Well it seems like a few of you have been checking the blog to get details on what has been going on lately, so, here you go...

Two nights ago here in NZ, we got a phone call from my dad telling us  my baby sister Katherine had died.  She had a pulmonary embolism and died very suddenly.  Apparently she was out bowling with friends, then they came home and she just collapsed.  They called an ambulance, and the paramedics arrived and worked on her and rushed her to the hospital.  Not sure of any more details from then on, but she didn't make it.  Now Katherine did have a genetic clotting disorder, but supposedly it was under control, so she was no longer taking her anti-coagulants.  I'm not saying anyone could or should have predicted this, I'm obviously no doctor, but t this was completely out of the blue.

And of course, my poor mom was half way around the world visiting me in New Zealand and trying to deal with all this from here.  And if you don't know me very well, I am not the best at hugely emotionally charged situations that directly involve me.  I tend to shut it out, which is exactly what I've been doing so far.  So we've been flooded with phone calls and emails, and my mom is flying back to be with the rest of my family in just a few hours.  Mark and I are going to take another day to let this all digest, and fly back tomorrow.

We do not yet know when or where the funeral will be, but possibly Wednesday or Thursday.  We are all still trying to get our head around this.  You are never supposed to lose your baby sister, much less your daughter, at the age of 20.  So please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers, and all your support has been incredible so far.  My baby sister will be missed, and I love her.  

Welp, my mom is here now, and what an action packed day we have had (well, once I finally rolled out of bed, that is...) But anyway, my mom came with me to my midwife appointment this afternoon, which was fairly uneventful, but at least my mom got to see my bare belly get measured, and hear baby's heartbeat loud and clear.  Oh and she got to meet our midwife.  And, good news, looks like I passed the gestational diabetes test, so I'm in the clear!  And for this appointment we left Mark at home (or more accurately, at work), so it was just us girls.  And THEN, we hit the mall.  First to the food court of course for some smoothies for lunch, and then to the shops.  I had a very specific list of things to buy, and was determined to not buy anything NOT on said list.  Well, I walked away from all the stores with absolutely ZERO baby items.  My mom thought we should look and compare prices, and then go back and make purchases in a couple of days. Boo.  But I agreed, so we've still got plenty of shopping to do later on.  But my mom is definitely a bad influence on me.  I was determined to try and borrow a play mat/gym for baby rather than buy one (since they are so ridiculously expensive here), but just look how cute this is...  

Sad thing is, we didn't find this exact play mat here, but we found another one that was $180 (about $130 USD), but  you can buy the EXACT same one in the US for $50.  What a rip-off!  So I'm trying to resist just buying this mat for $50 in the US and having my mom bring it over.  I mean hey, it was her idea!  But anyway, what we did buy was materials to make our own wall letters for baby's room.  So we have the wooden letters, paint, and some various materials for decorating!  So our plan is to decorate them tomorrow, and then maybe we can have the big name reveal!  Or maybe just a letter or two... we'll see. 

In other news, my mom brought over cheez-its and swedish fish, and I have almost finished the entire box of cheez-its in less than 48 hours!  I've yet to open the swedish fish because I know as soon as I do, they are going to get devoured, so I'm trying to hold off for at least a little bit.  Other than that, we're just hanging out, talking baby stuff, and having fun.  Stay tuned for pictures of our little art project tomorrow!

Ok 30 weeks down, 10 to go!  I'd say that's a milestone!  75% done with this pregnancy, it's unbelievable!

Changes this week? Well I'm thinking I should never say anything like, "I'm feeling great," here on the blog.  Literally as soon as I wrote that, (1) my heartburn came back (2) back pain got worse and (3) I started waking up in the middle of the night not only because I needed to use the bathroom, but also because I was uncomfortable!!  Yikes!  Now these symptoms did not last for long, so I can't complain much, but I thought it funny that as soon as I say how great I'm feeling, my body starts to fall apart!  I'm going to try my luck, and admit that now I'm feeling quite good again, but I think that I can expect heartburn, back pain, and discomfort while sleeping to come and go for the rest of this pregnancy.  I also haven't heard anything about the glucose challenge results from last week, which I'm assuming is a good thing, but I will know for sure at my midwife appointment in 2 days.

Baby this week: I think by now baby is roughly 3 pounds and 17 inches long (that means baby only has about 3 more inches to grow before birth)!  Baby is practicing breathing, and can feel and respond to pain :( .  For the first time, I can actually feel body parts when she moves.  Now there is no way that I could tell you WHAT body part it is (i.e leg vs. foot, butt vs. head), but it's more than just a general movement that I feel.  I mean, I could always pinpoint where the movement was, but if I out my hand there now, I can definitely feel a strong foot or arm.  At my midwife appointment on Thursday she should be able to tell me what position the baby is in (last time she told me she was pretty sure baby was head down, but she had plenty of room to move about and rotate as she pleased).  But of course, baby still has plenty of time to move and change positions over the next 10 or so weeks.  What else... baby gets hiccups pretty much on a daily basis.  She also seems to not like it when I place my computer on my stomach area when lying down, because she kick kick kicks the computer.

Weight gain this week: One more pound.  But I must confess... I got this urge to make banana bread this week, and in 24 hours, I ate half of it.  And I'm not talking about a small loaf, I'm talking a huge bundt cake sized banana bread.  Oops.
Total weight gain: 14 pounds.

Here's me...  and let me just add, I had Mark take some pictures of my belly this week (obviously not the ones seen below), and he said, and I quote, "Holy cow!!  How do you not tip over?"  Yes, those words really came out of his mouth.  *Sigh.  Good thing I love him so much!   The good news is, I don't think I look bigger than last week, so that's a little encouraging.  10 more weeks of growing to go!

Oh yes and my mom gets here in like 36 hours.  Woohoo!  Which means, let the shopping and nursery decorating projects begin!!  Pictures to follow, don't you worry.
 
This week I also made another baby purchase... a while back I bought a jogging stroller, the Maclaren MX3.  Now you can also buy a bassinet that attaches to it, but that itself is $300!!  So I've been searching for a used one, and I came across someone who was selling the stroller AND bassinet together for $150.  So, I bought them both.  Now I have TWO Maclaren jogging strollers, one brand new, the other one used, which is a little ridiculous.  But I figure, it saves me the hassle of having to completely take apart my brand new stroller to add the bassinet feature (which is annoying), and (2) when baby outgrows the bassinet, I can sell this stroller for probably just as much as I bought it for!  Or (3) my mom suggested I send the 2nd used stroller back to the US with her, so we have a stroller there when we come to visit.  But no matter what, I saved at least $150, if not more (if I can re-sell the stroller I don't need).  What a deal!  And just so you know what I'm talking about, here is the stroller with bassinet attached...  Cute, huh?  I LOVE IT!

Ok no, it's not finished, but close!!  We have one small section left to do, which is a little more difficult because we have to build a gate in that section, so it requires a little extra planning.  The goal was to finish it before my mom got here (in 3 days), but that is clearly not going to happen, so we'll just shoot for before the baby gets here.  But I thought I should show you our progress.

The view from inside our yard...

The view from in front of our house...

Once it's all done I can post  true before and after photos for you to see!  May be a few weeks before that happens, but we're getting close!

I just needed to share my luck with you... in my attempts to de-clutter, so far I have made $122!!  Woohoo!  And that was only selling... TWO items!  Now, the rest of the items probably won't make that much money (selling more in the $1-$5 range), but hey, every little bit counts.  That's already a whole week's worth of groceries (with a little extra for a few treats added in!).  Or... 1/3 of the money I need to buy the rest of the necessary baby items!

I would be totally happy if once everything is gone, I've made $200.  Of course, then there are always more things to sell, but we'll just wait until this stuff is all gone before trying to sell even more.  Sorry for the rather boring post, I just got quite excited about this!  By the way, Mark is just as bad as me, if not worse, when it comes to hoarding.  When he saw that I was trying to sell our nike soccer bags (which we literally have 10 of) he was not pleased because, well, obviously we need them.  I'm pretty sure he didn't even know we had them until I pulled them out to sell them.  So he's partly to blame for this collection of items we have going on here in our house.  

Ok, enough is enough.  I never really thought of myself as a pack rat, and I guess compared to some people I really am not, but I will admit, I have trouble getting rid of some things.  You know the feeling, like you "might" need it sometime in the future, even if you haven't used it for the past 4 years that you've had it.  Or those books that you have that you might read or reference again, even though you never have in the past and are not really the type to re-read books... or those clothes or shoes that you NEVER wear, but really, you might need them some day, right?  Yeah, you get the picture.  When we moved to NZ, we shipped all our stuff, and I thought I did a good job of getting rid of certain things that we didn't need or use, so we weren't shipping unnecessary items.  Well, turns out, I have a ways to go.  This is what I've discovered in my attempts to de-clutter.

(1) In our house with only 2 beds, we have 28 pillows.  Seriously, that's not an exaggeration.  2-8.
(2) In our home we have over 50 picture frames, about 20 of which are in a box in a closet.
(3) We have 12 nike cleat bags, and about 4 soccer backpacks that we don't use.
(4) I have at least 2 bins of clothes that I never plan on wearing again, but keep "just in case."
(5) I have a twin comforter.   We don't have a twin bed.
(6) I have about 15 old towels we used to pad our container in the move over, but I just felt like they might be useful at some point so they are in the closet (this is in addition to the 10 + "good" towels we use every day)
(7) I have 4 queen size comforters.  And only 2 beds.
(8) I have a wall mount fireplace that doesn't have the right fuel (they don't make it in NZ, and you can't ship it from the US), so it's sitting in the garage.
(9) Two large bins of books that are, well, in bins in the garage.  Not sure why I went through the trouble of hauling those over to NZ.

Seriously this list goes on, but these are just some of the most ridiculous ones.  And finally, I have decided that enough is enough, and it is time to do something about this.  Basically I have been trying to sell all random miscellaneous items, even some for only $1, and if I am unable to sell them, they are getting donated to the Salvation Army.  I finally think I can let go of all the random crap that I keep accumulating and NOT using!!  Plus, where am I supposed to put all this baby stuff??  Just you wait, this house will be clutter free in no time!!

So we're taking bets on what our baby-to-be is going to look like as a wee one.  Clearly some combination of me and Mark (duh), but we have a lot of different features (and had a lot of different ones when we were babies as well).  For example, let's look at Mark.  He was blonde blonde blonde as a baby (when he finally got some hair, that is), and FAT!  A little chub! He also had (and still has) deep baby blue eyes.  See evidence...  But soooo cute I must say.  And yes that is a beer bottle in his hand (thanks to his Dad). :)

Ok then there is me.  I was born with a thick head of dark black hair, which all eventually fell out, and was replaced with blonde hair!  I also had brown eyes, and they are now a sort of hazel color.  I was born chubby, but I'm thinking that pretty much comes with the territory of being a baby.  I think I was just under 8 lbs though, so that's pretty average size for a newborn, so hopefully our baby will be about the same.  Check me out as a little one!

Now I have 3 sisters, who were all once little baby girls.  And I might be biased, but they were all pretty precious as well.  Check it out.  And sisters... here you get to make your blog debut!

Jennie:  She's the firstborn, born a preemie (about 5 weeks early, so she was teeny tiny), and blessed with lovely blonde locks and baby blue eyes.

Allison: My younger sister.  The only one of us with dark brown hair from the get go (well, not entirely true, she was pretty bald for a while, but when hair did finally come in, it was brown).

Katherine (aka"Ducky"): In my opinion, the cutest one!  Blonde hair that didn't grow in until she was like 4, big blue eyes, and chubby chipmunk cheeks!

So who will our little girl look like?  I'm thinking she will have blonde hair, although it may be dark when she is born like mine was.  Blue eyes maybe?  Other than that... we'll have to wait and see!


Oh, and let me leave you with this little gem... me as a newborn...

Today I did my glucose challenge test for gestational diabetes.  It's a routine test done around 28 weeks pregnant, and was not as bad as I had anticipated, actually.  I heard they give you this nasty orangey drink to chug, and then you wait an hour, and they test your blood glucose levels.  Well, that was a fairly accurate description, although my drink was NOT orange, it was clear (and did not taste one bit orangey), and they had it all nice and chilled for me upon arrival.  It's kind of a carbonated, overly sweet sprite kind of drink, which was not so bad at first, but definitely not something I would drink by choice.  The guy gave it to me and said I had to finish it under 5 minutes, and then he would set the one hour timer for my blood test.  Now the rules were, (1) drink it fast (2) no eating, drinking, or exercising in the one hour wait period (3) be back ON TIME to get blood drawn.  Now I did this in the morning, about 10 am, so my midwife recommended I not eat any breakfast beforehand.  She said if I needed something to eat, then maybe have something that was strictly protein, no carbs.  I don't think that's actually a rule for the test, just a recommendation she had so I went with it.  Well, this test basically seemed like it was a test to see how many different ways you could try and make a pregnant lady pass out.  (1) Don't eat any food for over 12 hours, then (2) drink this very sugary drink really quickly (3) wait an hour, still not eating or drinking anything, and then (3) have them draw about 5 vials of blood!  Luckily I don't pass out easily, and am not the slightest bit squeamish, so I made it through just fine.  Now I just have to wait on the results, which hopefully are all fine!  I have pretty much zero risk factors for GD, but you never know what weird things your body does sometimes, so we'll just wait and see.

All in all, not so bad, but not something I would really like to repeat. :)  Especially getting the blood drawn... I'm sure I'll have a bruise from that.  Although one of the things I couldn't believe was how nonchalant the lady was who drew my blood.  As in, she didn't wear any latex gloves or anything, and after she was done, she just grabbed the little gauze (with blood on it) off my arm with her bare hands and threw it away, not caring that she was touching my blood with her bare hands.  I mean, fortunately I do not have any weird diseases, but I would think someone in that profession would be a little more cautious dealing with other people's blood all day long.  Maybe it's a cultural difference here, when I took my infant first aid/CPR class, the EMT teaching it was saying how in general, people in NZ really do not even think about blood borne diseases like HIV, and he even contrasted it to American culture and how cautious people are there about HIV mainly.

And now, after writing this blog instead of doing all the useful things I need to be doing, I should probably stop wasting the day away and actually check a few items off the "to do" list.  Oh how I love to clean the house...  in my next life, the one where I have lots of money, I think I will hire a cleaning service.  Some day, maybe... :)

Everyone says having a baby is expensive.  And I didn't brush that little pearl of wisdom off, I just didn't quite grasp the full reality of it.  Seriously, how can something so small be potentially so expensive?  Now I say potentially because I can see how some moms could go totally overboard, and spend WAY more money than necessary.  But I also see great ways to save money and not break the bank when having a baby.  But still, even a bargain shopper (like me) is going to have to spend quite a few dollars in total.  It's inevitable.  I was trying to add up how much money I've spent on the baby SO FAR, which is tricky because different things were purchased in different currencies (US and NZ) which means that conversions are required.  Lame.  But, because I had a serious realization that Mark and I really are on a strict budget for the next 2+ years, I had to know how much more money I was going to "allow" myself to spend on this baby in the near future.  So, the breakdown... 

I have bought (with the help of my mom and sisters back in the US) a LOT of baby stuff.  As in, literally, I have close to almost everything we need.  Now of course there is a lot more that I WANT, but don't necessarily need, so we'll just stick with what's necessary (and don't get me wrong, included in the items I have already purchased are definitely some things I wanted rather than really needed, so I have more than the bare essentials, that's for sure).  Anyway, a rough estimate of the amount of money I have spent as of today in total is about $1700 USD.  Sounds steep, but wait 'til you see what I've got...  

So what do I have to show for my $1700, you ask?  A quick list...
A nice crib, mattress, all the bedding (including all extra sheets/mattress protectors), wall decor, changing table plus pad and extra covers, glider and ottoman, infant car seat and snap 'n go stroller, moses basket plus rocking stand, jogging stroller, TONS of clothes (potentially enough for most of the first year), blankets, a medium bin of random toys and books, a swing, bouncer, glass bottles, baby carrier, boppy pillow and covers, car seat cover, diapers for the first 1-2 months, burp cloths, towels/washcloths, baby monitor and white noise machine, and probably some other miscellaneous things I forgot to list.  This list unfortunately does not include my recent purchase of maternity clothes and nursing tops that my mom is bringing me from the US, but I have to try all those on to see if they fit before I know how much I will have spent in total.  Maybe $100?

Retail value for all that stuff new... I couldn't be bothered looking it all up, but probably around $4-5,000?  Some of that stuff I did buy at retail price, mostly because I'm having my mom bring it over from Babies R Us because the exact same item is almost 4x the price here in NZ.  So I'm still saving money that way.  I tried to find what the "average" person spends on baby stuff, and I found this online calculator which itemized all baby stuff, but it tried to tell me an average crib is $100, and an average breast pump is $25, so I think it's just a weeeee bit off.  Anyone who has been shopping for baby items lately knows that those prices are almost comical.  A different website I found said the average cost of baby preparation (so basically all the things I mentioned that we have above) including maternity clothes is $6000 USD.  So I think I'm doing well!

So what's left to buy, you ask?  Well, mostly boring (but essential) stuff... breast pump (can we say expensive!), diaper bag, car accessories (mirror, shade), all baby grooming and medicine cabinet supplies, baby bath tub, shampoo/baby wash/lotions/creams, activity mat, carrycot for the jog stroller (this I don't NEED, but I really want so I might just buy it).  Then of course there are things we don't need now, but will need in about 6-8 months... like a high chair, pak n play, baby bowls and spoons and sippy cups, things like that.  But then I think that's it!  And I even plan on borrowing some of those things if I can to save more money.  I already got a bunch of pregnancy and baby books on loan, as well as some maternity and nursing tops.  Woohoo for free stuff!  Oh yeah, and I still need a convertible car seat for when baby outgrows the infant seat, but I think I'll be buying that back in the US when we visit (the good ones cost $500 NZD... what a rip-off!!).

So maybe total I will spend $2200 USD on baby and all items needed for the first year?  This will include birthing classes, all maternity care (because it's, ahem, free), and a 6 week "new baby course".  Oh yes, also included are all routine check-ups for baby in the first year (also free).  In order to save some more money, there are some items we will not be purchasing... mainly toys and books.  That sounds weird, but most of our books will be borrowed from the library that's just around the corner, and there is actually a toy library here as well so I plan on being quite frugal and getting toys from there as baby gets older.  Unfortunately this $2200 estimate does NOT include diapers (which we've already established I will NOT be using cloth so disposable diapers will be a regular purchase).  But I'd say I'm doing well!  I felt the need to justify (to myself) how much money I've spent before my mom gets here and we go shopping, and so I know how much more money I can really afford to spend on our little baby.  BABIES ARE EXPENSIVE and she's not even here yet!!

The 29 week picture:

Ok now Mark thinks I'm cheating and pushing my belly out in this picture, but really I'm not (I swear, I don't want to look any bigger than I actually am!).  But I don't feel like I look this big in real life, so maybe this was because I took this picture at night after eating dinner, I'm not sure.  But that's me!  And that was even taken a few days ago, so it is not quite a 29 week picture, but close enough.

This week, baby is around 16.5 inches long, and weighs about 2.5 or 2.75 pounds  (yay for almost 3 pounds!).  My uterus is now 3-4 inches above my belly button.  The baby is able to open and close her eyes, and may even be able to see silhouettes of objects and even people in the right amount of light.

New symptoms:  Another good week with minimal heartburn and back pain, which was great (although there was one night when I woke up with heartburn at like 3am, which was strange).  I'm also convinced that the baby went through a growth spurt or changed positions or something, because I could feel movement a lot higher up, and the movements seemed to be more internal than I am used to (as in, I could feel they were happening, but not always see/feel them from the outside).  Apparently sometime between now and 32 weeks there is a peak in movement because from there on out the baby gets a lot more cramped and is more limited in the type of movement she is able to do.  Other than that, nothing else is new, and everything is going well.  I can still see my feet and tie my own shoes (common complaints of pregnant women apparently).  I am starting to notice that there are times when it feels a little harder to breathe, as if the babe is squishing my lungs or diaphragm or something.  Or, maybe it's totally unrelated to baby, who knows.  Also, I felt the baby's hiccups for the first time, and Mark could feel them too!  Basically it just felt like really light, quick movement that was very regular, and lasted about 15 minutes.  I could only really notice it when I had my hand on my belly, and if I hadn't been laying down on the couch I might not have noticed at all.  It was pretty cool!
 
Weight gain this week: 1 pound
Total weight gain: 13 pounds.

In ONE WEEK my mom gets here to visit.  Which means (1) she is bringing all kinds of baby-related goodies with her (2) we get to go baby shopping! and (3) I get to have lots of time off work to just chill (and shop)!

Oh and now, just for your entertainment... a little progression...  11 more weeks of growing?  Yikes. :) But pictures can be deceiving I guess, I think I look bigger at 26 weeks than 28, and I have a funny feeling my next picture (30 weeks) I will look smaller than 29 weeks.  We'll see!