Our Diaper Bag

Alright, let me preface with a reminder that we don't have any kids, so we may be slightly deluded in diaper bag criteria. That said, we are some of the best travelers i know (we travel light and efficiently), and I carry heavy things for a living so I know what's comfortable to carry and what isn't.

You can see 5 spacious tabbed pockets on the front and 2 bottle pockets (with snaps) on the side

The bag we ultimately chose is a Tiding Men's Dark Brown Crazy Horse Leather Sports Backpack Camping Hiking Travel Bag 30814 (The link is for amazon.com, and has lots of pictures, but i hunted it down on ebay for $109 + $30 shipping and waited 2 weeks for it to ship from China)

There is a zippered pocket on the back perfect for a changing pad. The straps are wide and soft- very comfortable

There are pictures on amazon with the bag full so you can see all the pockets better, but there is a large pocket and a half pocket with elastic velcro straps and ~5" of space in between the two. There are also 2 small pockets and a zippered pocket

Why A Backpack?
I have damaged both shoulders and my back several times. As a waitress, it's kind of a given that I am somewhat crooked- all waitresses are- with more muscle on one side of our bodies than the other and one hip compensating for the lopsidedness. I absolutely know without a doubt that i am not doing some shoulder-bag deal. I am crooked enough. I don't use a purse in my normal life because 1) the bigger they are, the more crap you put in them and 2) they hurt my shoulders. We're pseudo minimalist people- we have decor, but we don't have clutter. I also really like having my hands free and can't see how dedicating one arm to a shoulder bag that repeatedly falls can possibly be ideal. We're going for weight distribution and comfort here. Practical people. Ergo- a backpack over a tote.

Quality/Style:
The cheapest diaperbags are still decently pricey, and we didn't want one that was just going to fall apart so we were willing to go up in price a bit.  Ultimately we spent $140 on a bag made of real leather and high quality. Bob and I have always been a team, and he will carry that diaper bag more often than not, so his opinion on the style carried some weight. He didn't want anything girly or childish, and I agreed. Our compromise was leather- it's resilient, well-crafted, and stylish. This bag will most likely survive our baby's childhood and can be repurposed for travel.

Pockets:
I am one of those "everything in its place" people. I'm efficient and organized, and i don't want to dig through a pile of baby clothes to find a pack of cookies or a diaper. That meant that our diaper bag had to have a lot of pockets and a lot of space. The backpack I selected is a hybrid, designed for hiking on the outside, but with a laptop/schooling motif on the inside.  It has convenient places for bottles and a changing pad and divisions to keep clothes and diapers separate. It has both pockets and compartments and was exactly what i wanted.

It's a...

It's a boy!!! We had our ultrasound today, and while I was still sincerely hoping for a girl, I woke up this morning and looked at Bob and said "I'm pretty sure it's a boy; I don't know why I feel that way, but I do..." I'm not really sad, maybe slightly disappointed as I've always had my heart set on a girl, but i still love our baby.

We found out the gender in the first few minutes of the ultrasound (which, if you haven't had a baby or not in recent years with all the ultrasounds, the midterm ultrasound is actually an anatomy scan looking to make sure your baby is developing appropriately- it looks at the heart, the kidneys, the spine, and measures almost every part of them), and spent the next hour and a half trying to get pictures during the first scan where our baby decided to take a nap and not cooperate. I eventually ended up doing squats and running in place to get baby to flip over for that 1 last picture of his spine.

We know he has 10 fingers (long fingers like mommy) and 10 toes, fabulous cheekbones and normal everything. The placenta was in a less than ideal place but we don't have placenta previa at this point so cross your fingers we never do.

Names. Well...i had never quite set on a boys name- in large part because i was hoping for a girl. I always said Sage was our baby name boy or girl, and i may stick to that, but i've had less than a day to reconcile the fact that it won't be tied to the little red-haired girl i've always pictured in my head. I also like the name Chade. Bob likes Revin, but I feel that it's a little too close to Kevin.

I love our baby boy so much already, but I imagine at some point the shock will wear off and I'll mourn in my own way for the little girl I always wanted. We've always planned on just 1 child and I have said before this that i wonder if i will change my mind if I don't get a girl. The truth is, i could keep trying and end up with a whole army of little boys and i'm certain i don't want a whole little army of any gender children, so we'll see. One little boy may end up being just what i never knew i wanted, or my heart might pine away for the little girl i've always dreamed of. We'll see...