Cloth diapers and the like

Yesterday we (mainly I) received two packages in the mail. The first was my diaper bag I debated what kind I wanted and ended up getting one from Vera Bradley yes it was expensive but once I am done with the bag as a diaper bag it will double as a bag for me. While everything in the bag may be for my child the bag itself is all for me.



Vera Bradley baby bag in Lime's Up

The second package that arrive yesterday was the first half of our diaper stash. Yes, we've decided to cloth diaper. And while I am aware that there is a little bit more worked involved with the prepping and washing of cloth diapers it seemed worth to me and to us to pay a little more upfront for long lasting diapers. Basically for $200 I'll be getting a stash of diapers that should last up to potty training with disposable diapers you can easily add another 0 that total. Of course my situation is one in which I will have the time to stay on top of the diaper laundry. The ones we have are from alvababy.com and appear to be perfect. I played with them last night practicing stuffing them and snapping them into the different sizes. They are adorable and I can not wait to use them on the little one. My current favorite is the red winter diaper for our winter baby.






The highlight of my evening though was sitting in the glider in the nursery listening to Dash snore at my feet and imagining what it will be like in 6 months when Monkey is here.

Small update

Well, we've officially made it to the 2nd trimester. If you Google "second trimester start date" you will find two trains of thought one says that 13 weeks + 1 day is the start of the second trimester and the other is that 14 weeks is the start of the second trimester. We are now at 14+1 so we've graduated into phase 2 of this pregnancy. Go us!

And 14 weeks old in the womb (actually I guess technically only 12 weeks but whatever) the spawn is already being spoiled rotten by his or her adoring grandparents. Over the last few weeks two large packages have arrived and I have been unable to avoid the lure of seeing what goodies were inside waiting for our little one.

First to arrive was from Grandparents M (aka Brett's parents) they sent Monkey a beautiful travel set. The Graco Alano Travel System in the Roman print. I adore it. I put it together the day it arrived and I won't lie I've been trying to master the art of opening and closing it one handed. I am very close to successful! Even B has played with it a time or two.



The lovely car seat. It was kind of a surreal moment to pull it out of the box. One of those "wow we are actually having a baby moments".



And the stroller. I love this stroller.

The second box to arrive came from Grandparents J (note Monkey is blessed with three sets of Grandparents - A, J, and M). Grandparents J are my mom and stepdad and they bought Monkey a beautiful crib/changing table set. The crib will be with the little one for many years to come as it can be turned into a toddler bed and then a twin bed. I *love* the finish of this crib but I do tend to love the darker woods. This box arrived yesterday and once we (actually once Brett) got it upstairs I opened it up to check all the parts and make sure nothing was damaged etc. After bribing the man with coffee we set about putting together the largest pieces of furniture in the spawn's room.



Everything spread out and ready to go.



Dashy helping put together the various pieces.





Beautiful pieces! I can't wait to find out if Monkey is a boy or a girl so we can really start talking about how we want to decorate the baby's room.

Monkey, Brett, and I send huge thanks to Grandparents M & J for the beautiful gifts we are excited to be use them!

Upcoming baby news - our next 10 minute appointment is on July 9 I will be just shy of 17 weeks and a small part of me is hoping for another peek at the little one and maybe just maybe finding out the gender a little early. A week after that I am going home to visit Grandparents A & J for a week. After I return we have 1 week until the big anatomy scan and the big question will (hopefully) for sure be answered.

199 days*

As of this morning my due date is 199 days away! I say this with full awareness that Monkey could decide to cook until January (please Monkey don't do that!) or due to my high blood pressure I could be induced the first week of December. But Monkey is "due" in 199 days. :-) I love that. I love that we've gone from well over 200 days away to under 200 now. I'm a very skilled countdown-er thanks to do 2 deployments. I understand how thrilling it is to reach a new first number in a countdown.

Today I am 11 weeks and 4 days pregnant - quickly closing in on the end of the first trimester which is insane! I honestly had reached a point not to long ago that was thinking we'd never have a baby. Long story short we first discussed having a baby 2 years ago it has been a very long journey to reach this new stage. But we are very blessed to be expecting number 1.

I know it is super early but I am fairly certain I felt baby's first flutters this week. I have spent so much time evaluating my body over the last two years I know what is normal and what isn't. Anyway, I felt a very new sensation that was very light and very quick. I'm chalking it up to first movement. ;-)

I am having a hard time controlling myself and not splurging on things for the little one. I'm resisting fairly well mainly because we are waiting to find out if we are having a girl monkey or a boy monkey.

After doing a great deal of research and talking to mom's that cloth diaper it looks like that is our plan for baby. Right now we plan on disposables until little one is ready to wear the AIO Cloth Diapers. I think we are going to get the majority of our diapers through AlvaBaby starting with a 20 pack from them.

Monkey does have his/her first onesies. I purchased them at work about a month ago when we were having a baby sale.

I think they are adorable and a little skirt or bow will be perfect if Monkey is a girl. The 3 pack is 0-3 months and the Daddy one is 3-6 months.

Our next appointment is Thursday it is just a standard tummy check, some lab work, and I expect to get the results from some labs I had done last month. I'm also hoping to hear Monkey's heartbeat for the first time. We've also already had our 20 week anatomy scan scheduled for August 1. I am so excited!

As for how I'm doing - I'm good still incredibly tired but I've noticed lately more days with energy lately. I've been lucky to have no morning sickness (I did have issues with the gummy prenatals but when I switched back to the pill kind that went away). I do have a lot of heartburn which drives me batty but isn't overall that bad. My main issue is swinging back and forth between days were I can not find anything to eat and days were I have very specific cravings. I've not been eating a lot of meat because I have issues looking at it let alone cooking or eating it.

Other random tidbits Monkey's nursery theme will indeed be Monkeys. :-) And we do have names picked out we are just keeping them to ourselves until little one is here. :0)