All things baby

I realize that this is barely my second post of the year, but I have this feeling that it may be my last post. What can I say, I'm just not a committed blogger. Anyway, lots have happened since my last post. First, I got my BFP on January 8, 2010. I am now a little over 35 weeks pregnant, due on September 20.

My sticks in all their glory.

Unfortunately, a few months later, our happiness was crushed by a devastating loss of John's dad on April 3. We went from the high highs to the low lows.

With the news of John's dad's passing, John and I made the decision to send me back to California to be with our families. So I've been in the bay area since April. It's been nice having family around, but it's been so hard to be away from John. He was able to get an away rotation out here for the month of July, and will be returning back to CA next week. He's basically jetsetting every other month, but twice this month.

I've basically been just preparing for the baby since being back in CA. My first trimester was horrible and filled with non-stop morning sickness. It didn't end until I was 18 weeks pregnant. Yuck! Since then  it's been nice. Unfortunately, now that I've been in my third and last trimester, the back pains, the kicking and the waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, has really been wearing me down. With only 5 weeks to go, I'm so so SO over being pregnant. Some women have great pregnancies, but apparently I'm not one of them.

Anyway, this being our first baby, we've bought/received lots of stuff for this baby. I figured I'd go through the usual baby items as a way of catalogging the things we had to prepare for this baby.

Crib/Bassinet/Pack N Play
Since the baby and I will only be in CA until the end of the year before heading back to WI, I knew I didn't want to spend the money for a crib. Not to mention that when we go back to WI, we'll only be there for another 5 months at most. With this temporary housing situation, my solution was to have a bassinet in CA and a Pack n' Play while in WI. Luckily for me, my aunt and uncle have an almost 9 month old baby, whose bassinet she had long grown out of. Introducing our hand-me-down bassinet:

It's a Winnie the Pooh Bassinet. I love how it's not pink. Very unisex. My baby cousin loved it, and I'm hoping our baby will too. It's been in my room since I came back from WI, so I really can't wait to see my own baby sleeping in it!

As for the Pack n' Play, we went with the Graco Wilko Pack n' Play.

I have to admit that I chose this one because I've been really digging the whole gray/yellow color scheme during this whole pregnancy. But I set it up and it looks great. Changing table and bassinet is great for what I'll need in WI. When we HOPEFULLY move back to San Jose next May is when we will purchase a crib. Actually, no matter where we will end up, we'll be buying a crib because John's residency will keep us there for a good three years.

Car Seat
After reading a bunch of reviews, I settled on getting the Chicco Keyfit30 - Cubes.

It is super easy to snap this car seat in and out of its base. There's really no way of messing it up. And like everything else, I went with a unisex color. I love it!

Stroller

I had originally thought I was just going to use the matching Chicco Cubes Stroller. I actually even bought it and had it in my possession for a good two weeks. However, I kept imagining myself not liking the stroller. Call it intuition, but I just have this hunch that I wouldn't be happy using the thing. So I went back to my initial love, the Baby Jogger City Mini - Crimson/Grey

I love the look of this stroller so much better than the matching Chicco stroller. I can imagine myself using this one for a lot longer than the other. It's ridiculously easy to setup, and even easier to close and open. The downfalls are that you're not supposed to hang anything from the handlebars (e.g. diaper bag), and the basket underneath is small (or so the reviews say). I obviously haven't used the thing yet, but so far I like it. John and I had a long discussion over which color to get. There are 4 other colors: black/black, green/grey, orange/grey and stone/black. He liked the green/grey the best, then the stone/black, and then the one we chose. I was the reverse. He just didn't like the crimson because he said it was too boy-ish. But I like it, so he gave in. Great husband, huh! It's nice and bright so I can keep tabs on where my stroller is.

So those are our "big ticket" items. We're also getting a hand-me-down rocker and ottoman soon. My aunt and uncle told me that it's a necessity for the first few months, and are now done using theirs. And after receiving two diaper genies and an arm & hammer diaper pail for our baby shower, we exchanged them all and bought a Diaper Trend instead. What else...we don't have a changing table, but instead are using a changing pad on top of our dresser. Oh, and since the baby and I (and John when he's in town) are sharing a room, we bought this:

I love it because it has all the babies clothes (which are a million hand-me-downs), bibs, wash cloths, burp rags and towels. We keep all the blankets, sheets and swaddles in the basket under the bassinet. And yes it's pink, and half of the hangers are pink.

And how can I forget my latest acquisition, my diaper bag! I wanted something cute that didn't scream diaper bag. I fell in love with the petunia pickle bottom brand, and have been trying to decide which one to get. Eventually I fell in love with one of their anniversary sales bags...that I happened to see AFTER their anniversary sale. Oh heartache! So yea, bought a bag at full price that was on sale just the week before. Just my luck. But I love it, and went through a lot of trouble to get it (darn you Nordstrom for having a limited edition bag that only you sell, but then selling out quicker than I can buy it!). Ironically, right after I purchased it, it disappeared from the website. I checked again today (a week later) and it's back on! Weird. Anyway, here's my diaper bag, the Wandering through Wales:

I love my bag! I want to stuff it with stuff already, but John told me he doesn't want me putting diapers in it yet because he wants the diapers to be "fresh." I guess. I thought about using it already to get used to using it. I like big bags, but this is bigger than my normal bag so it may take some getting used to. So anyway, those are my baby things. Now all I need is a baby!