Counting The Cost Of gDiapers
After posting about the new gDiapers last week we made an executive decision and invested in a couple of gDiapers starter kits. In last week's post, the diaper question raised the important issue of our impact as parents on the environment and our choice to attempt to limit the potential negative impact disposable diapers could have. When parents count the cost of raising children most will quickly point to the cost of diapering a child, and the thought of investment in a 'greener' alternative could be enough for some to turn their back on their inner idealist and check their wallet.
After some research into the costs of diapers we've come to understand that sacrifice is a part of any revolution and that gDiapers can play a real part in reducing the waste that comes with diapering a child. What we were surprised to find out is that on the average, the cost of gDiapers is quite comparable to other diapers on the market. In fact, gDiapers has only two pricing/sizing categories for their diapers compared to four or five for other manufacturers. For example, Pampers has five unit sizes ranging from 8-14lbs to 27lbs+ while gDiapers has small (6-12lbs) and medium/large (13-35lbs) sizes. Tushies, a company producing lower-impact diapers from renewable resources, also has five unit sizes. Costs on average price per unit for Pampers is $0.34 and Tushies are $0.42/unit compared to gDiapers' $0.37....not bad.
We don't work for gDiapers, we just hope they'll work for us.

3-2-1 Contact
Angie has been steadily getting over some of the initial discomfort of the pregnancy and now finds herself getting the first difinitive indications that some of these feelings she's been experiencing in recent days are the baby actually moving and poking around. All of a sudden the pregnancy has become very real.
And as mentioned in a previous post we are eagerly anticipating Angie's birthday on August 8th when we'll find out just who and what is giving her these sensations. Pretty cool gift!

The Diaper Question
Don't we all have an idealist somewhere inside of us? We do, and it was dealt a vicious blow when we started learning about diapers. We will not even begin to comment on the use of diapers, cloth, disposable or otherwise, since we're not really into insulting ourselves or millions of other people. However, we have asked ourselves the diaper question and struggle with the answers. Society as it stands today is at a point that there's a fine line between pleasure and pain in the ass. And when asked the diaper question, given the simple numbers involved, we tend to see diapers as a plain pain in the ass to us and our environment. A big 'amazed look of impressed awe on the face' to those parents who have had two or more children in diapers at the same time; look no further for someone to look up to.
But how does one combat the conflict of so many diapers in this society and this environment?
While we may be finicky we're slowly coming around to green thinking, which brings us to gDiapers. In our exhaustive research, we've come across these little gems. An idealists innovation, gDiapers seemingly cut out the negative impact of diapers on the environment with biodegradable, flushable diapers/liners. While not eliminating the effort (gDiapers actually add steps to the diaper changing routine), gDiapers do downsize what some would call our carbon-footprint. Not many people read this blog, but if you do and you have an opinion on diapers, please feel free to ask yourself the diaper question and leave some feedback in the form of a comment to this post. We want to know.

Dr. Spock Lives In The Guest Bedroom
We're consumed by research. The public library is busy checking in and checking out all of our books about how to raise children. We're going with the 'better safe than sorry' approach to this process, but who knows about all the information we're ingesting? We've read so much in the last couple of months that we've inevitably come across some conflicting opinions. Fingers crossed we'll have a nice base of information to go to when the child throws our new found education back in our faces later on.
When this is all said and done, we may just write a Complete Idiots Guide To Debunking Research On Raising Children. The coffee table books have been replaced with books like Einstein Didn't Use Flashcards and What To Expect When You're Expecting, at least the baby name books have been shelved.

An Olympic-Sized Torch
Trigger may be 12 years old, but he's got a few years left in his old bones. He's as active as ever and is usualy the one encouraging us to get off the couch and get some excercise. But with the imminent arrival of a new member of the family he'll inevitably go down a notch in the household pecking order.
Trigger has been with Robert every one of those 12 years and has been by his side through many life changes, never once visibly distraught by moving from house to house or state to state for that matter. He's a living legend in this family and has built a legacy of friendship, loyalty and compassion that will be difficult if not impossible to ever replace. We're so thankful that he'll be here when our family grows once again.

What's In A Name?
Another point we've dedicated some significant time to is what name to give our child. We don't know the sex of the baby yet (we'll find that out on August 8th) but we have picked out names for him/her. After books gave us insight to names, and after we considered family names and tried to avoid the most popular names out there we have made what seems to be a finalized decision about it. Robert mentioned that he went to school with what seemed like 10 Courtney's and Allison's, and in our circle of friends there is such thing as too many Jeff's.
In an attempt to have our child stand relatively alone without giving him/her an outlandish or pretentious (in our opinion) name like Zander or bringing back a name like Mildred, we've settled on names that will hopefully give our child a name that can not only be timelessly age-appropriate but give them a name they won't have to explain to every teacher or government employee for the rest of their lives. It's one secret we'll keep until the end...

On Calibrating The Moral Compass
We're so relieved that gestation is a time-consuming process, it gives us time to talk about parenting. One of the most important things to discuss is where we stand when we stand? We'll call it calibrating one's moral compass.
In a world full of emotions and influences we know how important it is to set a standard by which our child will live inside our own home, inside our little world that we have the incredible power to create ourselves. When we both were growing up we knew what was expected of us from our parents, and in talking about the future we've noticed we didn't turn out all that bad, in fact we think we're pretty solid citizens. But what of our children? A throwback to 1975 may be just the thing a child of the future needs. Minimizing distractions seems to be a common theme with us. And when it comes to what we want our children to learn, our experience of being in classrooms has given us a depth of understanding with which we plan on supplementing our at-home learning experience for the first few years of our child's life.
And what will become of our moral compass?
We're an opinionated couple and anyone who knows us can pretty well know where we stand simply based on how much we're willing to divulge about our beliefs in casual conversation. Hopefully our strong personalities are capable of being encouraging to our child's natural instinct to develop as an individual and capable of giving our child the freedom to form their own unique opinions and respect those opinions.
Parenting is such a daunting thought for us to contemplate, and 9 months may not be enough time to build our playbook, but rest assured we won't be winging it.

The Growing Problem
Angie is growing, there's no doubt about that. She's reached a stage of the pregnancy that can only be described as uncomfortable, both physically and mentally. Not 10 days ago she was commenting on how rather than looking pregnant she just looked kinda fat. Today she has begun to say that she doesn't look pregnant enough. These are just two different ways of saying she's becoming increasingly uneasy.
Disclaimer: Shopping for bigger clothes doesn't necessarliy bring an end to these feelings if you catch my drift.
Some of these emotions can be attributed to the onset of problems relating to sleep or incresed frequency of bathroom breaks. With the extra weight she has now, added pressure is being put into places that she's not used to having pressure, like the bladder and the spine. A new sleep position is making the nights harder and the increased trips to the restroom are breeding frustration. On the bright side, at least we're building a tolerance for sleep deprivation.

Can We Get 15% Off Our Apprehension?
The idea of having children is exciting and we're getting caught up in all of it. However, kids come at a cost and we went to Babies "Я" Us yesterday to get a better idea of the expenses associated with having children. We came away with a rough idea of the money it would take to outfit the nursery and all the gear we'd need for daily uses, outings and all the rest; it was pretty easy, too. Babies "Я" Us seemingly has everything we'd ever need for the first few years of the little one's life except for one thing we needed...
Do they make something to help calm the nerves that result from a trip to a place like Babies "Я" Us? It's as if we left our life as we know it at the automatic sliding door and stepped right into our future as it closed swiftly behind us. Baby and kid stuff everywhere! After some initial rejection, we accepted our situation bravely and went about earmarking the practicals and refused to get too carried away. You can only see so many strollers in one day.

Sea Change(s)
What an incredible 2 years we've just lived. From a picture perfect wedding in Colorado Springs (above) to buying our first home, from new and exciting career opportunities to living abroad, we've had some amazing days together. But nothing can quite compare to learning of what's in store for us next. Angie is pregnant with our first child and by the end of this year we'll be parents! And amongst all of the great memories we've accumulated in the last 2 years, the moment we spent in the doctor's office watching our next generation in motion through the ultrasound ranks as one of the greatest (and scariest) experiences of our lives.
The excitement of what's to come is tempered with nerves and anxiety but we know what an honor and responsibility it is to care for a child and we look forward to sharing the experience with our friends and family.