Christmas Recap

We had a very wonderful Christmas together this year!

We spent Christmas Eve with Josh's dad and step mom and went to the late service at church. We saw his mom the day before for lunch.

We spent Christmas morning together alone for our last year. Next year we'll be sharing Christmas morning with our son.

We spent the morning together enjoying Starbucks and opening gifts. Josh got an icecream maker, Shawn of the Dead on Blu-Ray, and a picture frame that says "dad". He bought me UP, Monsters, Inc and Snow White on Blu-Ray and a new camera.

We lounged around the house until late afternoon when we went to my mom and dad's house. We had a late Christmas because my dad had to work the night before and didn't get home until almost 7am. It was a really nice evening. My mom made a prime rib and we open gifts after dinner. Everyone seemed to enjoy what they got.

My big gift was a glider for the baby's room. I've been spending a lot of time in there now that I have somewhere to sit. Josh got a fire pit and chairs for our back yard.

Its hard to believe that we'll be opening gifts next year with a 7 month old! My mom and dad are so excited for it! My dad bought my mom a necklace that says "Mema" since that is what we will be calling her. My dad will be Papa Joe. We recieved a lot of things for our little one and I can't wait for the coming years where there will be a little one to share the excitment of Christmas with!

Cloth Diapers

Josh and I have decided to cloth diaper our son.

We are not doing this to "save money", so those who wish to go on about how the cost of washing/drying cancel out the cost of disposables need not leave comments.

We are cloth diapering because we want to, no other reason.

Yes, it means laundry done daily (but we already do that)

Yes, it means that we'll have to clean the diapers ourselves (we are not squeamish)

No, I don't think we'll be more prone to diaper rashes, because if you keep your child dry and don't let them sit in their filth then you limit the number of rashes.

I like the idea of my baby's bottom being covered by cloth then a paper material made to absorb.

There are so many styles of cloth diapers that we'll be able to find the type that works the best for us.

That may mean prefolds (think traditional white cloth diapers used with plastic pants from the 60's/70's) with a diaper cover... or a pocket diaper with a removable insert... or an all in one...

To get started I've already purchased several diapers. I have three all in ones on the way and today I received three pocket diapers I purchased.

Another bonus of cloth diapers is how adorable they are. They come in all sorts of colors and prints!

People may not agree with our choice to cloth diaper, but that is what it is... OUR choice.

For those who are interested in learning more, I found this website helpful.

belly bump progress

My belly progress has been slow... but its now to the point that I can not wear regular clothing at all. I had to make several purchases over the last few weeks to build my wardrobe. I have a handful of regular shirts that still fit though, so that is great! Pants on the other hand no longer fit and thanks to Destination Maternity I now have several pairs of pants that fit both in length as well as in belly.

5 week, shortly after I found out we were expecting

10 weeks, with not much change at all, and still in regular clothing

12 weeks and in yoga pants, which are still the most comfortable!

14 weeks and still in prepregnancy clothing

16 weeks and in maternity jeans... only a few prepregnancy pants still fit

19 weeks in one of the few dresses that I own that still fit.... I forgot to take pictures at week 18!

20 weeks along and in maternity clothes

I've been taking pictures bi-weekly, but I think now that I'm half way through that I'm going to start taking them weekly! It's been exciting to see my belly grow, but not so much the stretch marks. They are inevitable even if I'm using a tummy butter to "aid" the marks. I'm not fond of them, but they are what they are. I'm happy that my tattoos haven't stretched with my belly and hope that they don't.

I hope that soon Josh can start feeling our little guy moving and kicking. I feel him all the time, and mostly at night or when I'm resting. While we flew home from Kentucky I felt him almost non stop during the flight and then today while at the chiropractor I felt him kicking during my pressure print thearapy.

It makes me smile everytime I feel him and makes me feel even closer to this little one. Its hard to believe that in 20 weeks (maybe a little less, or maybe a little more) I'll be holding him in my arms and watching him grow into a young man!

It's a boy!

Last Thursday evening Josh and I went to see KTAR's A Christmas Carol performed at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Phoenix. Before going we stopped for dinner at Pei Wei. After we finished our meal we grabbed our fortune cookies.

"Wouldn't be cool if the fortune cookie told us the sex of the baby", said Josh.

"Sure would babe", I replied.

And when he opened it we saw this...

We both laughed out loud, literally. I placed it in my purse and we went to our show and had a beautiful time.

I didn't sleep at all that night. I kept dreaming of little boys and when I woke up I figured it was because of the fortune cookie, because for months I had been having dreams of little girls and thought for sure we'd see three lines on the ultrasound image.

Josh and I arrived at our appointment and when they called us back I climed back on the table and as soon as the tech touched the ultrasound wand to my belly this was the first image we saw...

That would be a penis! I was stunded and then I cried because, well I'm having a son. I thought I was having a girl, but we both wanted to have a son first and that is what we said from the begining, but after a few weeks I thought for sure it would be a girl. We would have loved having a daughter, but we love the fact that we are having a son.

The scan took nearly 45 minutes because it was an anatomy scan and the tech was capturing lots of images for my midwife to look at. He was really active the entire scan right up until she tried to capture images of his heart. That is when he settled down, tucked his chin to his chest and held his arms in front of his face, which caused them to shadow his heart.

The tech had me move to the left, and then to the right but he was very stubborn. She even pressed the wand down on his head to get him to move and he kicked me and I felt it!

Now that I know what it feels like I can feel it all the time! He is so active inside of me. It makes me smile everytime I feel him.

Tomorrow I'll be 20 weeks and will post some new pictures.

Now to pick out a name for this little guy!