Jacana Baby

So today was the start of the "fun" part. I got the crib bedding! A few things are on their way tomorrow.


I also ordered a large wall decal to go over the crib with Jessica's name that should get here in a few weeks.

I think I'm starting to get into this girl baby thing... :)

Belly pics - 23 weeks 4 days

23 weeks 4 days
Today is special because I purchased a belly support band for my upper thigh and back pain. It feels awesome! (I bought it from Destination Maternity)

Super-mega mommy!

So they tell you not to lift things and to be careful when you are pregnant. I have to admit that I am extremely hardheaded. I have this week off from work for Winter Break. My husband does not have the time off. The next time I'll get a break, I will be 30 weeks. My typical work days fall between 530 am and 6 pm. My husband has tax season going on. I won't be able to get anything done down the road. So I had to take it upon myself to get things done.

Here was my list:

• Put together all the baby furniture (Storkcraft from a combination of Target, Walmart, Babies R Us and Amazon)
• Rearrange our 2nd bedroom since my stepdaughter sleeps there when over
• Put extra items in storage (TVs, mattress materials, headboards, brother in law's equipment and stuff, our office stuff, and so on)
• Get rid of all the garbage (boxes and excess waste)

I was successful! This was definitely the less glamorous part of getting ready for baby but it had to get done. I'm experiencing a tiny bit of back and lower abdomen pain, but I am doing just fine. I probably could have gotten this project done faster but I chose to take my time with it to take care of my body. I turned on some Pandora, Dugga chilled out by the window, and I got my hubby's power drill and I was good to go!



Posted are some rough draft photos of the baby room.

Next stop this week is to get a lot of the baby decor (crib set, valances, wall decals, blankets). Much of it has to be ordered (lamp, curtains, rug, and other goodies) but I can get a lot of it from BRU. I'm getting excited to get to that part! Eventually I want to get a small flatscreen TV for the room so that my stepdaughter has something to watch and not the bulky TV that is in there now!


My car full of storage items!

Next job this week: Reorganize the basement! It looks like a tornado hit it.

Baby Room, New Promotions, and Money

I started a blog once and didn't keep up with it too well, but I am committed to keeping this one up. I hope.

This is for my little one and babies to come. One day I am going to look back and wonder how I did it. My husband and I are going through a very interesting part of our lives right now. Most of it is great and some of it has to do with some hiccups that we just have to iron out.

One of our greatest joys has to do with the upcoming arrival of our 1st baby together in June. Her name is Jessica Victoria and we are excited to have her come join our family. We also both have taken on new roles at our jobs. I took on a role as a Dean of Students at my school and my husband took on Tax Manager. Both promotions are very exciting and give us both the challenge we need for our careers right now. They also are requiring a great deal of time, work, and stress. That's part of the package right?

Like any family, however, there are some hiccups. Ours is a hiccup but it will be very rewarding in the future. Confession: We joined credit counseling a little over 1 year ago for our debt. It kills your credit but we've paid down $12k in debt in this time frame. I'm plugging credit counseling to anyone struggling with major c-debt! We can't wait to be debt (credit card) free so we can move on with our lives. We are expected to be done in 2 1/2 -3 more years. I still have $140k in student loans that the government thinks I will pay off before I die (good luck). In the midst of it all, we have still managed to buy a home, buy me a car in the fall, and just bought him a car the other day! Cash is tight but PARES FAMILY makes it work! I'm proud of what we have been able to accomplish together.

Baby Stats Today:
23 weeks 1 day

Baby's weight: 1+ lbs
Highs: Only gained 4 lbs since 1st visit in November
Lows: I have a fibroid that seems to be increasing in size and a wee bit painful.
It's a girl! (Jessica Victoria Pares)
Baby Projects: Furniture ordered, delivered, and now I am halfway there to putting it together. I am ordering the full bedroom set this week (pictured above).
Current cravings: Juice
Cravings I can't have: Sushi and Margaritas

Michael's New Ride:

Duggaboo? Duggaboo-a?

Okay I know. It's weird and it's a long story.

Bottom line is that Michael had stuffed animal dogs named Dugga and Rugga. I heard about "Dugga" a lot in the earlier parts of our marriage. When we got our dog, we decided Dugga was the perfect name for him. He's our little pain in the butt baby we love dearly (smile).

So when I got pregnant, calling our baby Dugga-"boo" was very fitting. We were under the assumption that it was going to be a boy no matter what. Well... that didn't happen. So we reserved the name Duggaboo-a in honor of the feminine "a" in the Spanish language.

(Dugga scratching up my window sill. He with all his Akitaness is the reason why we have to search high heavens for homeowners insurance)

The Bump

So I am definitely bump-a-licious right now. In the pageant world, there is nothing cute about this bump. In my world, however, I'm all game. I will grow and stretch however the dear Lord wants me to make sure I have a healthy baby.

In a perfect world, I wanted to lose all this weight before getting pregnant. It didn't happen. I lost quite a bit last year, but definitely not where I wanted it to be. The funny thing is that you get pregnant and all those thoughts of frustration around weight go away (well not all but most).

My perfect world is my healthy baby right now. She is doing perfectly fine. She is growing perfectly well. My pregnancy perfectly hasn't had any complications. I'm blessed :)

Everything baby!

So when I wasn't sure what nursery theme I would have, I decided to go to Target for some inspiration after my gender reveal ultrasound. I found a bunch of cute pink monkey related baby clothing and went crazy. Most of the walls in our house are a brown or tan so the combo was looking good. Here are the clothes I bought as part of my inspiration that led to picking Cocalo Jacana bedroom set.

I'm really excited about this glider/rocker. I decided to opt out of a bouncer for now until we see what she will like. I've seen a few youtube videos of people using this thing.

The playyard also has a bassinet that I'll be using while she is a newborn. It comes out and serves as a portable rocker. I saw so many cute pink things but decided to go with as many gender neutral things as possible for the future.

The playyard has the stroller and car seat set to match it as well.

We'll see what happens!