How far along? 25 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: +7.5 I'm gaining weight fast! Grow baby grow :D
Maternity clothes? Not officially. I can tell you the my normal shirts are either too tight or fit like a belly shirt but I have a few that stretch good enough to keep me from shopping maternity or a bigger size.
Stretch marks? No new ones. But boy am I itchy! I don't remember it being this bad with my son. Stretch mark stress me out a little. I mean if I get them whatever it's out of my control anyways so why fight something you can't beat. And is not like I wear shirts that show my "oh so awesome muscular abs" lol during the summer. Although I do wear 2 piece bathing suits. :( I really hope I don't get any new ones and if I do let them be where my current ones are, those I can cover good ;)
Sleep: I'm officially sleep deprived! And baby is not even here yet :( working nights is hard. Really hard. I love my job but the hours suck! I know for sure that I can't stay FT if I'll be doing nights after my maternity leave is over. May God have mercy on me.
Best moment this week: designing the baby shower invites! Wait till you see them... :) I love them!
Have you told family and friends? Yes
Miss Anything? Plain and simple, sleep.
Have you started to show yet? Yes! This is magical. I'm really growing a baby inside of me. And he is def getting bigger by the week. What a difference from just 5 weeks ago.
Movement: Yes. There is a pattern for sure but I feel like there's been less movement. Maybe is my lack of sleep causing my body to feel restless therefore making baby be more still? I don't know but sometimes I worry. Good thing I have my fetal Doppler on hand to check up on him.
Food cravings: PP&J. I seriously cannot believe it. I despite peanut butter like you have no idea. However, I've been giving in on the cravings and so far so good. I won't be overdoing it though just taking small doses.
Anything making you queasy or sick: not this week. It's been a pretty nice week actually.
Gender: Boy
Labor Signs: No
Symptoms: lots and lots of Itching!!!!! :(
Belly Button in or out? I have a feeling it'll be an outie in another week or maybe even before. Ooh oh.
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Both. Depending on how my day is going.
Looking forward to: a cousin's wedding this Saturday and couples retreat we are going to in a couple of weeks with our church. That's def some much needed alone time.

xoxo
Pamela

How far along? 23/24 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: +5 although by this time I should have gained between 16-19 lbs and my doctor made sure I was aware. She's not too happy with me but seriously what can I do? I already eat all day everyday and like a guy! She said I'm measuring right where I need to be its just my weight that is of concern. I have a growth ultrasound scheduled for October to check up on baby. Hopefully he's growing like he should and is taking in all the nutrients that I'm eating.
Maternity clothes? No. I'm actually glad the cool weather is here. I have so many sweaters for this time of year and I cannot wait to fill up my photo gallery with pictures :)
Stretch marks? No new ones.
Sleep: It has been good but the last couple of days I've been waking up after 5hrs of sleep and thats a no go for me. I need more sleep. Point blank. I hope it starts getting better soon or I'll be needing those drugs :-/
Best moment this week: this week it was booking the hall for the baby shower. That has me with my hairs on end! I'm so excited to help plan it and work on the invitations :)
Have you told family and friends? Yes
Miss Anything? I'm going to have to say Sushi, again. I never knew how much I really loved it until now.
Have you started to show yet? Yes! And I'm loving it. I love the way it makes me feel, meaning more pregnant and less like a fattie lol.
Movement: Yes! Still a lot. Somedays more than others but def stronger too. And call me crazy but I feel movements in places that I would have never thought and that is impossible to imagine. Maybe I've studied the human body a little bit too much in depth but any kind of weird feeling is the baby for sure. And being able to compare my baby's size to some in the NICU that were born at my gestation now is priceless. Don't get me wrong I get really emotional seeing them and what their parents must be going through right now but being able to say "wow, there's a baby that size inside of me right now" is totally priceless and unreal!
Food cravings: Sushi and deli meat sandwiches. I'm not a peanut butter fan either and yesterday I couldn't stop staring at my son's lunch (there goes my mala maña) until I decided to ask for a bite and with my luck his pp&j sandwich had the last bit of jelly lol and I'm now craving it. oh boy.
Anything making you queasy or sick: not really. Just lightheaded when I go too long without eating or drinking.
Gender: Boy
Labor Signs: Nope although I had a scare earlier this week and got worried. My doc asked me to go in to put me on the monitor but everything was ok, thank you Jesus!
Symptoms: lots and lots of cramping :(
Belly Button in or out? Half outie.
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy of course. And def moody at times.
Looking forward to: planing for the baby shower, fall weather and clothes, decorating the house, and my next u/s.
Milestone: baby weights almost 2 lbs, ears have developed and moved to their assigned location. Will be at 2 whole pounds by the 25th week! Holy Jesus :D and best past is that baby fat has began to develop. Of course there's still lots of it that will make up baby's chubby cheeks but hey it's a start :)

xoxo
Pamela

Today don't forget to take a moment to bow your heads and think of all those people that lost their life in the horrendous day 11 years ago.

Let's show our respect and honor all those brave men and women who put their own life in danger and even lost their lives trying to save innocent people. And let's not forget the brave soldiers and their families.

This country may have many flaws. But it just comes to show you that in time of need we became One Nation.

Have a safe day!

xoxo
Pamela

More on baby topics and here's the "planned" nursery layout. This room was used as an office/computer room or so we had planned on. But by the time we moved in I was already expecting so we knew this would become the nursery later in the year. In the meantime we used it to store unopened boxes, as a storage space, and a computer room. We hardly use our Desktop so moving it up to the third floor is really no big deal. I like that this room is right next to ours so is not a far walking distance for those overnight wake up calls, though I'm sure AJ will be rooming with us the first few months.

This room is sort of small but perfect to be used as a nursery. It even has a nice size closet. The only thing I dislike about the room is that I wish the heater would of been put on another wall. (our house was oil and we changed everything to electric before moving in but hubby's stepfather didn't put too much attention on where the heaters were going and neither did we so now some of the new heaters are placed in odd walls taking up space or making it difficult to arrange furniture, in my opinion).

I would of really liked for the crib to go on the longer wall but I'd hate to have the heater right beneath it so the smaller wall by the door will do. I hope access to the closet doesn't get to uncomfortable with the crib there.

Now onto the painting ideas. I feel like I'm behind on this nursery planning thing :(. O well.

I originally wanted this room grey because I knew it would turn to a nursery eventually. However, my darling husband bought the wrong paint for the bathroom and decided to use that paint for this room which is a nice light blue color (I tell him he jinxed us by painting the nursery blue from the beginning lol). After much thought on whether to paint the nursery grey or leave it blue I decided to use both colors. Leaving the top portion blue and painting the bottom half grey and adding chair rails to divide the colors. Sort of like in the pictures below.

Last Thursday I went to home depot to pick out different shades of grey and bring home to match with the blue. As I sat there I started having doubt about both colors. I walked away for a little and later that night at work I started the planning again. By the end of the shift I decided to keep the walls blue. Order a white crib (more on that later) and just get on with ordering the bedding set I want. When I got home I ordered the bedding and it should arrive this week :) I'm super excited to see it in person.

I decided to order the bedding first because I wanted to check out the colors in it up front. After looking closely at it from the Internet I decided not to go with the grey but the blue instead. I hope I made the right decision but before going any further with the nursery I just have to make sure this is what I want for sure!

xoxo
Pamela

For several years now I've heard parents talk about cloth diapering their kids. I, of course, was intrigued by it and read a few blogs about it but never really paid much attention to the details. I didn't understand what the big fuzz was about. I mean did they really understand what they were getting themselves into?

I was cloth diapered as a baby and remember my brother being too. I thought to myself well just as the world keeps going round and round so do all sort of fashion too. It's just a matter of time. Then I happened to dig a little deeper, you know curiosity. And when I saw the awesome colors and patterns I was sold! Typical me, I wanted in on the big fuzz just for the cuteness of it. Though I thought that it looked cuter on girls then boys for some reason. I guess because of colors and how it gives them that nice fluffy bum. So I kept a few mental notes of where I've seen cloth diapering topics in the back of my head and decided to revisit it once I was actually pregnant.

Fast forward to almost six months ago when I found out we were expecting. Right away I went to my sources and started the research again. I knew I had to be fully prepared before presenting the idea to the hubby. I knew he wasn't going to be on board right away. I kept going back and forth with the idea. Weighing the pros and cons. Yes it was going to bring in more laundry and it was quite a big initial expense let alone scrapping poop off of the cloth-Eww! but would the benefits be worth it in the end? There would be a big savings in money, better for baby's sensitive skin which equals to less diaper rashes, easier and faster potty training (although it wasn't that difficult the first time around), Eco-friendly, and best of all it's reusable on future kid! What!? Now that would definitely be a money saver don't you think? Of course that's if you decide to have more than one kid.

I remember briefly talking to the hubby about it and just like I expected he shut my idea down. He had valid reasons but he wasn't giving me the chance to really persuade him either. So I let it go for a little while. I then decided to tell my one close friend about the idea and just like the hubby she called me crazy. She went on and on about how difficult it would be, how she didn't see me scrapping poop off of it, how I wasn't going to like it and give up, on that it was wasting money and worse part how I was going to go through with something like that, fail at it, and then have hubby say I told you so. That hit the spot. I was so devastated. The one person I thought would of been on my side reacted worse then my husband! I thought about her words and decided that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.

Nearing my second trimester I revisited the idea and read more blogs about it and other parents dilemma with bringing up the issue to friends and family. I guess the best way to go about it is to get 2 very important people on board. The husband and the daycare provider. After that who cares what anyone else thinks. It's your kid after all isn't it? You'll be the one doing the diaper changes, washing, setting up, etc. and if you are happy and 100% sure of your decision let everyone else think whatever they want to think. You just do your research and don't fail at it so that then they don't say "I told you so". ;)

After I was 90% sure again I decided to go to the one person I knew had to be on board too. My mommy. She is my year round babysitter you know. If she's not on board either, well I'm screw. I remember talking to her one day and said "Mom can I ask you something? If I wanted to cloth diaper this baby would you support me and be on board with the idea?" she just looked at me and said "cloth diaper? Like pañales? Like the same ones I used on you and your siblings?" lol she's too cute! I said yes, those. Except this is a new era and they are way cuter than back in the day. Then she just said "Sure, why not. Now that I'm going to DR I'll bring some with me". I just laughed and said its okay mom is not that serious. We'll buy them from here. And there was that. Now I needed to get the hubby on board and I would be one happy pregnant woman :).

Now at almost six months into this pregnancy I still haven't convinced the husband. Though I have a plan, I've just talked briefly with him about the idea giving him the pros and cons but I haven't really sat him down and make him listen to me on how the whole process works and how I plan on going about it and making it work for us. I honestly think he has over analyzed the whole thing which has led him to think that it will be difficult and time consuming. Not to mention he's probably worried about what his family will say in respect.

My Plan:
I plan on taking 12 weeks on maternity leave and since I will be doing most of the diaper changes anyways I plan to use prefolds the first 2-3 months. Since my research has shown that for the newborn stage that is the easier and most convenient method. That's what I plan on doing. That's the technique I'm more familiar with except that I won't be using safety pins but snappis and a super cute cover :) after baby has gained some weight and the one size AIOs pockets fit nicely on him we will switch over. This will make daddy happy because as long as I always have everything set up (inserts in and ready to go) it'll be like using a disposable.

I'm pretty much set on which brand I want to go with too. I'm thinking BumGenius. Everyone that I know that uses cloth diapers rave greatly about them so I'm almost positive I want to go with them. Although I might try another brand too just in case. But I'm not too sure about it. We'll have to wait and see.

My Reasons:
The reason I decided to go through with cloth diapering, besides the blogger-pressure that is, is the money that we could save if done correctly. We could save from $2,400-4,800 depending if we cloth diaper one or two kids. We plan to try for a third child eventually so this would work great for us. But even if you decided to have only one you can still save money and help our environment. And can you really resist all the cuteness behind this! I can't wait to have baby AJ here and start this process. I hope we like it as much as others who have tried it and don't fail at it. I would love to prove everyone wrong, specially that dear close friend of mine.

These are a couple of the sources I've used to gather information, I also used Google a lot. I hope you join us in this crazy adventure :)

~Heather Drive
~My life in Transition

xoxo
Pamela

How far along? 22 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: +5
Maternity clothes? Not yet. I actually just unpacked my jeans box and most of them fit like a glove. This week shirts have def gotten a bit tighter but looks very cute. I don't know if to buy some a bigger size or suck it out until the cooler weather because I have tons of nice sweater like shirts that would look great with my growing belly.
Stretch marks? No new ones.
Sleep: Good. I've been sleeping a lot lately. I've noticed that I need at least 7 hours of sleep daily otherwise my body would def let me know I'm going on too little sleep.
Best moment this week: getting the paint for the nursery. Plan is to start and finish painting next Friday. I'm so excited to see how it turns out. I hope I like it!
Have you told family and friends? Yes
Miss Anything? Actually I have to admit that I miss having a drink from time to time. I made a delicious Sangria last Friday for a small get together and I hated watching everyone drink and rave about it while I sat back with my glass of water lol.
Have you started to show yet? Yes! Belly has officially popped. Baby boy is 1 lb and it shows :)
Movement: Yes! Too many I should say. I been noticing a pattern too which is nice because I know when to expect him to be up and moving around. Hubby still says he doesn't really feel him when he has his hands on the belly but Sunday at church AJ was moving around like crazy making my belly jump and jiggle around and he witnessed it. It was a priceless moment.
Food cravings: nothing special but why is it that I can never decide what I want until I see someone eating. My mom would call that a mala maña (bad habit).
Anything making you queasy or sick: nothing this week. Thank God!
Gender: Boy
Labor Signs: No. But I do think I've been having some mild contractions. I'm going to have to talk to the doctor about it. Or it could be the baby's position making me a bit uncomfortable.
Symptoms: none this week which is Awesome.
Belly Button in or out? Half outie.
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy of course!
Looking forward to: again painting the nursery. I'm so excited to see how it'll turn out :)

xoxo
Pamela

The first day of first grade has been worse than the first day of pre K and Kindergarten combined. Could it possibly be because I wasn't able to take my baby boy to school, kiss him goodbye, bless him and wish him a good day?

I am a ball of emotions and these hormones are not helping. I feel such sadness deep in my heart. My baby boy has started his education journey, can bathe and dress himself, can work a computer or any Apple gadget way better than I can, and can somewhat make himself a quick snack. My baby boy is growing up. Too fast if you ask me. And while I am proud of all that he has accomplish these last six years and all the happiness he has brought into my, our lives I don't want to accept the fact that he's no longer a baby but a young boy experimenting and learning all that this earth has to offer.

to the love of my life. May god continue to bless you and our growing family!

xoxo
Pamela