Our Baby's Journey in the Womb (by Mary)

I still have 5+ plus months left of pregnancy, but our little peanut has already had fun experiences. Here are some highlights of his/her journey:
- Janice & Tim's wedding
- My 26th birthday. Jill and Josh surprised me from Chicago, and we went to a tapas restaurant for dinner.
- A handful of water aerobics classes, and I can tell peanut is going to like the water!
- Ray & Colleen's wedding, and since I was a bridesmaid, peanut had a big day!
- Fireworks in Buffalo Grove on the 4th of July and in Champaign on the 5th of July
- Spending an afternoon at Kickapoo with Dot and Brian, including a hike where I spotted all the wildlife (a turtle and dozens of bugs)

I'm looking forward to taking peanut on many other trips, but I have noticed that my body is working overtime taking care of him/her, so it does exhaust me more than pre-pregnancy. We always have an open door for visitors to our home, though. Just keep in mind this could be the last time you stay at our house without a baby waking you up in the middle of the night :)

The Baby's Heartbeat

We had our third doctor's appointment today (at 16 weeks) and the first thing we did was listen to the heartbeat. It took about a minute for the nurse's assistant to find it. I was a little scared something might be wrong! I think this means we're not having twins (as Mary's convinced we are); I think it would have been easier to find a heartbeat if there were two of them in there...The heartbeat was a health 150 beats per minute, and I think I may want to purchase one of the at-home baby heart monitors, because it such a joy to listen to.

We didn't meet with our nurse midwife; we met with her partner. They rotate weekends and the midwife we met with could end up being the woman who delivers our baby. She was nice and we felt comfortable with her.

She delivered good news - Mary's nausea should be gone soon (some women have "morning sickness" all pregnancy and it never lets up. Those that find relief as the 2nd tri starts will find relief.) Plus we got the good news that I can cut the umbilical cord if I want (which I do)!

We have new glasses!

My frames broke a few weeks ago. Mary's sunglasses have been chewed on by a friend's dog. And it was time for our eye exams. And today, I picked up a new pair of glasses for both of us and a new pair of sunglasses for Mary.

All of the glasses are chunky; they're plastic, dark, and thick. It's a whole new look for both of us that we can't wait to show off in person!

Bump #1

The baby is the size of a navel orange.
Mary's baby bump is a small cantaloupe.

We're Having A Baby!

As we announced this morning on WIXY, Mary and I are having a baby! (audio) Our due date is January 2nd.

In Mary's first trimester, she felt fine until the day before her birthday. That was her first true "morning sickness" day (she has morning sickness worse in the evening). She's had food aversions and nausea, so we've been eating a lot of comfort foods: mac and cheese, pizza, mashed potatoes, and breads (not that I'm complaining).

Now that she's in her second trimester, Mary's appetite has started returning. She still has morning sickness and nausea at times, but not as bad as before. She's more willing to eat and is more willing to eat non-comfort foods. But Mary still refuses to eat chicken; for some reason, chicken grosses her out.

We've met with our nurse/midwife twice. Last time, we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat with a fetal dopplar. In August, we'll have our first ultrasound.

We will not be finding out the gender of the baby. We want it to be a suprise.

We'll be sharing pregnancy news on our blog. I'll also be "twittering" about it for work.

NZ Kiwi Experience #4: Taupo

Taupo is an amazing city. It's right on the largest lake in NZ - Lake Taupo. The lake is so big, Singapore could fit in it. If you had a string and pulled it tight from one side of the lake to the other, it would be 15 feet below water in the middle because of the curve of the Earth. The lake is actually a volcano. It erupted back in the day (Romans documented seeing the red ash when it happened) and filled with water (like Mount St. Helens).

We had planned to go back to Rotorua to complete our trip, but we stayed here until the day of our flight back to America for a number of reasons.
1- so beautiful
2- great shopping
3- had to wait for perfect weather to hike Tongariro Crossing
4- the hostel was 1000x nicer than the one in Rotorua

On our first day, we shopped and relaxed.

The second day happened to be Ironman New Zealand - and it was held in Taupo. It was really cool to watch! The competitors swam in the lake, which was a block away from the hostel. They biked and ran at the end of our street. We couldn't be at a better spot to watch them swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles. It was the 25th anniversary of the Ironman in NZ. We were cheering on Jo Lawn, a NZ woman who had been champion for 6 years in a row. She lost. We did see American's competing, which is crazy. They had to bring their bikes with them on the plane!

While these people were running, we got massages.

Day 3 - We hiked the Tongariro Crossing (more on that to come).

Day 4 - We went to a thermal pool. Because the Earth's crust is so thin, water is heated by the core of the Earth and it comes out warm. We went to a YMCA-like place that had hot baths - it turned out it was lukewarm water in hot tubs. Luckily, there was a natural hot spring three blocks away.

The hot water poured down a waterfall and into the river. It was wild to be at the spot where the hot and cold water met - there were hot and cold pockets. But where the water poured over the waterfall - it was scalding hot! Of course, while at this park, Mary wished we had the camera - it was two miles away back at the hostel. Luckily her husband enjoys running (and was looking for an excuse to get in a run). Mary read some chick-lit while I went back to get the camera to catch some great shots of the area.

It was such an enjoyable place, it's where we would move if we could. Only two complaints about Taupo - our room at the hostel was above a bar that partied until 3am and I did laundry and turned everything pink.

NZ Taupo

NZ Kiwi Experience #3: Waitomo

Waitomo is famous for their caves. Basically, all that's there are some caves for you to explore. A couple different companies offer caving experiences. We went all out: We went on "The Black Abyss" with the Black Water Rafting Company. It was as cool as it sounds.

After suiting up in wetsuits, we were taken by van to the entrance of the cave. We practiced abseiling (rappelling) on the side of a hill before abseiling about 100 feet into the cave. The opening into the hole was just larger than my shoulder width. This was the part of the tour that really worried Mary. There are no lights in the cave. You wear a helmet with a little light on top, but as you abseil, you can't see anything beyond your light. It was quite a rush.

Once at the bottom of the cave, we moved to the next feat - zip-lining in the dark. All headlamps were turned off. One guide strapped you in. The next caught you at the end. There were no indications of how far it was, how high you were, how dangerous it was. The guides had a little fun. They yelled things like "Send him over on the right." Then, when a guy ziplined, the guide at the end yelled "The other right!" and screamed.

Once everyone was done zip-lining, we moved to the end of a cliff and sat down. We drank tea and ate cookies while the guides prepared the rest of the tour. The plan was to jump off of the cliff into the river that runs through the cave below and tube for a while. We had to jump and land on the tube, since the water was so shallow. This actually scared Mary more than the abseiling! You could hardly see the water it was so dark and you had to be precise when jumping. The water was freezing, even with the wet suit.

We pulled ourselves upstream with a rope attached to one of the side walls of the river running through the cave. After a few minutes, we killed the lights and floated back where we came from in the dark - enjoying the main attraction of the cave - glowworms.

Glowworms are worms that attach themselves to the ceiling and walls of caves in NZ. They basically vomit mucus strings that dangle down like fly traps. Then, from the center of their body, they emit a light that attracts bugs and then catch them in their mucus. They reel up the bugs and eat them. The worms do become flies, but they're born with no mouth and no stomach. They live about 3 days before dying. They're purpose is to procreate, lay eggs, and create new worms.

We walked down the rest of the river; it was shallow. We stopped to cannonball into a deep side pool. We rested and drank some warm orange drink while checking out an eel living in the water. Then came the most fun part - we climbed out of the cave up a waterfall. As the water waspouring over us, we climbed up and out of the cave through a hole about the same size as the one we came in.

Total trip time was about 5 hours. It was totally worth it. We ended the night at a clean hostel. We had dinner at a bar nearby. I had a burger called the Clyde, as I recall. It was a burger, with a steak on top of it, with bacon on top of that. DELICIOUS.

The final activity in Waitomo was the next day on the way to Taupo. We stopped and watched angora bunnies get sheared.

NZ Black Water Rafting