“What brand of diapers will you be using?”

Anyone who has ever had a baby or is about to has heard the question, "What brand of diapers will you be using? Some will swear that there is no difference between brands, while others are fiercely loyal to one or the other. I never thought about much of it when I first thought about diapers. I just thought they were all pretty much the same and you just go pick whatever. After few researches I have made over the Internet and reading people’s opinion, I have found out that Huggies diapers, manufactured by Kimberly Clarke, and Pampers diapers, manufactured by Proctor and Gamble, are probably the two best known brands of diapers.

For our little girl that is about to be born I think we will go ahead and try Pampers since I have heard that Pampers Swaddlers work the very best for newborn babies. They are made in such a fashion that they are soft enough to not irritate a newborn baby's skin. Also, the top band of the diaper reaches to just under the umbilical cord stump, so as to not irritate that sensitive area. The Pampers Swaddlers also feature very good Velcro-like side closures. When we took the parenting class the hospital also mentioned that pampers Swaddlers are typically the brand of diaper that are handed out in the hospital when the baby is born. So we will let you know if we made a good choice or not.

My 34 Weeks Maternity Pictures!

Seeing how I have a baby belly and a desire to document my pregnancy, I figured I'd try a maternity photo shoot to remember for later. I wanted to go get professional pictures taken but then I had a friend ask me if I wanted a photographer she knew that just relocated to Dallas that would love to take my maternity pictures. I was pretty hesitant at first but then I went ahead and gave it a shot. I didn't think I would like any of the pictures but surprisingly some turned out to be good. I guess the photographer (Joy Neville Photography) did great after all.

Posing for the pictures was a lot harder than I thought since my body wasn't cooperating at all and I have never been good at posing for pictures:) Let's just say it was hard!!!
Here they are …

My lips look a lot bigger than they actually are:)

O...My shy hubby

Getting the nursery ready for our little angel!!!

Well we are counting down the days till out little angel comes. One of the most exciting times of this pregnancy has been setting up the nursery. Since this is our first child – J and I have started from scratch with shopping for baby supplies. For both of us – we like to analyze all items and read reviews before making any large purchase or any purchases at all. The crib was our first item purchased. I looked at a lot of different cribs and read many, many reviews of what people liked or disliked about them. It is amazing the different types of cribs that are available – but the trend does seem to lean towards these convertible style cribs. These items grow with the child – starting off as the baby crib, and then changing into a toddler bed, daybed, and finally a full-size bed. The only pain that I can foresee about this style of crib is keeping track of the hardware for all the different conversions over the years.

I think the most fun, though, was decorating the room. Starting with a blank, white room to deciding to paint something neutral since we did not know we were going to have a girl or a boy. We had the joys of deciding of what color palette to go with. Even though we did not know whether we were having a girl or a boy, we knew we would always stay far away from the color pink. I think that some parents can go overboard on using that color for painting a girl's room. Pink on pink can be a touch too much – and difficult to find things as well. Since we chose cherry finish on the furniture – we decided to go with purple and green colors for the walls. Then we allowed our creativity to come into play with decorating on the walls or maybe painting on the walls later:)

Overall, it has been fun readying the room for our daughter's arrival. Stocking the changing table with burp cloths and wipes for now since we haven't bought the diapers yet. Dealing with the small details, such as arranging stuffed animals around the room, hanging the most adorable clothes in the closet, putting the swings and the stroller together and so on. Now, comes the hardest part – the waiting. Waiting for the big day when we get to show our daughter her new room. I hope that she likes all the work that went into it – at least you will know if she doesn't cry much in her room since she wont really tell us whether she likes it or not. The only way to find out is if she is happy in her room and sleeps thru the nite:)

Ok, we finally picked a pediatrician!

One thing we had left to do before our little one enters the world was to choose a new pediatrician. Your doctor and all the pregnancy and baby books give you a detailed method on how to choose a doctor to care for your newborn. You should interview about 4-5 doctors, asking about their hours, what privileges they have at the hospital, how do they deal with colic - before choosing one that you feel comfortable handling your precious child. We interviewed 2 so far which one was recommended to us by my obstetrician and the other one by my sister in law’s friend and my obstetrician. We were never open to having a male pediatrician until this one was referred to us by two people and wanted to give it a try.

Today was the day we did our second interview with the male pediatrician we probably will go with. We liked most of the answers he gave us for our questions and was happy to see all the advance technology system the office uses. I have always believed that younger doctors are better so they can relate to us better and they don’t just assume things before they do any kind of tests when your child is sick. Now all we have to do is sit back and wait for our little girl to be born...

60 DAYS TO GO...

I can't believe we only have 60 days to go before our daughter is born... we have a parenting conference we will be going to this coming weekend that was given to us by J's brother and his wife K, we are looking forward to that. I am sure it will be different and we will be trained on various topics related to parenting. It starts on Friday night with an evening of entertainment with comedian Tim Hawkins. Teaching sessions and breakout courses are scheduled throughout the day on Saturday. It is held at the Marriott....Breakfast is included at the hotel and will have lunch voucher at different restaurants in the area. I think it is a really cool idea and I am glad they got it for us as our baby gift!

J and I are counting down the quiet weekends we have together till the little one comes. We just opened up our gifts from the shower and put things away and still have more to do. I am so glad I did my shower ahead of time that way, we have plenty of time between now and delivering. All we have been doing lately, or at least try to do is relax as much as we can and go to the movies since that's the only fun thing to do for pregnant woman:)

My Baby Shower...

I looked around and saw all my family and friends who came out to celebrate and I was happy. My mom came all the way from Ethiopia, my aunt from Los Angeles, my cousin from Charlotte, my sister and brother from Detroit and my other brother from DC. I felt so special that everyone had dropped their schedule to fly and see me...all of them having played a special part in my life in one way or another. I just got the warmest feeling looking around the room and I realized how lucky I am to have such dear family and friends! I had the best time catching up with them all.They had a game planned which was answering questions about baby names, how many diapers are needed for a year and so on; my smart aunty was pretty much answering them all, not giving anyone else a chance to answer:)

Then everyone showered me with the most amazingly precious gifts. I got ALL the big and expensive stuff bought off my registry which always helps:) And my baby girl has more clothes than I do ALREADY. In fact, I am thinking of adding an extra clothes pole in the nursery closet! While I was opening my presents, unexpected guest arrived and surprised me…my brother with my little nephew. I was not expecting to see him at all since things didn't work out and he wasn't planning on coming. I was sooooooooooooo happy to see my 22 month old nephew who I haven't seen in a while. Then my other brother followed in from Detroit….I was so happy to see them all there. The moment reminded me again how lucky I am.

Then the day came to an end. I didn't want it to be over as I saw everyone heading out one by one. It made me realize even more how important the close people are in your life and that we should all try to find the time to spend with those special people.

So, thanks BIGTIME to my FAMILY and FRIENDS and SPECIAL thanks to everyone who threw the shower and gave me one of the best days in my life! And thanks to all my other gals who took time out of their busy schedules to be there. I realized how crazy I have been lately and I need to stop and smell the roses more often. So I have made a vow to do that (somewhere in between the diaper changing, burping, breastfeeding, and blessing of a very, very special little girl about to come into my life:)

How my life is changing...

These past two weeks we have been rushing around trying to get to childbirth classes and prepare our baby's room while still taking care of all our other daily tasks. Not only I have started eating for two but also started craving for so many different kinds of food lately. I have been tired a lot lately but for some reason I have not been getting enough rest so I will do my best to rest this week.

My shower is on September 20th and I have family and friends that will be coming from out of town. Last month September 20th seemed like it was years away but time went by so quick it is already here and i am trying to do as much as i can before i get even bigger. I am pretty excited to see my mom and the rest of my family. .. I am the first girl in the family to be pregnant so I am sure everyone is excited about it like I am!!! I almost wish September 20th was my due date since I can't wait but then I have this great connection with her inside my belly so I guess I would love for my daughter to stay in there for a little longer:)