down to the other.

And do you happen to have any construction background?

-I have a little bit.

-Yeah?

-A little bit.

-All right, well, let's see if we actually can make this magic happen.

-Okay, I'm gonna start down at this end.

-You can start down on that end.

I think you'll be just fine.

-Kind of making them random heights?

-Yeah, just random heights, just all along the top and bottom, so you can just move back and forth.

You think this is easy enough?

I'm not the most creative guy.

-But this makes it a lot easier with the solo cup.

-Yeah.

-It's pretty simple.

Clamping it down to the table here.

-Clamping it down here.

That's correct.

And if you want the honors of doing this, why don't we get you to go ahead and do it?

You just start here and just try to do the outline of that edge and then go all the way through it.

-Okay.

-Yeah, and if you make a mistake, it's not a big deal.

It's just wood.

-Sand it out.

-Sand it out, or we'll just do a re-cut or, you know, hey, we'll just buy another piece.

-So I stopped caring for a while, and I realized that I had more control over it than I thought I did.

-Yeah.

Maybe we can see if we can get your wife to come help us out with this.

-Okay.

-All right, let's go get her.

-Okay.

-All right.

-I think Aaron and Jonathan need a ton of help making clouds.

Their cut was -- It was okay.

-But we need a little bit of help -- a woman's touch.

-You definitely need a lot of help.

-Perfect.

-You think I can get there faster than you, honey?

-Probably.

-Friendly competition.

-In everything we do.

-That's awesome.

No sound.

-Oh!

Oh!

I beat you!

-Technically, the middle is back here.

-All right, yeah.

We're good.

-You gonna start down on that end and work this way?

-We're gonna start on this end.

She's doing a pretty good job.

Definitely better than me.

-Awesome.

-Wonderful.

-Lost it there at the end, but it's a little tricky.

-A little tricky.

You did a nice job.

-That is beautiful.

-You did a really good job.

-That was really easy, too.

-Now, let's compare this to your husband's.

-Yes.

Well, we already know which one is better.

-Let's put it down here.

There you go.

-I think they're both perfect.

-Good answer.

-Making clouds for Charlotte's nursery is -- I don't even have words for it.

Like, it's so amazing that I'm gonna have something that Aaron and I cut on her wall.

It's gonna be really special.

So, what do we do next to finish these off?

-Well, next thing we've got -- We've got about 10 more of these boards.

-Only a few more to go.

-Just a few more to go.

So once we get them all cut out, then we'll just do a light sanding.

Again, this is a pretty soft wood.

Should be able to sand it on both sides with 120-grit sandpaper.

Real easy.

And then put a coat of paint on them, and then we're gonna stick them on the wall.

-So, Jonathan, how are you going to attach these clouds to the wall?

-Well, what we've come up with is a 1x2 furring strip.

What we're gonna do is we're going to attach it to the wall.

We've actually marked our wall at this point down nine inches from the ceiling so that we could have one level run.

We've also come through and marked our studs.

-Okay.

-And then we're gonna attach the furring strip to our studs.

-How do you find studs?

-Just your typical stud finder.

Get it at a local hardware store.

Easy to use.

Place it against the wall.

And then you're gonna run it.

It will find your stud, show you how long it is, and then it'll disappear.

-Okay.

-So that little area that was basically blinking will show you that that's where your stud is.

So again, we've marked that.

We're going to then move this board up to the wall.

We will attach it one piece -- one screw at a time.

-We're right on line now.

-I also notice this bottom part is gonna be painted white.

This is not painted.

The reason being is that your clouds are gonna attach right over the top of that.

-Okay, that makes sense.

-We'll never see this.

-You'll never see this, and you'll also never see this open space again.

Your clouds will sit on top of that, and we should be good to go.

-We'll only see the blue.

-That's correct.

-With our LED lighting overhead, we have to bring power down through our wall to an electrical outlet.

This is a familiar operation for those who have mounted a large-screen TV on a wall and want to hide the wiring.

For us, we're using a wall kit that you can find at a local audiovisual store, which makes installation easy.

Jonathan is cutting a hole in the wall for the LED power cord.

Now we're feeding the cord down the wall.

These brackets provide a secure and attractive way to bring the wires in and out of the wall.

Now we're gonna bring in some more smaller clouds.

-That's right.

And we need those because we have seams that we need to cover up.

And we have some other areas that a little paint -- exactly.

The clouds get smaller.

So we want to just be able to cover all that up.

-And it's gonna look good.

-And it's gonna look good.

-More of a 3-D. Yeah.

-That should secure this one.

Now you're gonna want to get into this one.

-Okay, the two of them together?

-Yep.

-So, Jonathan, what's our plan to backlight the clouds?

-We have a set of rope-lighting -- LED -- that's gonna just drop right behind here and run around the entire room.

And we've already installed the cable that's gonna hide it from the wall -- from the top to the floor.

Should be able to plug it into an electrical outlet.

Should look amazing.

-Great.

At night, our LED lighting creates a soothing effect upward, toward our cloud-blue ceiling.

Outside, Aaron is working on a growth chart, so I'm checking in with him.

Wow, Aaron, it looks like you have already jumped in on our growth-chart project.

-Yes.

-Great.

So, how did you come up with the design for your angles?

-So, the original idea was to have a five-pointed star and to take a circle, stencil it on the wood, and divide the 360 degrees of the circle by five points.

That would have gave us 72 degrees between each of the points.

-Okay.

-And then we would have just connected the lines -- or connected the dots.

What we ended up doing is because the growth chart is on this section, we didn't want one of the points to land on the actual growth chart.

-Right.

-So we actually did a little bit of playing with the angles.

And so what we ended up doing was having three angles that were the same and two that were at 90 degrees.

-Oh, okay.

So, are we ready to cut?

-We are ready to cut.

-Okay, I'm gonna put the safety glasses on.

Here we go.

-Okay.

-Next, we have a local artist who's going to show us a fun and easy way to paint an amazing design for this project.

-So, Dink, I see you're working on the growth chart, and you've already done some work.

So where are we at?

-We've already primed it, which is gonna keep it from -- Make it just last a little longer, keep it from molding or warping or anything like that.

-Great.

-We put on the base paint, which is gonna be our pink universe, and then we're going to apply all the stars and all the little galaxies that are gonna be in this universe for the shooting-star growth chart.

-Great.

I just want to watch you work.

-Awesome.

This is actually really fun and easy to do.

-Okay.

-We're gonna use some white acrylic paint.

I put a polymer in it, which is like putting a veneer on it.

It's gonna make it last a little longer.

We also have -- I've watered it down a little because you want -- When you do the stars, we're actually gonna use a technique where you flip the bristles to allow random patterns to go down onto the growth chart, which will make it look like the stars flying through the universe.

-Okay.

Great.

-So you want to put it just on the tip, and then when you do it, you don't want to send it over the top of it because you don't want to end up with a big glob drip down on it.

You want to use a motion like this, and what it does is it gives you these random patterns.

And as you do this, the key to the universe is layers.

And if you get big blobs, it's gonna work perfectly 'cause as soon as we finish this, we are going to take -- In fact, I'll show you right now.

Like, that blob right there -- What we can do is just take something flat, and we're gonna actually make this a twinkle star.

-Oh, my gosh.

Wow.

So, Dink, this seems like it's a pretty easy project for almost anyone to do.

-It is.

It's pretty fail-proof.

-And the paints that we are using -- water-soluble, so is it easy clean-up?

-Yes, absolutely.

Absolutely.

I do suggest if you do get it in the fibers of your clothes, just clean it immediately, like, if you splatter something on you.

But for the most part, everything's water-soluble.

It's gonna be very easy to clean up.

-Great.

-Now, once we finish with this, we'll have, you know, billions of stars on here, then we're gonna paint the shooting star -- the actual big star -- gold.

We'll do some shadows to make it three-dimensional.

And then we're gonna give it some effects to make it look like it's actually shooting through the sky.

And then, once we finish the star on top, we're gonna come in and put all the little inch marks all the way up so they can measure her.

-That is amazing, Dink.

We're off to a great start, but we're not done yet.

Next time, we'll be installing a sensory wall and adding stars to the ceiling for baby to gaze at.

We'll also be heading to our grandparents' home to create a day nursery so they can provide child care while Alex works from home.

When all is done, we'll have a celestial-themed nursery at home and a day nursery at the grandparents' home to help when needed.

Our main goal is to be sure that when our little one arrives, everything is out of this world.

Next time on "Baby Makes 3."

-Closed captioning is brought to you by... Snuggle Me Organic -- organic cotton and wool loungers and bed sharing cushions for baby.

-"Baby Makes 3" is funded in part by... -Dear baby, if you can't tell by the bump, you'll be here soon.

To be honest, I'm freaking out a bit.

There's still so much to do -- a lot of organizing, name picking, decorating, and cleaning, all while lugging around 25 or so extra pounds.

I guess I'm feeling a little bit crazy, but I'm allowed to be, right?

I'm your mom, and I want everything to be perfect for you.

I'll see you soon.

Love, mom.

-And by... ♪ -When it comes to baby's health, clean water is at the top of the list.

Food News Media -- supporting clean water for America's restaurant industry and for baby for life.

-Safety first.

"Baby Makes 3" nurseries are created for newborns.

Some projects may not be suitable for older children.

When in doubt, seek the help of a licensed contractor.

For more information, visit us on the web at babymakes3.tv.

-The "Baby Makes 3" DVD set helps make those first parenting decisions the right decisions.

Discover more than 50 nursery projects, including a starlight ceiling and nursery accent wall.

Create a fun, adorable, and safe space for your baby.

Available for $19.95 including shipping and handling.

Order online at babymakes3.tv.