So, now that we have the baby furniture out of the way we’re getting ready to start decorating the room. We agreed on a jungle theme and Chanin found a really cute bedding set called Jungle Babies by NoJo. We have some lofty plans for the room and are really excited to get it going.

Here’s a picture of the NoJo Jungle Baby products:

We’re planning on:

• A wall mural (by Chanin)
• Chair railing (by James)
• More Jungle Babies stuff to adorn the room
• A few surprises!

Here are some links to a few of the Jungle Babies things. We already purchased the bedding set and we have a lot of the other things on the ol’ baby registry.

NoJo Jungle Babies Hamper

Milton the Monkey Plush Animal

NoJo Jungle Babies Night Light

NoJo Jungle Babies Musical Mobile

NoJo Jungle Babies Lamp and Shade

NoJo Jungle Babies Freddie The Frog - Stuffed Animal

NoJo Jungle Babies Wall Hangings - Set of 4

NoJo Jungle Babies Rug - Rectangular

NoJo Jungle Babies Luxury Plush Throw Blanket

OK, I think that’s about it. I know, I know, it may seem like we’re going overboard but, hey, it’s our first baby. At the last ultrasound he was doing little monkey moves and roaring like a lion so we’re pretty sure that was his way of telling us that he wants a jungle theme in his room.

The baby room is coming along nicely and the furniture is all built. And, since we recently found out we’re having a boy we can start the decorating!

Here’s a shot of the room. I stitched the photos together so you may notice some odd angles.

A bigger shot of the crib:

A bigger shot of the dresser and changing table:

We’re looking at the bedding set next which will guide us with the rest of the room. We should have that picked by this weekend so we’ll post that when we’re all set.

First let’s see if you can guess what we’re having!

And here’s a little video:

And now for the big news…

It’s a BOY!

As a part of the adoption process, and to make everything legal, we need to satisfy some Arizona state requirements. The biggest and most stressful requirement is the home study. Basically, the home study is a process that all adoptive families need to complete before they’re allowed to legally adopt.

Here are the basic steps:

1. Contact an organization/person for help! Our lawyer recommended someone she’s worked with many times before. The home study has to be completed by a state licensed social worker.
2. They send us a packet of information which contains a list of things we need to supply. We had to provide things like family information, financial information, medical reports, fingerprints, references, urine samples, etc. OK OK, we didn’t need to provide urine samples, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if we did.
3. Our references are sent a questionnaire to fill out and return. We’ve done everything up to this point so far.
4. We schedule a home visit with the social worker. From what we understand she’ll come out and talk to us about adoption, family life, etc. She’ll also take a look at our house and just make sure we can provide a nice and safe environment for our child.
5. Then, she’ll write up a report with all of her findings.
6. At last, she’ll APPROVE us for adoption!!

We’re not too worried about the process but it is causing a little stress because the end result will determine whether or not we can adopt. We’ve been told that everything we’ll run smooth and we won’t have any issues so we’re pretty confident that’s how it’ll work out.

This is one of those things that makes adoption expensive. Typically, when you have biological kids you start paying AFTER the birth for all of the goodies. But, we’re very thankful and grateful about the whole thing and just happy that we’ll be starting our family soon.

We’re not the type to ask for help but if anyone would like to contribute to the baby fund we won’t stop you! Between this and the lawyer adoption is not cheap. And after all, we need to start saving for college!! You do want your grandchild, niece/nephew, cute baby you don’t know, friend to go to college don’t you?

Our baby has grown so much! He or she now weighs approximately 10 ounces and measures about 9-10 inches long from head to toe. A size described as the perfect fit for laying comfortably in the palm of one’s cupped hand. Additionally, our baby no longer resembles an alien as its limbs have now reached their relative proportions.

Our little one now has teeth buds and hair growing from its head, as well as fingerprints and lips that have become more fully developed. He or she has become a little listener, listening to the sounds of the world now that his or her ears have become fully operational. It has also started practicing breathing through its not yet fully mature lungs, and will even start getting the hiccups at times. Our baby’s growth rate will begin to slow down a bit at this point to allow for its lungs, digestive and immune systems to mature.

So much development has taken place in the last 4 1/2 months and our baby now really looks like a miniature human being. Even more exciting, on Monday, July 7th, we will get to see our little cutie through an ultrasound and find out if our little one is a boy or girl!! We will keep you all updated!!

We haven’t posted much yet about the actual adoption process so here it goes!

Chanin and I started talking about adoption pretty early on in our relationship, before we were married, and we’ve both always been open to the idea. Since the beginning we knew our medical histories could potentially cause problems when having a child naturally, so we kept our options open. Chanin and I have both always wanted to build a little family together so about a year ago we started looking into it more seriously. We requested adoption packets and did some research online and were pretty shocked at the cost. Using a private agency the cost was up to $40,000!!! There were some that were cheaper at around $25,000 but that’s still a lot of money for us (hard to believe right?!).

We also talked to our doctors and they explained all of the risks and we just didn’t think it was worth it. In order to start our little family we knew we’d have to be healthy and we wanted the highest chance of having a healthy baby. So, we were lucky enough to have a loving brother and sister-in-law, who offered to be a surrogate mother for us and we’re so grateful!

Now, we’re expecting our little baby in November and we’re really excited. In one of my next posts I’ll write a little bit more about the home study process we’re currently going through. Thanks for reading!

In just over 3 weeks we’ll be finding out if we’re having a boy or a girl. We’re super-duper excited and can hardly wait! We’ve heard a few opinions and the general consensus is that we’ll be having a girl.

What do you think?

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Hi it’s Chanin, or Mommy! Since we found out that we were expecting, I have been keeping an “old school” diary here at home. You know, the kind you write in with a pen using your hand muscles. However, because James has set up this really cool website, I have decided to start becoming high-tech and “type” a weekly log of our baby’s development. Well here goes my first post…

Week 17

This week our baby will have a big growth spurt. In addition, our baby will also start to plump up a bit. This new fat will be a source of energy and important for our baby’s metabolism. It will also help our baby to produce and retain body heat and pad its spine. Our fetus now measures up to 6.8 inches and weighs nearly 5 ounces!

Our little girl or guy has been working on two basic reflexes for a few weeks now: sucking and swallowing. Our baby has even began smiling and reacting to light. By the time our baby is born, it’ll have nearly all the reflexes that we do.

Our baby’s lungs are beginning to exhale amniotic fluid, and the circulatory and urinary systems are working. Hair on head, eyebrows and eyelashes are filling in.

We finally cleared out one of our rooms which will now be known as the baby room! We had to get rid of a few pieces of old furniture, and we were lucky to be able to sell them locally. So the next step was to build the baby room furniture. We bought a crib, dresser, and changing table a little while ago but had some issues with the quality. Some had some missing pieces and scratches so we had to get them replaced (but still waiting on a couple things). Once built the quality seems great but we’re disappointed that every single thing we ordered had at least one thing wrong, but oh well.

I built everything I had parts for and it all looks really nice. Below is a quick picture of me building. Yeah, I know I could’ve combed my hair but it was the weekend and I didn’t feel like it. We’ll take some more pictures of the final product but just ran out of time to take them.

Now, we’re just waiting to find out if we’re having a boy or a girl so we can finalize our decoration plans. That’s when it’ll get fun!

Here are some links to the products we got:

Graco Sarah 4-in-1 Convertible Crib

Graco Sarah Dressing Table

Graco Christon Combo

I understand no book can teach you how to be a Dad but I think there are definitely some things to learn from them. I got one such book (thanks Mom and Mark) which contains lots of tip and things to remember as a new dad. I’ve just started reading it so I’ll have more to report later.

And, recently while looking through a Parents magazine I ran across some excerpts from another book that looks good. The book is called Good Dad / Bad Dad: The Do’s and Don’ts from the Trenches by David George.

Here are a few of my favorites items from the article:

Don’t let your kids pick up your bad habits.

Do you swear? Do you polish off Pringles by the can or drink three beers every night? That’s fine. We all have our vices. But try your best to hide these habits from your kids. They look up to you and identify with you, and if they hear you use profanity or see you bingeing on junk food or drinking like it’s New Year’s Eve, they’ll think it’s okay. So set a good example–at least when they’re watching.

That one is pretty obvious, but a good reminder. I figure if a kid wants to sit like you or eat like you then chances are they’ll want to do everything like you!

Do give lots of horsy, piggyback, and shoulder rides

What do you want, a pie chart? It’s simple: Kids love ‘em, and you do them better than anyone else. Enough said.

I’m excited about that one. I’m sure I’ll really feel like a Dad when that first piggyback ride comes along.

Don’t get a minivan.

You may be a dad, but you’re still a guy. Minivan = mini man.

I laughed when I read that one. Although, I must admit I’ve been in some of the newer minivans and they’re pretty fancy. But, I’d prefer some type of smaller SUV. Maybe I should put one on our baby registry.

Do say these two things to your kids every day.

1. I’m proud of you.

2. I love you.

It’s a short list–with an endless payoff.

I can remember my Dad saying both of those things ALL of the time. I thought maybe TOO much but now that I’m going to be a dad I don’t think it’s possible to say it too much.

I’m really looking forward to being a dad and I’m ready for some on-the-job training! I think that’s the best there is.